#24: Something to Thank the Goblet For

[exolliarmus]

►username: anonymous
►prompt #: 24
►title: Something to Thank the Goblet For
►pairings: Baekhyun/Kyungsoo. Side Joonmyun/Jongdae, Luhan/Sehun, fanboy!Chanyeol/Dara
►rating: PG-13
►word count: 25.3k
►warnings: Mild violence, mild swearing, mild sexual references
►summary: The Triwizard Tournament is held at Hogwarts, and as a twist and extra safety measure, the Tournament will be done in partners. When teamwork and cooperation are needed, it's a battle between Slytherin's Pureblood Pride Kyungsoo and Gryffindor's Muggle-Born Debonair Baekhyun in reality.
►author's notes: I hope I did your prompt justice! It was an amazing prompt and a lot of fun to write. I'm sorry that the tense changes halfway through, but I didn't have time to go back and change everything, if that's okay with you. Also I'm unoriginal so I used the same Tasks as in the books. Another thing is that the Junho in this story is not supposed to be Junho from 2PM. I hope you like it!

 

The Triwizard Tournament.

Kyungsoo had heard of the Tournament - who hadn't? - but never had he imagined that it would take place at Hogwarts, and never while he was attending it. Everyone was buzzing with excitement around him, even the Slytherin table erupted in whispers and murmurs. Expressionless as usual, he turned to his companions, both younger than him in their Fifth and Sixth Years.

"Aren't you two excited?" He asked, more out of curiosity than actually caring.

"He said Sixth Years and up," Sehun pushed the food around on his plate, "It must be the real deal then."

Kyungsoo snorted. "Oh please, Sehun. It's easy if you know the right time to use the right spells." The Tournament wasn't that much of a big deal to him. Kyungsoo usually had no interest in competitions and sports of the sort at Hogwarts. Why not just find out the results at the end anyways? If he ever attended a Quidditch match (which he rarely did) it was to support one of his friends on the team. Sehun had played as Chaser once in his Fourth Year, but had gotten badly beaten by the Hufflepuff Beater. He had quit the team after one game, and thus Kyungsoo's experience had been limited to one game.

"I wanted to enter," Jongin, on his other side, pouted.

"Don't do that, it's disgusting," Sehin flicked his fork at the mushy position of his lips.

"Look, Jongin, as much as I believe the Tournament will be easy, it'll still be dangerous," Kyungsoo explained. "Don't put your name in, okay?" Jongin, as intelligent as he was, could be reckless sometimes, and he knew that wouldn't bode well for him in the Tournament. Having lost both his parents at a young age and living with his grandfather, Jongin took to following Kyungsoo like a lost puppy. At first it was annoying but gradually he had grown on him, and Kyungsoo found himself carrying around food for the little lost puppy he had once known. And there was no way he was going to let his lost puppy kill himself in an idiotic Tournament.

"Actually Jongin's top in his classes," someone from down the table called.

“Yeah, Hogwarts needs a Slytherin Champion!” another girl called. The table erupted in cheers and shouts, all of them calling for a Slytherin to represent the school in the Tournament. House rivalry was common, especially between the Slytherins and Gryffindors, and having a Slytherin Champion would obviously boost the House immensely.

“Let Jongin do it!” the House’s Quidditch Captain called. “Are you going to enter, Jongin?”

Oh hell no.

“Um-” said Sixth Year started.

“He isn’t,” Kyungsoo interrupted, glaring at the Captain. The Tournament would be dangerous, he had to admit that, and while Jongin was top in most of his classes, there was no way he was going to let him enter that death arena. Top or not.

“Hyung,” Jongin whined, as the Captain tried to win him over. Another glare from Kyungsoo shut him up as he returned to eating his food.

~

The Great Hall was buzzing with excitement as the teachers and students settled down in their seats. The summer sun hadn’t set yet and cast faint glows from the ceiling above them, night starting to move in. Filch had moved the Goblet of Fire to the front of the Hall, by the podium Professor Lee used. Although the Hall wasn’t noisier than usual - it was noisy everyday - you could feel the anticipation in the air. It wasn’t quite obvious, but if you looked closely you’d see it in the fleeting glances, the untouched food, the swinging legs, and the fidgeting fingers. Everyone, even if they were too young to enter in the Tournament, wanted to know who the Champions were.

The students from Beauxbatons and Durmstrang had arrived that night two weeks ago when the Tournament was announced. Beauxbatons had entered with a gymnastics and dance performance, sending coloured sparks into the air with their wands. Durmstrang had entered more dramatically, breaking down the great wooden doors and lighting their staffs on fire. The Beauxbatons students were seated at the Hufflepuff and Gryffindor tables, and joined them in their classes. The Slytherins and Gryffindors were stuck with Durmstrang. Although the Norwegians were good students (especially at duelling) they lacked - well, social skills. They were rather quiet and had a dark presence, and looked like they would kill in a second. There was even rumors that back at their homeschool they tortured their own students. They reminded Kyungsoo of himself.

“Welcome, young wizards and witches,” Professor Lee started abruptly, and a hush fell over the crowd at once, all of them listening to his words with full attention. The Goblet’s flames leapt for a second, and some of the students jumped back from the fire, a few shrieking. Professor Lee chuckled,continuing on. “As you know, for the past two weeks students from Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry, Durmstrang Institute, and Beauxbatons Academy of Magic have all had their respective students in their Sixth Year or older,” he emphasized, making some of the younger students groaned, “enter their names in the Goblet for the past two weeks. Today we will draw the names of the Champions representing our schools in the Triwizard Tournament.” The students cheered, all of them shouting out different names.

Sehun looked grumpy, probably at the reminder that he wasn’t able to join the Tournament, pushing his food around on his plate as the teachers tried to shush the students. Kyungsoo heard a few cries of ‘Kim Jongin!’ which irritated him, but he knew that Jongin was safe from this Triwizard Idiocy.

Professor Lee continued as the cheering died down. “As young witches and wizards, you’ll have to face many twists and turns as your lives go on. Things might not go according to plan, the plan might change. And so this year, the Council at the Ministry has decided to add a twist in.” Just as quickly as it had died down, the noise started again. Whispers spread throughout the Hall, all of them wondering what the ‘twist’ was.

Professor Lee waited patiently as the murmurs quietened, and then continued. “This year, the Triwizard Tournament Champions will be selected in pairs.”

The Hall erupted again, this time is not-so-discreet whispers. “Kim Jongin and Lee Taemin!” Soon shouts of different pairs echoed around the Hall, everyone fighting to have two students from their own House.

The flames of the Goblet suddenly burnt higher, almost reaching the ceiling. Professor Lee smiled as shrieks filled the Hall again, the students quieting down. “Looks like it’s on my side. Now,” he clapped his hands together. “On to the selection.”

He walked up to the Goblet as students began screaming names again, ignoring the noise Professor Lee reached the Goblet, waiting as it shot two names out. Even Kyungsoo leaned closer, eyes following his hands as he uncrumpled the papers, eyes analyzing the names written on them.

“The Champions for Beauxbatons,” his eyes never left the paper, “Lee Chaerin.” The Hall erupted in cheers, mostly from Beauxbatons students and a few male students from Durmstrang. “And Park Sandara.” Beauxbatons continued cheering for their Champions as they went up. Kyungsoo thought he heard a low and deep voice cheering particularly loudly, but watched them walk up silently. Chaerin and Sandara were two small-sized girls, one blonde and one brunette. Although they looked harmless, Kyungsoo was sure the two of them were deadly, even separately.

“Durmstrang,” another two names flew out with a blast of flames. “Lee Junho and Park Jinyoung.” Durmstrang erupted in cheers, as well as quite a few cheers from the female Hogwarts and Beauxbatons students too.

“And now for Hogwarts,” Professor Lee continued. Sehun dropped his spoon, head snapping to face the front. Kyungsoo heard Jongin holding his breath behind him as two names shot out of the Goblet.

Professor Lee scanned over the names, and Kyungsoo noticed a slight lifting of the corner of his lip and his eyebrows. He looked up, looking at the students for the first time while reading out names.

“Do Kyungsoo.”

And then all hell broke loose.

Kyungsoo’s mind went blank as the Slytherin table shrieked and howled in delight. He faintly registered Sehun looking at him in wonder and Jongin patting his back as he stood up to go to the podium. He could hear the rest of the Houses shouting out names from their own Houses now, even Slytherin cheering for a second Champion.

This was not what he planned to happen.

Jongin was supposed to agree not to enter his name if Kyungsoo did so they could have a Slytherin Champion. Kyungsoo was supposed to not get picked. Kyungsoo was supposed to not care about the Tournament and continue on with his studies in N.E.W.T.S.

“Congratulations,” Professor Lee patted his back as he motioned for him to stand behind him with the other Champions. The Beauxbatons students ignored him, but one of the Durmstrang students glared at him. Kyungsoo ignored him, seeing as it was normal for competitors to spite each other.

“Now for the last but certainly not least Champion,” he said. If looks could kill the Goblet would be dead by now with Kyungsoo’s intense stares. This was going to be his partner, the person who he’d have to trust with his life and take care of theirs. This was who he was sharing the glory with if he won. The Goblet spit out a name and it landed in the Professor’s hand. He uncrumpled the slip and read the name with emotionless eyes.

In the few moments it took for him to read it Kyungsoo regretted ever entering in the Tournament.

“Byun Baekhyun.”

- - -

Oh the fates were against him. Perhaps it was for that time he let Sehun’s pet frog go into the wild because it kept getting slime and other ickiness over him. Maybe for when he replaced Park’s shampoo with a curling potion because he was always so loud and obnoxious. Possibly for the time he dipped the ends of Minjing’s braids in black ink for cheating on a test. For whatever reason the fates were against him for having partnered him with Byun Baekhyun of all people.

Now, Kyungsoo didn’t hate him per say, but if his hair was on fire and he had a bottle of water, he’d drink it. Oh, everyone’s favourite Gryffindor Debonaire. Who didn’t hate him? (Aside from most Slytherins of course, but Slytherins and Gryffindors usually didn’t get along.) Baekhyun wasn’t known for outstanding grades or being top of class, but he wasn’t known for being a total delinquent either. Kyungsoo assured himself that he could do most of the work and actual magic himself, it wouldn’t be that hard. Maybe they could arrange a deal so that all Baekhyun did was try not to die.

He sighed as he pulled the covers over himself, covering his head. It was September and it was hot but his mind was in too much of a turmoil to really care. The moon was high in the sky already and he had classes tomorrow, but sleep wouldn’t come. All of his roommates were asleep already. WIth the addition of a partner - and Byun as a partner - came the loss of all the planning he had done before. Both Beauxbatons Champions were Sevenths Years, and so was one of the Durmstrang Champions. Hogwarts was the only school that had two Champions both in their Sixth Year.

Kyungsoo rolled over, reaching for his wand on the nightstand. Just as he was about to cast a light spell, another light appeared. He knew for a fact that no one else in the room was awake and almost cast a Stupefying Spell when a face appeared.

“Kyungsoo, wake up,” it whispered.

“I am awake, you idiot,” he sat up in bed. “What are you doing her- no, how did you even get in here?”

“Everybody loves me,” Baekhyun said smugly. Kyungsoo stared at him. Oh yes, the fates really were against him.

“That’s not the point,” he continued, “You need to wake up, now.”

“I have been talking to you for the past minute, I’m already awake,” he hissed before pushing the covers back and getting out of bed. He reached for a robe but Baekhyun. “I have a special robe that we need to wear.”

Kyungsoo looked at him. “Are you talking about-”

“Yes,” Baekhyun confirmed. “Now, come on. We don’t have much time.”

- - -

He shouldn’t have been surprised that Baekhyun was the one in possession of the Invisibility Cloak. Or that he owned the Marauders Map. In any case, he should have expected it. There was no way that Park could move around the school that stealthily. That damn trio, he thought as Baekhyun tapped the Map with his wand. “I solemnly swear that I am up to no good.”

There were a few people in the Common Room and Filch was wandering around in the halls near it. “Okay,” Baekhyun pulled the Cloak out of his bag. “Have you ever done this before?”

“I don’t usually go fooling around in the middle of the night,” Kyungsoo rolled his eyes. It wasn’t as if the Cloak was used for the greater good, no, it was to plant pranks and tricks around the school, probably spying on teachers as well.

“Yeah, well, neither do I,” Baekhyun replied.

“That’s not what I meant,” Kyungsoo rushed to explained, but he had already vanished.

“Get under here!” Kyungsoo jumped when he heard Baekhyun’s voice appear behind him from nowhere. He turned around but still couldn’t tell where the Cloak was. He reached out a hand to try and find him. “Under where?” Why did he even put the Cloak on first? They should’ve done it together to avoid this mess.

“I’m right here!” Baekhyun called out from farther right.

“Well don’t move!”

Kyungsoo headed in the direction his voice came from blindly before he found the edge of the Cloak and pulled it over himself. He could see Baekhyun now that they were both underneath the Invisibility Cloak.

“Finally, you made it in,” Baekhyun rolled his eyes as he looked at the Map. Kyungsoo’s eye twitched.

“You have to be completely under the Cloak,” Baekhyun told him, “Or else they’ll see us.”

Kyungsoo stepped in and pulled the Cloak around him but it still didn’t fit around him completely. The Cloak was made for one person after all. Baekhyun had turned his back on him to read the map and Kyungsoo stepped closer cautiously, careful to make any physical contact. Both of them were smaller in stature so they could both fit under the Cloak if they squished.

“Let’s go!” Baekhyun whisper-called as they started down the stairs. Kyungsoo was having a hard time trying to stay under the Cloak and avoiding touching Baekhyun at the same time. He leaned back as Baekhyun stopped walking suddenly. He almost hissed at him when he saw the reason why being to avoid a Seventh Year walking up to the dormitories. Baekhyun moved to the side of staircase quickly, with Kyungsoo following, to avoid being found out. They squished against the wall, Kyungsoo’s cheek had gone numb from being pressed against it for a few minutes. The girl had stopped to talk to one of her friends down in the Common Room. The narrow staircase prevented them from moving as she stood beside them, unaware they were there.

Her friend had finally agreed to come to bed, it seemed, as she headed up the stairs to join her. Kyungsoo moved closer to the wall, trying to stay under the cloak and still avoid any physical contact with Baekhyun at the same time. It was harder than he thought.

The girl’s friend started up the stairs, sending both Baekhyun and Kyungsoo into a panic as they tried to avoid running her. Kyungsoo had no choice and ended up squishing in uncomfortably close to Baekhyun’s back to take up less space.

He held his breath as the girl finally made it to her friend. The two of them talked for a while as Kyungsoo glared at them as hard as he could even though he knew (and hoped) they couldn’t see him. They pushed each other playfully and Kyungsoo stepped forward suddenly to avoid being crashed into. It caused him to awkwardly hang on to Baekhyun’s waist as she laughed, but stayed in the same spot.

By Merlin’s beard why wouldn’t this girl move already? Finally after what seemed like an eternity they both left. Kyungsoo sighed of relief, immediately stepping away from Baekhyun, who seemed unfazed. Eventually they made it out of the Common Room and started making their way through the Halls. Baekhyun was silently navigating using the Map, not even bothering to look at Kyungsoo. It irritated him.

“Aren’t you going to tell me where we’re going?” He asked.

“Well, if you’re so impatient then, let’s go,” Baekhyun suddenly put the Map down and starting running through the Halls. Kyungsoo had opened his mouth to reply (he was not impatient, Baekhyun was just stupid) but he closed it as he ran after him wildly, struggling to stay underneath the Cloak.

“What’s wrong with you?” He grabbed his shoulder to hold him back. “We’re going to get caught if you keep going like that.”

“We’re here already though,” Baekhyun answered. Kyungsoo looked at where they had arrived and stared at Baekhyun. “You’ve got to be kidding me.”

“Nope,” Baekhyun smiled, looking way too cheerful to be breaking almost every rule in the school. “We’re going outside.”

Ten minutes later and Kyungsoo found himself stumbling after Baekhyun in the dark in the Forbidden Forest, even though both of them had lit their wands using spells. It figured that Baekhyun knew how to do this. He’d probably done it countless times with those other two idiots, Park and Kim. They had abandoned the Cloak now that they were in the Forest, having left it folded under a log near the perimeter.

“There’s a giant tree roo-” Kyungsoo went crashing to the ground. “There,” Baekhyun finished. Kyungsoo glared at him in the low lighting before getting up. HIs robes were probably ruined by now.

“There!” Baekhyun went off running against and Kyungsoo was this close to cursing at him (or literally cursing him, you never knew with Kyungsoo). He followed after him, mostly looking for the spark of light he knew was at the end of his wand and heading towards that. He finally caught up to him, crouched behind a bush.

“What do you think you’re doing?” Kyungsoo panted.

“Get down,” Baekhyun pulled him behind the bush and pointed in front of them. “Look.”

Kyungsoo was one hundred percent ready to keep insulting Baekhyun, but he followed his hand and his eyes widened.

“Are those . . .” He trailed off.

“Dragons,” Baekhyun confirmed.

The clearing held a - what else could you call it but a beast? It was huge, bigger than any other magical creature (or non magical) Kyungsoo had ever seen. The size of a few houses, at least. Green scales tinted orange by the fire that blew out of its mouth covered its body. A trail of spikes led from the end of its tail all the way up to the top of its head. People, probably dragon tamer workers, rushed about. There were chains restraining it down and holding down its wings to its sides. The chains around its mouth had snapped and workers were trying to chain its jaws together again desperately. Kyungsoo looked at it both in awe and in fear. Awe in wonder of such a magnificent and powerful creature. Fear because he knew what this meant.

“For the for task,” he whispered.

“Well good luck to us,” Baekhyun stood up, brushing his robes off. He was still in his sleepwear, wand clutched in hand, spark having gone out by now.

Then something occurred in Kyungsoo’s head. “You couldn’t have just told me like a normal person tomorrow morning?”

“That’s so boring,” Baekhyun brushed it off as if he was talking about the weather. “You wouldn’t have believed me, probably. Plus, now you know what one of them looks like.”

Kyungsoo turned around to look at him. “There’s more?” From what he had seen, it was hard enough to contain just one.

Before Baekhyun could reply, the branches behind him snapped. He turned around and Kyungsoo pulled him back by the elbow a few steps, both of them drawing their wands. Luckily only two people stepped out. Both of them were students from Durmstrang, that much was evident from their robes. The first one drew his wand, and the other followed suit. They looked strangely familiar.

“What are you doing out here, Mudblood?” The first one, taller than the second, asked, eyeing them both.

“Junho-hyung, let’s just go,” the second pulled on his shoulder, obviously more frightened. The name triggered the memories in Kyungsoo’s head. Junho. The Seventh Year Champion from Durmstrang. That meant the other one was probably Jinyoung.

Junho glared at them both. “Let’s make a deal. You won’t tell anyone you saw us here and we won’t tell anyone we saw you.”

Kyungsoo furrowed his eyebrows. “We’ll need some time to think-”

“Deal!” Baekhyun put his wand down. Junho lowered his as well, after a nudge from Jinyoung. They disappeared behind the thick branches and bushes again, hidden behind the foliage. Kyungsoo could hear their footsteps leading away, probably back to the castle. When they were gone he turned to glare at Baekhyun.

“You can’t just agree to deals without thinking about it.”

“I did though,” he argued. “Not my fault I think faster than you.” Kyungsoo was sure he was going to actually curse him this time. He sighed loudly.

“Okay, let’s make a deal then,” Baekhyun proposed. “I’ll give you the chance to ‘think about it’ and you tell me your answer tomorrow morning.” Kyungsoo thought about the deal as they went to collect the Cloak and then sneak back into the Castle. (His form of a goodbye was a ‘Deal.’)

-

“Why are you so grumpy today?” Jongin asked as Kyungsoo stabbed at his bagel with a fork, which really wasn’t helping him spread the jam at all. Kyungsoo glared at him. His normally immaculate hair was much messier than usual.

“You look horrible,” Sehun commented from his left. Normally Kyungsoo would murder anyone that said that to or about him but it was Sehun. He’d take his sass with him to the grave.

The teachers began ushering students to their classes. Kyungsoo grabbed his bag and filed away along with the rest of the Slytherins, bagel left untouched. They all started rushing towards their classes, the Great Hall transforming into a mess as everyone struggled to get out as quickly as possible. Kyungsoo felt a tap on his shoulder and he turned around to face whoever it was.

“Jongin, it’s not-” He stopped before narrowing his eyes. “You’re not Jongin.”

“No, I’m not,” Baekhyun grinned. “But I’m flattered you think I’m around his height.” Kyungsoo scoffed. In reality Baekhyun was the same height as Kyungsoo, nowhere near Jongin’s. In retrospect he didn’t know how he mistook him for Jongin. There weren’t many people that would tap Kyungsoo’s shoulder, he guessed.

“Did you make your decision?” Baekhyun asked.

Kyungsoo looked at him strangely. “What?” He had no idea what Baekhyun was talking about and he wasn’t sure if he wanted to know. Who knew what kind of trouble he would get them both in.

“The deal from last night? Was it worth making?”

“The dea- Oh, that deal,” Kyungsoo remembered the deal from their late night trip through the Forbidden Forest. “You remembered that?”

“Of course I did!” Baekhyun acted offended, holding a hand to his chest. “I want to be proven right you know.”

Kyungsoo rolled his eyes mentally (he wasn’t going to take that much effort physically). How annoying.

“So what was your choice?” Baekhyun folded his hands on top of each other on Kyungsoo’s shoulder and leaned on them, looking up at him expectantly.

Kyungsoo pushed him away gently, earning him a look of mock hurt and a pout. “Well . . . Yes.”

Baekhyun’s hurt face disappeared immediately, replaced with a smile. “I knew it!” A few other students turned their heads to look at why he had yelled. The others were probably used to it by now. “I told you I was just faster as making decisions than you!”

Kyungsoo shoved his head to the side, filing away with the rest of the students to Potions. At least that was a rest.

-

The first task was coming up in three weeks. Kyungsoo had been studying dragons in his spare time, which wasn’t much. He was still top or close to the top of all of his classes. Most of his extra time was taken up by homework. Even when Jongin had asked him to come to Quidditch tryouts to support him, Kyungsoo had packed up all his papers and books and taken them with him as he sat on the bleachers and worked. Sehun had tried out for the team this year again, actually getting a position as Seeker. It seemed he had both improved and gotten stupider since last year. Jongin reclaimed his usual position as Beater.

Baekhyun and Kyungsoo hadn’t talked to each other since the night in the Forbidden Forest. The fame of being Champion seemed to have gotten to the Champions. From what he knew, the two Beauxbatons Champions were already immensely popular, so nothing changed for them. He knew nothing about Junho and Jinyoung, and neither of them had talked to him since that night either. Being selected as a Champion made Baekhyun even more popular than he was already, with people of all genders and ages alike.

Kyungsoo was sure he was pretty famous now too, but everyone was just too scared to approach him. He did tend to have resting serial killer face most of the time. It was one Sunday when Kyungsoo had nothing to do, having finished almost all of his homework and assignments, that he went looking for Baekhyun. He found him by the Lake, and promptly dragged him away to the library, seating them both down in chairs.

“So why am I here?” Baekhyun asked as soon as he sat down, earning him dirty looks from everyone else in the library, Kyungsoo included.

“This is a library, be quiet,” Kyungsoo whispered. “And I thought I should give you a taste of your own medicine from that night.”

“Oh,” Baekhyun dragged the ‘oh’ sound out, seeming to understand. “I see what you did there.”

Kyungsoo rolled his eyes. “Whatever. Have you been researching dragons?”

Baekhyun played with one of Kyungsoo’s quills absentmindedly. “I guess.”

Kyungsoo snatched his quill back, put back in place neatly. “So what did you learn?”

“They . . . Have wings.”

“Yes, Baekhyun, dragons have wings,” Kyungsoo said as if he were talking to a small child. “Now, stop joking. What did you find out?” He dug around in his bag for the book he had found on dragons in the Restricted Section. Normally students weren’t allowed there but the Ravenclaw Head Boy, Joonmyun, usually gave him permission. Kyungsoo was a good student and always brought books back on time, never getting into any trouble.

When he realized Baekhyun still hadn’t answered, Kyungsoo stopped rummaging around. “You didn’t study at all, did you?”

“Not a word,” Baekhyun confirmed cheerily.

Kyungsoo sighed deeply, closing his eyes. Inhale, exhale, inhale, exhale. He continued talking with his eyes closed, one hand massaging his temples. “At all?”

“Not at all.”

Kyungsoo took a deep breath again. What had he gotten himself into? “Do you ever learn anything as in, ever?”

“I’m actually a pretty good student you know,” Baekhyun leaned back in his chair.

“I believe you, I totally believe you,” Kyungsoo muttered.

“Did you say something?” Baekhyun asked.

“Nothing.” He sighed yet again and turned to face him. “Listen, Baekhyun, you may treat this Tournament as a side joke but I have no intention of either dying or losing. So you don’t have to do anything, no, but at least learn enough to keep yourself alive, because I don’t want to have to worry about someone’s life other than mine.” Kyungsoo looked at him pointedly.

For a while Baekhyun didn’t answer and Kyungsoo wondered if he had been too harsh and had scared him away or he was just mad. The silence was beginning to get uncomfortable, so Kyungsoo dug out his Potions textbook and scrolls to work on his essay.

There was silence between the two of them other than the rustling of papers and scratching of Kyungsoo’s writing. Baekhyun must’ve been silent for around fifteen minutes or so. That must’ve been a record.

Kyungsoo had pretty much forgotten he had even came to library, and was entirely focused on his essay. He furrowed his eyebrows as he flipped through the pages to find a reference for the quote he had just used. He had just pinpointed the name when he felt a sudden weight and warmth at his side.

He sighed, and put his quill down. “Baekhyun, what are you doing?”

“I knew you’d come around!” Baekhyun threw his arms over Kyungsoo’s shoulder in some sort of odd side hug on Kyungsoo’s part.

Kyungsoo had basically foregone trying to understand him by now, so he sat there. In deep mental agony, mind you. Was this creature hugging him? Did he think he was Jongin to get away with that or something? Few people could even touch Kyungsoo.

Eventually Baekhyun gave up on hugging him and sat on the side of his chair facing Kyungsoo, swinging his legs back and forth. “Just to let you know, I am really am top in some of my classes, you know.”

“Like what?” Kyungsoo challenged, picking his quill up again.

“Defence Against the Dark Arts,” Baekhyun answered proudly, raising his chin. Kyungsoo scoffed.

“Yeah right. I doubt an idiot like you could even do a decent Shield Charm.”

Baekhyun made a sound of disbelief, acting exaggeratedly hurt. “I certainly can, mind you. Mine’s probably even better than yours.”

Kyungsoo’s eye twitched. He put his quill down. This matter could not wait. “I’ll take you up on that.”

“Fine,” Baekhyun said, drawing his wand.

“We’ll see,” Kyungsoo brought his out as well.

“Ahem,” the librarian cleared her throat. She glared at the two of them. “No duelling in the library. Or on school grounds. Ever. Unless you’re in the Duelling Club,” she added when Baekhyun opened his mouth to retort. He huffed, putting his wand away.

“Whatever. But I am. You can ask anyone in our class.”

“Uh-huh,” Kyungsoo replied sarcastically, going back to working on his essay.

“See that’s what we need, not research,” Baekhyun continued talking as Kyungsoo wrote. He stopped and looked at him. Nothing that came out of Baekhyun’s mouth made much sense.

“What you even talking about?”

Baekhyun rolled his eyes as if he were explaining something simple to a small child. Kyungsoo’s fingers twitched. “I mean that’s what we need to do for the Tournament. Use our strengths,” he pointed to Kyungsoo’s essay. “Like that, Potions or whatever.”

Kyungsoo pulled it closer to himself instinctively, hiding it under the loose sleeve of his robe (Baekhyun had abandoned his own and thrown it over the back of his chair). He had been top in Potions class ever since his first year. It was no secret that he was the Professor’s favourite, and one of the best in his year. He had a knack for it apparently, though he equated his talent to his father’s interest in it as well. He worked in the law department at the Ministry in order to make enough money to support him and his sons, but he had always had a passion for experimenting. As a child he’d often help his father with his experiments, which more than often went wrong.

“I have an idea,” Baekhyun leaned forward in his seat with a gleam in his eyes, causing Kyungsoo to lean back.

“The library will be closing now,” the Ravenclaw Head Boy, Joonmyun, informed them, peeking his head around the corner of a bookshelf. He nodded at Baekhyun and smiled at Kyungsoo before disappearing again. Technically they should’ve both been kicked out by now, but again, Kyungsoo was in Joonmyun’s good books.

Kyungsoo swept everything back into his bag, not caring how messy it got. He stood up quickly, almost knocking the chair over. “Well, good night to you then,” he dismissed, walking away briskly. Baekhyun would be kicked out fairly quickly now that he wasn’t with Kyungsoo anymore.

-

Three weeks later, and the day of the First Task had come. Kyungsoo had trudged out to the field grudgingly, still a bit grumpy from having to be woken up to early, especially on a cloudy and chilly day. The other Champions were in the Tent already when he arrived. Junho and Jinyoung were sitting in the corner, Junho whispering in his partner’s ear. Kyungsoo figured they were revising their plan. Both Sandara and Chaerin sat on the loveseat bench, looking relatively bored. Baekhyun was bouncing on the balls of his feet, waiting eagerly with a smile on his face. He was practically radiating sunshine and rainbows. It irritated Kyungsoo to no end. Although usually Baekhyun’s existence in general irritated him.

“You’re here!” Baekhyun bounced around, following behind Kyungsoo as he trailed to the bench.

“No really,” he replied sarcastically. “I never noticed.”

Baekhyun simply beamed at him and sat down next to him on the bench. Other than the occasional chatter of Sandara and Chaerin and Junho’s whispers, there was no other noise in the Tent. Baekhyun seemed especially cheerful and hyper. Kyungsoo eyed him.

“Why are you so happy when it’s so early?”

“Because,” Baekhyun said brightly, “It’s the day of the First Task. And I’m excited.”

Kyungsoo let him be. He figured it was just how Baekhyun dealt with being nervous. The noise from outside the tent had gotten louder now as everyone else filed in. People started filing in and out of the Tent. The Durmstrang Headmaster came to talk to the Champions. Workers started moving equipment around, sometimes passing through the tent. A reporter had been let in to interview them all, and she was currently interviewing Chaerin. People shuffled about in the tent too, at the fold out table at the back. The organization and administration papers were flying about in the strong winds.

Kyungsoo hadn’t been paying attention to what Baekhyun was doing in the commotion, but he jumped a little when he let out a loud sound of happiness - and greeting? Kyungsoo had been able to ignore the cool weather with Baekhyun’s body heat beside him (he sat way too close to people, Merlin’s beard, didn’t anyone teach him about personal space?) and now that he was gone the bitter winds bit into him again. He pulled his official Tournament robes around himself tighter grumpily. Everything was irritating him today. Even Baekhy-

Oh no.

“Did you two sneak in or did they let you in?” Baekhyun asked way too eagerly in Kyungsoo’s opinion.

“We tricked them of course.”

The fates really were against Kyungsoo, he decided grumpily, as Park puffed out his chest exaggeratedly and Kim laughed. The three of them stopped talking after a while, when Professor Lee entered the tent, gathering all the Champions together.

“As you know, today is the day of the First Task. The six of you haven’t heard of what it is yet, but you’ll find out now.” Kyungsoo glanced around nervously at everyone else to see if anyone would say anything about the night in the Forbidden Forest, but everyone stayed quiet.

Professor Lee opened the drawstrings to a cloth bag, holding it out to them. “Put your hand in and choose one.”

Sandara and Chaelin glanced at each other, while Junho began whispering to Jinyoung again. Kyungsoo was about to something to Baekhyun when all of a sudden, he shoved his hand in the bag. Kyungsoo almost hissed at him out loud. Baekhyun wasn’t paying attention to him, instead examining the miniature figure in his hand.

“It looks like you two will be going up against the Hungarian Horntail. Tough luck for you then, that’s the most dangerous one we have,” Professor Lee took the figure back. The other Champions had figured out the reason for drawing figures and quickly drew their own. Sandara and Chaelin ended up with the Chinese Fireball, while Junho picked a Common Welsh Green for his team.

“Now that you’ve picked your dragons, your First Task is to retrieve the Golden Egg from the batch of dragon eggs in the arena. Good luck to you all,” he tipped his hat and left the tent, leaving them to ponder.

“Since you two picked first, you’ll be going first,” a Tournament worker informed them. Kyungsoo glared at Baekhyun as they waited for the Task to be announced to the stadium.

Baekhyun’s plan would work granted that one of them could get close enough without getting killed. As much as Kyungsoo hated to admit it, it was a pretty smart idea. However, them going first was not in his plans. They would have no extra information at all. Kyungsoo also didn’t remember anything about dragons. The last time he studied them was in Second Year and he had forgot everything about them. Although he had researched dragons after the night in the Forest, he didn’t know anything about these ones. He had no idea that they’d be bringing in such exotic and dangerous ones.

“Are we sticking with the plan?” Baekhyun asked. Kyungsoo nodded as the crowd cheered as they entered the arena.

It was a rather wide arena. The ground was rocky and dry, with occasional grass here and there. There was even some sand dunes in some areas, which Kyungsoo had no intention of going anywhere near. The second they entered, Kyungsoo dragged Baekhyun behind a giant boulder. He checked to make sure the Horntail hadn’t seen before turning back to him.

The crowd probably hated them for being so boring but Kyungsoo valued his life over their opinions.

“Kyungsoo,” Baekhyun started, but was cut off.

“I know, I know,” he waved him off, drawing his wand. “Accio Draught.”

They waited a while but nothing happened. Kyungsoo was on the verge of panicking when he saw it. A glass bottle speeding towards them from the edge of the arena. Only then did he realize that a glass bottle was speeding towards them.

Both he and Baekhyun fell to the ground in an attempt not to get hit. It was at the last moment that Kyungsoo stuck his hand out in the air blindly to stop the bottle from going further and smashing against the boulder they were hiding behind. Although his palm stung a little, the bottle fell into his lap, no longer floating. “We got it!” he said victoriously.

“Yeah, just only almost getting killed in the process. No big deal,” Baekhyun said, getting up. “Well let’s go then.”

“Wait,” Kyungsoo stopped him. “One of us has to distract the dragon. That’ll be you,” he made the decision for Baekhyun. “I’ll carry the bottle.”

Baekhyun huffed but walked out from behind the boulder to the crowd cheering (at least something was finally happening that they could see). Kyungsoo watched as he walked straight up to the dragon, who only looked at him. When he realized the tactic wasn’t working, Baekhyun suddenly ran to the dragon eggs, which caused the Horntail to let out a monstrous roar and a jet of flames at him. Kyungsoo began to slowly sneak out from behind the boulder, staying with his back flat on the wall of the arena.

Baekhyun hid behind a large rock to escape the flames, which subsided after a while as the dragon stepped forward to look for him. Kyungsoo seized his chance to sprint as fast as he could along the outer edge of the arena, on the dragon’s side.

The dragon seemed to be bored of looking for Baekhyun and suddenly looked in Kyungsoo’s direction making him stop in his tracks. It let out another roar and shot its flames at him. He hardly escaped in time to duck behind a boulder.

Goddammit, you had one job, Byun Baekhyun.

Kyungsoo cast a Shield Charm around himself and peeked out from behind the boulder to see the dragon coming in his direction. In his moment of panic, he realized that this was actually in his favour. All he needed was for Baekhyun to understand the new improvised plan too. Kyungsoo looked for him, but couldn’t see him anywhere.

It seemed like he could read Kyungsoo’s mind. He peeked around the boulder again to see the dragon coming closer. When he paid attention the commentators, it seemed that they couldn’t find Baekhyun either and - wait a second, was that Sehun?

“Ladies and gentlemen, it seems that both of the Champions have disappeared. There’s no sight of them anywhere. Of course, that might be because they’re both midgets but-”

Goddammit, you had one job, Oh Sehun.

Kyungsoo sat and waited for the dragon to come closer. If he could release the potion when it came close enough and then have it inhale the fumes, they would win. It was already heading towards him. Now if Baekhyun had figured it out too, he could just stay hidden and not show up for them to complete the task.

Kyungsoo sat back and waited for the dragon to come. They were on their way to glory. He smiled to himself, looking back around the boulder to see the Horntail almost upon him. He took a deep breath to calm himself down. Then he took another deep breath so he wouldn’t breathe in the Draught’s fumes himself and held his breath. With his hand already on the cork, he pulled it out at the exact moment the boulder he was hiding behind was smashed by a giant talon.

Kyungsoo could see the dragon slowly breathing in the fumes and smiled in satisfaction. Soon they’d be done with this entire thing. Or so he thought. It was then that Baekhyun suddenly appeared on the dragon’s head, out of nowhere.

Goddammit, you had one job Byun Baekhyun.

“So that’s where they both were! An Invisibility Cloak, those haven't been seen in years. I guess they really weren’t that short after all.”

Kyungsoo ignored Sehun’s horrible commentary, shoving the cork back in the bottle neck and jumping out of the way of the dragon’s fire. It was preoccupied with Baekhyun at the moment, trying to use its paws to bat at Baekhyun on his its head, as its fire couldn’t reach there. He was jumping around on the dragon’s face trying to avoid the paws.

Kyungsoo sighed.

“Wow, this is like that episode of Tom and Jerry I watched!”

As the dragon was busy, Kyungsoo turned back to the bottle. He tried to pull the cork out, but it wouldn’t come. Furrowing his eyebrows, he pulled harder, but it wouldn’t budge.

“Kyungsoo!” Baekhyun called from the dragon’s nose, “Potion? Hello?”

“I’m trying!” he yelled back. “But it’s stuck!” He tried biting the cork to pull it away but it still wasn’t coming out.

“What do you mean it’s stuck?!” Baekhyun shouted at him over the Horntail roaring.

Kyungsoo tried pulling it again but the cork still wouldn’t budge. The fates really were against him, weren’t they? Suddenly, he had an idea. How could he have been that stupid? Kyungsoo stopped pulling and took a deep breath and holding it before pushing the cork all the way through the neck and into the bottle.

He saw the fumes wafting up and the dragon’s movements slowing down, allowing Baekhyun to start climbing down.

“It appears as though they have used some sort of Potion-” Kyungsoo turned around and glared at Sehun in the commentary box. “Sorry, they used a Drowsiness Draught to make it fall asleep. Well played!” He added in at the end to soothe Kyungsoo’s anger.

There was huge boom in the arena that shook the ground as the dragon hit the ground, sound asleep. Kyungsoo didn’t even wait for Baekhyun as he ran towards the batch of eggs and claimed the Golden Egg to the crowds cheers.

“Hogwarts has succeeded the first challenge!”

The stands went wild as Kyungsoo smiled, tucking the Egg under his arm and going back towards the Horntail to look for Baekhyun.

The dragon was sound asleep, eyes shut tight and occasionally snorting out a few flames. Kyungsoo walked towards it at a leisurely pace, also enjoying the cheers and compliments from the audience (though he wouldn’t admit it). Baekhyun stumbled off the dragon as he neared it, leaning his head on Kyungsoo’s shoulder and giggling.

“There’s our other Champion!” Sehun called, launching the audience into another round of cheers.

Kyungsoo rolled his eyes and shoved Baekhyun off as they headed back to the tent. “What’s with you?” He asked, only to receive more giggling. “Are you drunk or something?”

It occurred to him that he could’ve hit his head on something, so he checked but found no blood or bruises that serious. Perhaps he had just gone mad? Kyungsoo brushed it off and decided the medics could figure it out.

They were led to a separate tent than the one from before, although they looked pretty much the same. Kyungsoo sat on the wooden bench on the side as soon as he got in, feeling tired from the Task. Baekhyun plopped down beside him, leaning on Kyungsoo’s shoulder again. Kyungsoo was about to push him off when he lifted it up himself, and practically jumped off the bench.

The medic arrived just as he practically tackled Kim to the ground in some semblance of a hug. Or a choke hold. Some combination between the two. The medic took one look at them and then turned to Kyungsoo.

“So as he isn’t in the . . . best condition right now, I guess I’ll just inform you that other than minor scrapes and bruises he’s fine.”

Kyungsoo stared at the medic. “Are you kidding me?” he deadpanned. “What the hell is wrong with him?” he gestured to Baekhyun, who was now attempting to . . . Tie Kim’s tie around his ankle?

“Oh that. It’s just the effects from the Drowsiness Draught. He’ll be fine by dinner time,” she waved it off. “It’s-” The medic was shoved aside by another older woman, with white-pink tinted hair in a frivolous updo, and lipstick that was an annoyingly deep shade of red. She was tailed by a photographer and and a floating clipboard and feather quill.

“Do Kyungsoo! What a pleasure to finally meet you!” She extended her hand for a handshake, which was ignored by Kyungsoo, who chose to stare at her instead.

She cleared her throat. “Anyways, I’m Mina Skeeter, and I work for the Daily Prophet! This is my assistant and photographer,” she pointed at him. “We’re doing a story on the Triwizard Tournament and we’d love to interview you!”

“I’m not interested,” he told her. Mina looked like she was about to push for it, but decided not to after Kyungsoo glared at her. He was still grumpy from before and was annoyed by the reporter.

“Well I- I’m sure it wouldn’t be too much trouble,” she dusted off her blazer.

“I don’t do things like this,” Kyungsoo said.

“You two are the only two Champions I’m allowed to interview,” she continued, “Can’t you spare a few minutes? It’ll be easy, just answer the questions I ask.”

“Sorry,” Kyungsoo didn’t (and wasn’t) sound sorry at all. “You can interview my partner though.”

Mina looked enthusiastic, looking for Baekhyun eagerly. “That’s great!” she exclaimed happily.

“Baekhyun,” Kyungsoo called, catching his attention. “Someone wants to talk to you.”

Kyungsoo wasn’t really expecting Baekhyun to listen to him, but he was still under the Drowsiness Draught and stumbled over while giggling, dragging Kim along with him. He sat down on the bench again, bringing Kim down with him in a mess of limbs. It launched him into another set of giggles, which annoyed Kyungsoo greatly. He really was in an irritable mood.

Mina introduced herself to Baekhyun again, shaking his hand (which Baekhyun shook with both hands, practically jumping up and down in his seat). It was when she looked for her first question in her notebook that it occurred to Kyungsoo to inform her of his current state.

“He’s under the effects of the Drowsiness Draught right now,” he told her, “So he’s like . . . drunk on potions or something, I guess.”

Mina’s expression didn’t change. “Shall we start the interview?”

“I just said he’s under a Draught,” Kyungsoo repeated, rolling his eyes.

“Ah yes,” Mina said. She looked at the two of them over the edge of her notebook. “Are you two dating or something?”

“What? I mean no-definitely, ugh that’s so gross - but no,” Kyungsoo spluttered. He cleared his throat and sat up straighter before steadying his voice. “I mean, no.”

“Oh, I see,” Mina said, looking unamused. She then turned to Baekhyun, probably to ask him a question when she noticed Kim. Her face all but lit up. “And who is this?” She asked eagerly.

“That’s Chenny-Chen,” Baekhyun giggled. “He’s my dinosaur.”

Mina looked as if she had just won the lottery. “I see, and who exactly is this ‘Chenny Chen?”

“Kim Jongdae, Kim Jongdae-nosaur,” Baekhyun burst into laughter at his own (terrible) pun.

“Are you two dating then?” The quill was scribbling furiously on the floating clipboard.

“We’re friends,” Kim answered for Baekhyun, trying to push him off of him. Baekhyun had collapsed onto his shoulder after his (terrible) pun, and had made no effort to get off.

“Myungsoo, take a picture,” Mina instructed the photographer as Baekhyun tried to hug him again. The photographer hurriedly snapped a few pictures as the quill scribbled on the clipboard madly.

“Seriously, there’s more than one Task, you can come later,” Kyungsoo said, tapping his foot impatiently.

“Alright, thanks for your cooperation!” She smiled and left, Myungsoo and the floating quill and clipboard following her. Kyungsoo rolled his eyes as he left, leaving the tent and Baekhyun behind.

He had to talk to Sehun about that commentary.

-

The next morning, Kyungsoo woke up late (to make up for yesterday). His body ached and he was sure he had numerous cuts and bruises from yesterday’s Task. He sighed. He’d get Yixing, the kind Hufflepuff that offered free healing services, to take care of them later.

He was the last one awake in his room, which had never happened before. Kyungsoo dragged himself to the Great Hall for breakfast, and took his regular spot between Sehun and Jongin. He was sure that people called out to him and cheered for him as he walked by, but he didn’t pay attention.

“Hyung you did it!” Jongin exclaimed as he sat down, beaming at him.

Kyungsoo blinked twice, in a daze. “Oh. Yes. Yes, I did. Speaking of that, I just remembered,” he turned to face Sehun sharply, “What was with that commentary?”

Sehun sqwuaked at being found out. “Um . . .” he fiddled with his fingers.

“I’m waiting,” Kyungsoo said. Fortunately for Sehun (and unfortunately for Kyungsoo), Baekhyun arrived just in time to save him from answering.

“Kyungsoo!” He all but screamed, and shoved the Daily Prophet in his face.

Kyungsoo took a deep breath to calm down, then gently shoved the newspaper off his face. “What?” He turned to Baekhyun expectantly.

Baekhyun seemed to be back to normal, the effects of the Drowsiness Draught having worn off. He smiled cheerfully and showed Kyungsoo the newspaper normally.

“Look! They published our win on the front page of the Daily Prophet!” he pointed to the front page, which was all about the Tournament. Kyungsoo skimmed over it. It seemed a bit melodramatic but he wasn’t really paying attention to what they were saying.

The two Hogwarts Champions win was unexpected but news-worthy. After the Hungarian Horntail inhaled the fumes of a Drowsiness Draught (which had been Summoned into the arena) it promptly collapsed. The claiming of the egg was simple for them. Meanwhile Beauxbatons Champions Park Sandara and Lee Chaelin were victorious as well. While one of them distracted the Chinese Fireball, the other made a mad dash for the Egg. Durmstrang Champions Lee Junho and Park Jinyoung also claimed third place, against their Common Welsh Green. While originally Lee had been shooting spells at the dragon so Park could grab the egg, the plan went awry. Using quick thinking, Lee proceeded to telekinize one of the boulders and throw it at the dragon, distracting it long enough for Park to finally grab the Egg. None of the Champions suffered serious injuries and the Second Task will continue after the Yule Ball.

After the event, we managed to get an inclusive interview with the Hogwarts Champions, Gryffindor Byun Baekhyun and Slytherin Do Kyungsoo. Do Kyungsoo (Sixth Year) is an aspiring wizard, making him an excellent candidate for the position of Champion. He refused to allow us an interview. We were respectful of his privacy, knowing that he has had bad experiences with newspapers in the past. Although the traumatic effects of those events still linger in his memory, he continues to struggle to live his life as though-

“What the hell is this?” Kyungsoo asked. “I never said any of that.”

“Said what?” Baekhyun asked, leaning over Kyungsoo’s shoulder to read the article. He skimmed over it, and then burst into laughter. “This is hilarious.”

Kyungsoo pushed him away, annoyed. “Yeah, let’s see what they wrote about you, then.”

Byun Baekhyun (Sixth Year) accepted our offer. Having an avid fascination with dinosaurs, he longs to go back to the past one day to see them in real life.

“What?!” Baekhyun tried to take the newspaper away but Kyungsoo held on to it, smiling evilly and feeling victorious.

In a display of affection, he even calls his boyfriend, Kim Jongdae (Sixth Year) a dinosaur. Byun has been fighting for the first place Tournament for the both of them, having been together for two years now. The Kim and Byun family have been on bad terms for as long as they can remember, and winning the Tournament is the only way the two can be together. We wish the best for their relationship. Kim even came to visit Byun in the Champions tent, both before and after the Task, breaking the rules just to see him. What a sweet couple! (Pictures below)

Pictured below like the article said, was a moving picture of the two of them (and Park) laughing and talking in the tent. It was obvious that it was before the Task from the way that Baekhyun’s appearance still wasn’t messed up. The second moving picture was of the two of them hugging in the tent afterwards, Baekhyun now with some minor cuts and bruises and hair all over the place. The last one was the one where he had collapsed on Kim’s shoulder.

Kyungsoo put the Prophet down, annoyed.

“This is hilarious,” Baekhyun seemed way too cheerful, grabbing the Prophet again. “Is there more?”

Kyungsoo snatched the paper back irritatedly, “Well, don’t read it.”

“Why not?” Baekhyun pouted, reaching for it again, although Kyungsoo moved it out of his reach. “Why are you stealing my paper when you have your own, Kyungsoooo,” he whined. “Fine,” he crossed his arms and huffed. “Whatever, I’ll just use Jongdae’s.”

Kyungsoo stood up suddenly. “I need to go,” he told Baekhyun, along with Sehun and Jongin who were now watching them. “Potions homework.”

-

It was a few weeks afterwards that Baekhyun caught up to Kyungsoo in the halls, causing everyone else to start watching them (not so) secretly.

“We need to figure out the clue from the egg,” he panted, having just run up two flights of stairs.

“I’ve tried,” Kyungsoo rolled his eyes. “It lets out this horrible high-pitched screechy screaming noise, like Park when a spider crawled down the back of his shirt.”

“Nice comparison,” Baekhyun complimented, “But you can’t just open it, you have to open it under-”

Kyungsoo slapped his hand over Baekhyun’s mouth, muffling the rest of his sentence. Ignoring the stares and the muffled protests, he used his other hand to drag him into an empty classroom by the ear, making sure to lock the door.

“Are you crazy? You can’t just blurt out the secret in front of everyone like that,” he scolded after Baekhyun was done whining about his ear.

It was then Kyungsoo realized something, causing him to eye Baekhyun suspiciously. “Wait a second, how did you figure it out anyways?”

Baekhyun scoffed and crossed his arms (and ultimately failed at trying to look posh and offended). “You know I told you I was pretty smart. Anyways, you have to open the egg underwater.”

“You sound like you’re making that up,” Kyungsoo leaned against the classroom door.

“I’m not.”

“Are too.”

“Am not!”

“Are- what am I doing?” Kyungsoo closed his eyes and took a deep breath. He was not a child. He couldn’t say the same for Baekhyun but he was not a child. “There’s no way you figured that out by yourself.”

“Well,” Baekhyun looked away. “I may have gotten some help.”

“Mhm,” Kyungsoo knew it.

“From Chaelin and Sandara,” he continued, looking away.

“Wait what? How do you know we can trust them?” Kyungsoo questioned.

Baekhyun coughed, “Becauseitwasasortofpaybackfortellingthemabouthedragons.”

“It was what?”

“Sort of payback for telling them about the dragons?” Baekhyun asked more than stated sheepishly.

“You what?”

“But Kyungsoo, they were the only team that didn’t know! It was unfair!”

-

They met up at the front hall the next Saturday night, in the afternoon. Baekhyun had learned not to keep information from Kyungsoo the hard way and Kyungsoo learned that they did indeed need to open the egg underwater.

“Let’s go,” Kyungsoo towards the front doors as soon as Baekhyun arrived.

“Wait, where are you going?” he caught up.

“The lake, where else?” Kyungsoo rolled his eyes.

“It’s December, Kyungsoo, the lake is frozen.”

“Are you a wizard or not?”

“That, and it’s also off-limits.”

“Since when?” Kyungsoo turned around. For all he knew Baekhyun could be making all of this up in an attempt to avoid the cold.

“Since yesterday, but it’s being announced on Monday.”

“And who told you this? Chaelin and Sandara? They’re probably lying, you know,” Kyungsoo rolled his eyes at Baekhyun’s naivety.

“Filch told me in detention,” Baekhyun answered.

“Figures,” Kyungsoo sighed. “Fine, we’ll wait until the the lake is back, but what are we going to do now?”

“Do, Byun, what are you two doing here? The weather’s horrible,” Professor Song called from behind them.

“Nothing, Professor,” Kyungsoo answered, feeling dejected. He hesitated, “Er, sorry for asking, Professor, but when will the Lake be available again?”

“Oh, you two know about that,” she seemed mildly surprised. She turned to look at Baekhyun. “Filch told you in detention, didn’t he?”

“Yup,” Baekhyun answered cheerily.

Professor Song eyed the two of them suspiciously, wondering what they needed it for. Eventually she decided she could trust Do and concluded it was for the Second Task. “Professor Lee told me it won’t be available for students until after the Second Task.”

“What are going to do?” Baekhyun moaned. “We’re doomed.”

Professor Song rolled her eyes at his over-dramatic exclamation. “I trust you wouldn’t know, Byun, but the prefect’s bathrooms have large enough tubs to use if you need a small amount of water.”

“They do? Kyungsoo’s a prefect, we can do this!” Baekhyun started jumping around happily.

“Professor Song, were you a prefect?” Kyungsoo asked, ignoring Baekhyun.

“Why, of course,” she nodded, looking at the two of them blankly. “I was even Head Girl in my Seventh Year, along with Professor Kim. Those bathrooms were amazing, I remember.”

“Kyungsoo, let’s go! I want to see them!” Baekhyun dragged him away excitedly, shouting a farewell to Professor Song over his shoulder.

-

It was only in the prefect bathrooms that Kyungsoo realized the dreadful mistake he had made.

“So,” he stood by the door as Baekhyun ran around the room looking at everything, sometimes climbing on top of counters and sinks. “How are we gonna do this?”

Baekhyun stopped looking around to turn to him and roll his eyes. “Are you kidding? There’s a huge bathtub right there! It could be a swimming pool! How come no one ever told me about this?”

“Yeah, I think I can guess why,” Kyungsoo muttered. “Anyways,” he grabbed the Egg from his satchel.

Baekhyun had already started the bath water and was looking at the different scents. “Hmm, do you want to smell like fresh-picked strawberries, Kyungsoo? Or do you prefer Japanese Cherry Blossom?”

“That’s . . . not exactly why we’re in here, Baekhyun,” Kyungsoo set the egg down in the shallow part of the tub beside Baekhyun. “But it’s too cold to smell like cherry blossoms.”

“Okay, well I already poured it in,” Baekhyun looked around the different scents again. “Should we mix scents?”

“Yeah, no,” Kyungsoo dragged Baekhyun back to the tub. He furrowed his eyebrows. “I didn’t bring an extra pair of robes.”

“Why would you need those?” Baekhyun asked. Kyungsoo stared at him as if the answer was obvious, eyes flickering between him and the bathtub.

Baekhyun is either really innocent or really stupid because it takes him a while to figure out what Kyungsoo is talking about. “Oh, that. Come on, Soo, we’re both guys.” He walks to the edge of the tub again, peering in.

“Not all guys have dicks, Baekhyun,” Kyungsoo walks to sit on the edge. “Don’t be transphobic.”

“Right,” Baekhyun says and reaches for the bubbles. He unscrews the cap and catches Kyungsoo off guard by simply dumping the entire thing in the tub. Then again, he shouldn’t be surprised by now. “It’s okay, we have bubbles.”

Kyungsoo stares at him again. “Bubbles pop.”

“Wow, thanks, Hyuna, no shit,” Baekhyun rolls his eyes. “Fine, there’s enough extra towels in here if you’re that picky,” he leaves the tub for the towel rack on the other side of the room. Kyungsoo is very careful not to accidentally fall or look at the reflection in the water and tub as he starts the water. He monitors the temperature carefully, setting it to a cool. The bubbles blow immediately, seeing as they’re magic.

He is startled when Baekhyun runs and jumps into the tub, splashing water all over Kyungsoo and soaking him. Kyungsoo glares at him as he laughs, before coughing his throat. Baekhyun stops laughing at looks him questioningly, obviously not noticing.

Kyungsoo sighs, giving up, and heading to the towel rack instead while Baekhyun is preoccupied with playing with the bubbles. He strips down to his underwear but still ties a towel around his waist, wrapping yet another around his shoulders. When he’s done ‘dressing’ (since he’s almost completely covered anyways) he heads to the tub and slowly steps in.

Baekhyun blows some of the bubbles into Kyungsoo’s face, earning him a glare. Kyungsoo uses one hand to splash the bathwater in his face. Baekhyun laughs then accidentally gets some of the water in his mouth and starts choking. Kyungsoo reaches for the golden egg on the side of the tub as he finally finishes coughing.

“Thanks for caring about my life,” he says sarcastically as Kyungsoo settles back in the tub.

“Let’s get this over with,” Kyungsoo holds the egg, ready to open it underwater. “Hold your breath.”

He dives his head under the surface first, Baekhyun following moments later. Kyungsoo makes sure he can hear before opening the egg. The terrible sound from before is gone, replaced by an enchanting voice singing a melody.

Come seek us where our voices sound,

We cannot sing above the ground,

And while you're searching, ponder this;

We've taken what you'll sorely miss,

An hour long you'll have to look,

And recover what we took,

But past an hour — the prospect's black,

Too late, it's gone, it won't come back."

They both resurfaced, gasping for breath. Kyungsoo starts thinking immediately, wondering what it could mean. “What can’t sing above ground?” he ponders out loud as Baekhyun chokes yet again.

“Worms?” Kyungsoo muses. “Giant worms?”

“Thanks for caring about my life again,” Baekhyun rolls his eyes.

“Some sort of underground cave?” he continues, ignoring him.







“One of these days I might just actually die,” Baekhyun rants.







“Do dragons live in underground caves?” Kyungsoo wonders. “Would they have dragons again? Maybe a troll.”

“I might drown one day. can’t breathe underwater, I’m not a mermaid, you know,” Baekhyun starts playing with bubbles again.

“Insects?” Kyungsoo leans back against the tub. “What- wait a minute.” His eyes widen as he looks at Baekhyun. “That’s it!”







“Insects?” Baekhyun tilts his head. “Like giant spiders? Why can’t it ever be something nice?”







“Spiders are arthropods,” Kyungsoo corrects. “But that’s not the point. Mermaids! It’s mermaids!”

Kyungsoo is standing up before he even finishes talking, stepping out of the tub. “We’ll find a way to breathe underwater next weekend. Meet me outside the library after lunch on Sunday. But for now I don’t want to spend any more time you here, so I’m leaving. You can have the egg,” Kyungsoo rushes to shove everything back in his bag. “Actually, go and transcribe the message on paper too, we need to know that.”

“Um, Kyungsoo,” Baekhyun interrupts.

“Not now, Baekhyun,” Kyungsoo dries his hair hurriedly. “We just need to figure out how to breathe underwater. That’s all we need. The rest we’ll be okay with if we can just figure out how to-”

“Kyungsoo,” Baekhyun repeats, louder this time.

“There’s an answer in the restricted section I know for sure. I saw a book on underwater discoveries there. Joonmyun will let us in, we’re on good terms.”

“Kyungsoo!” Baekhyun shouts.

He sighs, annoyed, as he turns around to face him. “What, Baekhyun?”

“Okay, don’t freak out when I say this, okay?” Baekhyun starts. Kyungsoo rolls his eyes. “But look down.”

Kyungsoo screams.

-

They do meet up the next Sunday, Kyungsoo still petrified of the towel incident. But that’s in the past. They have put that behind them, mostly because it’s awkward for both of them. The problem is that while Kyungsoo is usually let into the restricted section, today Joonmyun seems to be in a bad mood.

He glares at the two of time when he asks. “I’m sorry.”

The two of them stand at the counter in confusion as Suho goes back into the backroom to organize books.

“What’s with him?” Kyungsoo furrows his eyebrows. “I don’t remember anything happening lately.”

Baekhyun waves him off. “He’s just being a sour prick about the dating scandal.”

“What dating scandal?” Kyungsoo asks.

“The one the Daily Prophet published,” they start heading back as Baekhyun explains. “The one between me and Jongdae.”

“He likes you?” Kyungsoo asks.

“No, he likes Jongdae. I can’t imagine why,” Baekhyun replies. “He’s gross. And an idiot.”

“Sounds like someone I know,” Kyungsoo mutters.

“What?” Baekhyun asks.

“Nothing,” Kyungsoo answers instead. “Let’s go, then. We can call my brother. He works at the Ministry, he’ll know these sorts of things.”

They settle down on one of the benches in the now empty Great Hall as Kyungsoo opens a call to his brother using his wand. It’s a Sunday so he shouldn’t be at work, but Kyungsoo knows his perfectionist and overachiever tendencies. There’s a chance he’ll be doing something extra.

Luckily he isn’t and picks up after a few vibrations. “Hello?”

“Hey, hyun-” Kyungsoo is cut off when Baekhyun grabs the wand, leaning in with a huge grin.

“Hi Kyungjoon hyung!” he all but yells. “It’s nice to meet you - or talk to you! Kyungsoo told me all about you!” he drags the all out.

Kyungsoo yanks his wand back, glaring at him. He’s never even mentioned his brother before today. “Sorry about that, um - this is Baekhyun?”

“Uh, hey,” Kyungjoon greets. “Nice to meet you?”

“Anyways, what we need to know is way to breathe underwater,” Kyungsoo continues.

“For the Tournament? Which I had to hear about from the Daily Prophet? By the way congrats, Baekhyun,” he adds on at the end. Kyungsoo winces - whether it’s from the harsh reminder or the realization that people actually read and believed the false things that were published.

“Fine, I’m sorry, but I’ve been busy preparing and doing schoolwork too,” Kyungsoo apologizes quickly.

“Nonsense, I know you can whiz through your work in a flash. But don’t sweat it, I haven’t had much time lately either. Anyways, you guys can use gillyweed, your Potions teacher probably has it.”

“We can get that,” Kyungsoo nods. He was one of the Professor’s favourites.

“Bye Kyung hyung!” Baekhyun screams into his wand. Kyungsoo ends the call quickly, mumbling a farewell. He turns to glare at Baekhyun.

“I wanted to make a memorable first impression,” he explains normally.

Kyungsoo sighs deeply. “Whatever.”

-

The next week is one of the most horrifying experiences of Kyungsoo life.

Dance class.

Ballroom dance class.

Professor Kim uses one of the female students to help him demonstrate. All the girls are fond of him (maybe not him specifically, but his body), so it’s no hard task.

“You or your partner can lead,” he instructs as they (they meaning the Hufflepuffs and Slytherins) watch him. The girl is giggling too much, blushing madly and trying to hide her face. It makes the dance awkward though entertaining to watch.

“Now split up, find your partners,” he stops, letting her go. “Get on with it!”

Jongin looks enthusiastic. He loves dancing so it’s no surprise. Professor Kim pairs him with a Seventh Year from Hufflepuff named Hyoyeon, who’s an equally if not better dancer. He tells everyone to follow their lead.

Kyungsoo stays still, making no move to find a partner. Sehun gets asked by another Hufflepuff around Kyungsoo’s height, in his Seventh Year. Kyungsoo mostly watches Hyoyeon and Jongin since they’re the best dancers, but his eyes flicker over to Sehun from time to time. He didn’t expect him to be dancing the ‘girl’ position (which he thought was nonsense, what if it was two boys or two girls dancing?).

“Kyungsoo,” he jumps when Professor Kim appears next to him. “You know you’ll have to do the opening dance, right?”

“What?” Kyungsoo exclaims loudly. Why was he not informed of this beforehand? Putting his life on the line to fight dangerous magical animals and creatures he could handle, but dancing with a partner in front of a crowd was completely different.

“Yes, usually everyone can just ask someone, but this year-”

“No,” Kyungsoo says in horror.

“Since the Tournament is in partners-”

“Professor, please don’t say it,” Kyungsoo pleads.

“Unfortunately, the Ravenclaws are practicing with the Gryffindors so-”

“NOOOO!”

-

The Gryffindors are practicing with the Ravenclaws, so Professor Kim assigns him to practice dancing with a fellow Slytherin named Krystal instead. Kyungsoo wonders if she dislikes him, but she could just be a quiet person like him.

Jongin seems quite happy, obviously pleased to be dancing. Sehun strangely gets a date to the Yule Ball just from dancing with a stranger (who he vehemently insists is manly, even though Kyungsoo’s never heard of Sehun having a thing for manly men). Kyungsoo is sure it’s the worst day of his life. (Second worst, the actual day of the Yule Ball be the worst). At least the Gryffindors and Ravenclaws got to practice together, so maybe Joonmyun finally got around to sorting out his issues with Jongdae. He gets a package of dress robes in the post from his brother the next morning, causing him to sigh loudly. Third worst day of his life.

-

The day of the Yule Ball comes and Heechul, a Seventh Year Slytherin, comes to dress them up. He and Sehun are friends, somehow, and he’s personally taken it upon himself to become their stylist.

Sehun finishes first, then Jongin, and lastly Kyungsoo. He doesn’t let Heechul do anything, but that guy had his ways, and he ended up giving him a facial and a doing his hair, as well as using safety pins to adjust his too-big robes.

“So,” he says as he magically turns the safety pins invisible. “You’re doing the opening dance, right?”

“Don’t remind me,” Kyungsoo grumbles.

“Me and Sehun taught him,” Jongin says from where he’s sitting on the bed, swinging his legs and watching them.

“He punched me in the face when I put my hand on his waist,” Sehun comments from where he’s sitting at his dressing table, examining his face in the mirror. “We’ve been friends since my Second Year,” he pouts. Kyungsoo is immune to Sehun’s aegyo (unlike the vast majority of Hogwarts) so he just rolls his eyes.

“On the bright side, at least now you’re really really good at dancing the ‘girl’ part,” Jongin comments to Sehun.

“I haven’t danced the ‘guy’ part once,” he spins around to face them. “Even that other day in the practice room Luhan-hyung insisted on being the guy.”

Ah, Luhan, right, that was his name. Heechul finishes, tsk-ing at Kyungsoo’s violence in the middle of the story. “Well, you’re all done and ready to go. If anyone asks who your stylist is, say me. The opening dance is going to get you a lot of attention. Since you don’t want it you can redirect it to me.”

“I told you not to remind me,” Kyungsoo groans. “But will do.”

Kyungsoo heads off to a platform at the top of a grand marble staircase descending into the ballroom. There are blue velvet curtains at the top, hiding a little space on the upper floor, which serves as the Champion’s meeting room. Everyone else is already there when Kyungsoo arrives, chattering among themselves.

“Hi!” Baekhyun greets him cheerfully, bouncing on the balls of his feet. “Aren’t you excited? I’m excited. This is my first Ball, you know. What about you? Well it’s probably your first Ball too, right? Right? Right?”

“Who gave you the sugar?” he comments drily.

“Champions,” Professor Song appears. They all fall quiet at her entrance. “We were expecting the Goblet to pick male-female partners, but it seems as though it has a mind of its own. Now, back when these dances were created there were very strict gender roles, thus creating the two parts of the dance.” Professor Song is one of the smartest and most independent women Kyungsoo knows, it’s no secret that she’s even better than most of the male Professors at Hogwarts.

“Anyways,” she continues. “The Professor have worked out a solution to this, seeing as the originally choreographed dance you practiced won’t work. You’ll both be dancing the traditional ‘girl’ part or the ‘boy’ part, to avoid any decisions having to be made on that as well. Well, the opening is starting now!”

The magical orchestra starts playing from downstairs as people start settling down and the last few ones trickle in.

“Well, that’s our three minute mark!” she exclaims. “When this song ends and the next one starts you’ll all go down the stairs in your partnerships. One by one, ending with Hogwarts as we are the hosting school. I will give you your cues. When you get to the bottom, wait for us all to get there before you start the opening dance.”

Worst. Day. Ever.

Kyungsoo is ninety-nine percent sure that he’s going to die by the time they start dancing. Perhaps he can ‘trip’ on the stairs and prevent the whole thing from happening? That would be even more embarrassing though. He glances at Baekhyun out of the corner of his eye.

“Beauxbatons!” Professor Song ushers Chaelin and Sandara to the stairs. Kyungsoo watches from the edge of the curtain, peeking out. They look like princesses or queens when they descend, and he can tell they were born to be in the spotlight. The guests cheer as they make the final step. Kyungsoo isn’t sure but he thinks he can hear a low voice cheering particularly loudly all the way from the stairs.

“Durmstrang!” She pushes them down the steps. The guests cheer again as they descend. It is only when they’re halfway down and him and Baekhyun are lining up that he realizes him and Baekhyun are lining up. They’re next. This is real. This is happening. This is not a dream (more like nightmare).

“Hold hands, you two,” Professor Song motions at them. “I don’t care what house rivalry you have.”

Professor Song is scary, so Kyungsoo awkwardly holds onto Baekhyun’s pinky.

“Kyungsoo,” she deadpans.

“Fine,” he grumbles. He adds his ring finger into the mix.

“I washed my hands before I came here,” Baekhyun comments. Professor Song rolls her eyes.

“Fine,” Kyungsoo grumbles. In the end they settle for letting him hold onto Baekhyun’s pinky, ring, and middle finger.

Kyungsoo looks straight ahead as they descend, not wanting to see how much more they have left or the faces of the guests. Hogwarts gets the loudest cheers, being the hosting school, and finally they make it to the bottom. Kyungsoo sighs a deep sigh of relief as the music starts playing.

Wait a minute.

Music.

Oh no.

“Kyungsoo,” Baekhyun hisses as he zones out. “We’re starting now, hurry and put your hand on my waist.”

Kyungsoo lets go of Baekhyun’s three fingers quickly as the other pairs have already started dancing, vaguely wondering when they both decided to dance the ‘girl’ part. Even though his mind is still in a blur he avoids it and places his hand on his shoulder instead. Baekhyun rolls his eyes but changes his hands position to match, as they finally start to move.

The steps are easy enough to follow, even though Kyungsoo is sure he looks like a robot dancing pre-programmed dance moves. It’s quite embarrassing, since everyone is watching them. He avoids looking at them and stares at Baekhyun’s nose instead. There are people pointing at them and whispering but he ignores it.

“People are staring,” Baekhyun whispers under his breath. “Do it properly.” He jerks his head to their hands, making it seem like he simply tilted his head.

Kyungsoo looks at his right hand, which is simply resting against Baekhyun’s. He is about to grab three of his fingers again when Baekhyun whispers again, “Kyungsoo!”

They spin around the edge and Kyungsoo catches a glimpse of Sehun and Jongin. Sehun, face emotionless as usual, is with that Hufflepuff from dance class - Luhan, the manly guy - and Jongin is beaming at him. He looks proud and to be fair, he and Sehun did take the time to personally teach him the dance. Kyungsoo sighs.

“Fine,” Kyungsoo whisper-grumbles, interlocking the fingers as the dance was choreographed. It was just in time, too, as the music picks up and the tempo gets faster. The dance is simple, a few steps as they head in a circle around the center. Kyungsoo is starting to get dizzy when finally, finally the first pair decides to head in. The first one is always the hardest, but as soon as one joins in, everyone else does.

Kyungsoo is relieved the attention is no longer focused on them. Soon the Ball transforms into a less formal setting, some people stay and dance while others walk around or go to find a seat. The music is more modern now, played by a band of four girls.

Kyungsoo lets go and stops dancing as soon as he can, heading towards somewhere he can sit and be left in peace. He wonders if he can find Jongin, since Sehun is still dancing with Mr. Manly Hufflepuff.

“We have to stick together for the night,” Baekhyun sas, catching up to him. “For, like, the partner thing.”

“Right,” Kyungsoo grumbles. He finds a table to sit at in peace, not entirely secluded but no one approaches them for a while. He notices at least Joonmyun and Jongdae settled their issues out and are also happily, which is probably why Baekhyun isn’t with them right now. He looks around for Park as well, but can’t see him.

People approach them often, congratulating them and asking questions. Baekhyun does most (read: all) of the talking. If he’s going to talk Kyungsoo’s ear off at least it’s for a good cause. The good cause is in this case being Kyungsoo not having to say anything.

The other Champions come and congratulate them and each other as well. Chaelin and Sandara seem nice, and they even compliment their dress robes, even though Kyungsoo knows his sucks.

Eventually the two of them are forced to get and go around for a while by Professor Song, just to please the crowd and the reporters. Frankly, after what the Daily Prophet posted, Kyungsoo isn’t too fond of them and doesn’t want to please them at all. People approach them occasionally, although it seems Sehun spends all his time with Mr. Manly Hufflepuff.

“So,” Baekhyun says, dragging the ‘o’ sound out. “This is my first Ball.”

“Yes you mentioned that already,” Kyungsoo answers.

“Right.”

It’s a few minutes later when Baekhyun coughs loudly. Kyungsoo eyes him. “Is there something you want to say?”

“Nope,” Baekhyun shakes his head as they continue walking.

Usually when neither of them is talking the silence isn’t awkward, but this time Kyungsoo can’t stand it. He’s been acting strange all night. “Just spit it out,” he turns to Baekhyun.

“Your safety pins falling!” he blurts. Kyungsoo is confused but looks down anyways. One of Heechul’s pins is indeed undone and hanging off of his robes.

“Oh,” he says simply. “Thanks?” He fixes the pin and they keep moving.

“Do you have anything to say to me?” Baekhyun asks a few minutes later.

“No, not really,” Kyungsoo answers. “I said thanks for the safety pins right? Oh, do you want me to say that Happy Yule Ball thing or whatever? Merry Christmas?”

He can tell from Baekhyun’s face that he hasn’t said what he wanted yet, so they just settle for an awkward silence instead.

“Right . . . Oh! Right, Merry Christmas. Right, right. Here!” he says, suddenly cheerful at the reminder, holding out a silver wrapped package.

“What?’ Kyungsoo looks at it in confusion.

“It’s Christmas,” Baekhyun says as if it’s obvious.

It takes a few moments for the gears to turn in Kyungsoo’s head. “For me?”

“Geez, you would’ve thought you never celebrated Christmas before,” Baekhyun rolls his eyes. Although it sort of is true. Kyungsoo’s family doesn’t usually make a big deal out of these sorts of things. Presents were only ever given on birthdays.

“Oh,” Kyungsoo blinks. “What is it?”

“I can’t tell you!” Baekhyun replies, aghast. “That’s not how presents work!”

“Right,” Kyungsoo blinks again. He’d never gotten a Christmas present before, so he’s not entirely sure what to do with it. Does he open it now? Save it for later? Put it under a tree?

“Do you notice anything different about me?” Baekhyun blurts. Kyungsoo is still in a daze from the present, so he looks him up and down again.

“Um, well, you dressed up?” Baekhyun doesn’t really look anyway different to him, other than the dress robes and the fact his hair was actually neat for once.

“Oh,” Baekhyun seems sad, and as much as Kyungsoo hates him he did manage to distract the dragon and even got him a present, so he hurries to correct himself.

“I mean, you don’t look . . . Bad.” Kyungsoo is new to to the idea of complimenting people.

“But do-” Baekhyun steps back suddenly, another student having tripped and spilled an orange drink over his white dress robes.

“Sor-What are you doing here?” The older of the Durmstrang Champions, Junho looks at them. “They’re calling the Champions for a Toast.”

Then he sees the present in Baekhyun’s hands. “Oh, a present? How cute. Unfortunately me and Jinyoung don’t spend time and money on one-sided useless things.”

“It’s not useless,” Kyungsoo says, even though he doesn’t know what it is, from the shape it’s pretty obvious that it’s a book.

“Mhmm,” Junho nods. “You look nice for a Mudblood,” he comments, Kyungsoo assumes to Baekhyun since he is a Pureblood. “Wait a minute,” he leans in closer, taking a good look at him. “Are you? Did you really?” Junho laughs. “This is gold.”

Kyungsoo isn’t sure what Junho is talking about, and furrows his eyebrows in confusion. He feels something being shoved in his hands, and when he looks down it’s the present. “I- wait!” he calls after Baekhyun, but he’s already lost in the crowd. He turns to face Junho again, but he’s already gone as well. Jinyoung stays behind sheepishly. “Sorry,” he apologizes before disappearing into the crowd as well, most likely to find Junho.

“Kyungsoo, come!” Professor Song finds him, pulling him through the crowd. “Where’s Baekhyun? Oh there’s no time, the Ministry wants a toast and pictures!”

Kyungsoo fakes a smile and interest for the cameras and formalities, but is left alone after that. He tears the silver packaging off of his present. It’s a book on Potions, his favourite subject. The book describes advanced Potions and the ingredients and instructions to make them. It has Potions that he’s never heard of and aren’t in the textbooks. He notices the ingredients are all things relatively easy to find. It’s when he’s further analyzing the book that he realizes the pages are a bit odd. Upon further investigation, he finds that the recipes don’t match each other in font, size, or formatting. Flipping through the entire thing quickly, Kyungsoo finds each recipe cut out and pasted into the journal by hand.

He would’ve kept looking at it if he hadn’t run into Joonmyun and Jongdae.

“Where’s Baekhyun?” Jongdae asks. “Aren’t the Champions supposed to stay together for the night?”

“He left,” Kyungsoo shrugs. “Have you seen him?”

“No,” Jongdae replies. “That’s weird. He took a lot of time to make it.”

“Make what?” Kyungsoo asks.

“A Beautification Potion,” Jongdae replies as if it’s obvious. “For the Bal- wait, what?”

So that was what Junho was talking about. And why Baekhyun was acting weird. Kyungsoo blinks again.

“You,” Jongdae looks at him. “Oh. I see, then, I see.”

“You see what?” Kyungsoo asks.

“Nothing,” Jongdae answers quickly. “Nothing at all.”

Kyungsoo chooses to ignore it and instead greets Joonmyun. “I see you got your troubles sorted out.”

“We talked to the reporters here at the Ball,” he motions at the press who are currently talking to Chaelin and Sandara about the Second Task. “They’re going to publish that dating scandal thing from the First Task as false.”

Kyungsoo congratulates them, but turns to Jongdae again after. “What did you mean by ‘I know?’”

“You’ll find out eventually,” Jongdae waves him off. “For now though . . .”

-

The day of the Second Task is coming up and Kyungsoo has to fix his relations with Baekhyun before it ends up killing them. They haven’t talked since the Ball, which was almost two months ago. The Task is in two weeks and they know nothing about it other than breathing underwater. Kyungsoo has done some research on mermaids, but there are so many different types it’s practically useless. He’s acquired the Gillyweed, though, and goes to find Baekhyun one day in February.

He finds him one day tending to his owl, Min, in the Owlery. Kyungsoo rarely visits the Owlery, which is probably why his owl hates him. It’s cold and drafty in there, since there’s no glass in the windows. The floor was always covered in owl dropping and skeletons of the owls food. He has his back turned to him, trying to feed some sort of potion to Min.

“I even got it mouse flavoured this time, c’mon, open up.”

Kyungsoo has decided that he’s heard enough and instead walks up to him and holds out the Gillyweed without a greeting. Baekhyun looks at it in confusion before nodding. “So we’re ready then.” He goes back to trying to coerce his owl into drinking the potion.

“Not really,” Kyungsoo answers. “At this rate we’ll end up dead.”

Baekhyun glances at him briefly. “What?”

“We need to settle this . . . thing from the Yule night,” Kyungsoo replies. “This teamwork isn’t going to help.”

“I thought you hated teamwork,” Baekhyun answers simply.

“Well, we need teamwork for this Task,” Kyungsoo says finally. “I have the Gillyweed. I got it from Professor Song. So let’s just . . . I don’t know, pretend that night never happened?” He should’ve thought this through.

“Okay,” Baekhyun replies.

Kyungsoo looks at what he’s doing. “Are you trying to feed her that?”

“She got a cold so Yixing gave me this tonic to feed her,” Baekhyun huffs. “I even got it mouse flavoured but she won’t eat it.”

“You can’t do it like that,” Kyungsoo takes the spoon out of Baekhyun’s hands, having experience with animals thanks to Jongin’s obsession.

He looks around and finds a dead vole on the ground. It’s disgusting but he picks it up makes sure all of the tonic goes into it. Then he hands the vole to Baekhyun for him to feed to Min. She leaps onto his arm before he has the chance, eating the poor thing up.

“How’d you know how to do that?” Baekhyun asks in wonder.

“Other than Jongin, Sehun has a habit of bringing baby animals he finds into the dorms,” Kyungsoo rolls his eyes at the reminder of his antics.

Baekhyun feeds Min the rest of the tonic as Kyungsoo watches them in silence.

“You know,” he starts, “You really should read what you give before you give it.”

“What?” Baekhyun turns to him. “What are you talking about?”

Kyungsoo wordlessly hands him a single page of paper, ripped out of the Potions book from Christmas. “Effects of the Beautification Potion. Anyways.”

“Here,” he awkwardly shoves a bundle of clothing to Baekhyun, who is still reading the sheet.

“What are these?” Baekhyun asks as he untangles the clothing.

“It’s Valentines Day,” Kyungsoo explains.

“Oh,” Baekhyun answers simply. “Oh. But I didn’t get you anything.”

“I know,” Kyungsoo nods, “It’s for Christmas.”

“That was in December.”

“I am aware of the calendar, Baekhyun.”

“They’re um- your clothes. Dress robes to be specific. From the night of the Yule Ball. I tried to get the orange out but I couldn’t. So I just dyed them blue. But then it looked really ugly. So I just used magic to remakeinto a new pair of robes,” Kyungsoo explains awkwardly.

“How did you get these?” Baekhyun eyes him suspiciously. “How did you even get into Gryffindor dorms?”

Kyungsoo contemplates telling him that Jongdae snuck them out for him, but he just smiles instead because he needs to have some blackmail to use for future purposes. “I have my ways.”

“So you got me clothes . . . For Valentines Day?”

“No, for Christmas,” Kyungsoo corrects.

“But it’s Valentines Day.”

“I am aware of the calendar. But this is for Christmas. It’s a Christmas present.”

“I’ve never gotten a Valentines Day gift before.”

“It’s for Christmas.”

“Hey, Chanyeol, look what Kyungsoo got me for Valentines Day!” Baekhyun takes off running down the Halls.

“It’s for Christmas!” Kyungsoo runs after him.

-

The day of the Task comes two weeks later, and Kyungsoo is forced to wake up early yet again. It’s the end of February and the snow has melted, but it’s still very chilly. Surprisingly he finds that Sehun has woken up early for once, and he heads down to the location of the challenge, the Lake.

Baekhyun is there already, as are the other Champions. Kyungsoo sits down on the bench next to him.

“Where are Not-as-Dumb and Dumbest?” he asks.

Baekhyun shrugs sleepily. “I dont know,” he yawns. “I haven’t seen Jongdae all morning and I think Chanyeol’s cheering more for Beauxbatons than he is for me.”

The spectators and reporters crowd into the bleachers as the Champions line up on the shore. The Task would be revealed to them at the same time. Now wide awake, Kyungsoo looked around.

Professor Lee does the greetings and introduction then starts. “The Second Task will test our Champions problem-solving, cunning, and bravery. Last Task they were given a Golden Egg. When the Golden Egg was opened above water it made a horrible screeching sound. However, opened underwater and it sang a clue about the next Task. Had the students figured it out, they knew they would be underwater for the next Task,” the crowd cheers.

“Champions, you will have one hour to recover what has been taken from you,” Professor Lee reaches for his wand. “The time starts on the whistle.” Kyungsoo expects a countdown or something but Professor Lee simply uses a Whistle Spell right away.

He gives some of the Gillyweed to Baekhyun and eats some himself, keeping the extra tied down to his belt. Kyungsoo feels an odd sensation but then suddenly he can’t breathe. Panicking, he throws himself into the water. It brings the relief of being able to breathe again. When he calms down he notices Baekhyun has submerged as well and that they both - well they both has gills. His hands and feet are webbed for easier swimming ability as well.

Baekhyun nods and they start swimming towards the center of the lake. The water is dark and murky and the visibility isn’t very good. The webbed hands and feet make it so much easier to swim.

As they go deeper it gets darker and the visibility gets worse. Baekhyun makes a light using his wand for the both of them to use as they go deeper. It gets unusually quiet and Kyungsoo feels unsettled, while Baekhyun seems not to have noticed. Kyungsoo is about to say something when he feels the water move around him and suddenly the light is gone.

Kyungsoo momentarily panics as he sees it going down. He doesn’t know what’s happening but he’s swims straight down, following the light and grabbing his hand. There’s something pulling Baekhyun down, but it’s too dark to see what it is.

Kyungsoo swims down to see what’s holding on only to get a faceful of razor sharp teeth and glinting eyes. He swims backwards in panic before getting his wand out. If the light goes both of them are doomed, so they only have one wand they can use. Kyungsoo Stupefies the mermaid and she lets go, snarling as she swims away. They take a moment to catch their breath, and calm down from the adrenaline rush.

Kyungsoo grabs Baekhyun’s hand and dives down, they have to keep swimming. The visibility is basically nothing now, but the light from Baekhyun’s wand still lights the water up.

He hears a snarl from his right before another mermaid lunges for them. They manage to dodge the blow and swim out of her way, but she’s still charging at him. It’s then that Kyungsoo has an idea that could either be really smart or kill them both. There’s no way for him to communicate it to Baekhyun though, so he has no choice.

Kyungsoo uses the Stunning Spell on him and catches the fleeting look of betrayal in his eyes before the mermaid is now able to successfully grab his leg. Kyungsoo dives down after them as well, grabbing onto the both of them as the mermaid swims away.

She swims much more powerfully and faster than the two of them and drags them along as she retreats to her cave. Kyungsoo Stuns her before she can pull the two of them into the actual cave, and then Stuns her twice for the double effect. The mermaids seemed to have some sort of protection against spells, though they weren’t immune.

Baekhyun is blinking his eyes awake now, and looks around in confusion. He barely has time to register his surroundings before Kyungsoo grabs his hand and drags him away again. The water is now so dark that Kyungsoo has to light up his wand in addition to Baekhyun’s.

They swim around the cave when Kyungsoo sees it. It’s faint but he can see some sort of statue made out of stone. That must mean they swam to the very bottom of the lake. Kyungsoo swims towards it as fast as he can, Baekhyun now fully aware of his senses and swimming after him. When they reach the statue it turns out to be a stone replica of a mermaid, although much bigger in scale.

Kyungsoo wants to spend time and look at it more thoroughly, but they have no time. They’re about to swim to the other side of the statue when Kyungsoo sees a glimpse of a hand from the other side. He stops suddenly, causing Baekhyun to stop as well. He tries to peer around Kyungsoo to see what it is but can’t get past him.

Kyungsoo takes a deep breath before grabbing the hand as fast as he can. He swims to the other side, wand drawn when he sees the owner of the hand which is - Jongdae? Wait what? Baekhyun swims around to see what Kyungsoo is looking at. His eyes light up at the prospect of having finished the Task and he dives to the Lake floor to find a sharp rock.

Along the side of the mermaid statue, six people had been tied to the stone, clearly unconscious. Other than Jongdae the only other person Kyungsoo recognizes is Sehun. Then it dawns on him. This was what was taken from them. He hadn’t seen Sehun all day, and Baekhyun mentioned not seeing Jongdae either.

In the time it took Kyungsoo to figure this out, Baekhyun had found two sharp rocks from the sand and swam back up. He hands one to Kyungsoo and then proceeds to start cutting the seaweed around Jongdae. Kyungsoo starts cutting around Sehun as well.

Baekhyun had started cutting considerably sooner than Kyungsoo, and in minutes all the seaweed was floating to the ocean floor. He begins swimming up to the lake surface with Jongdae as Kyungsoo continued cutting.

Chaelin and Sandara arrive by the time he’s half done. They set to work on freeing two other girls on the edge of the statue.

Kyungsoo finally finishes freeing Sehun and tries to pull him up, only to fail. Sehun isn’t heavy, but he is quite a bit taller than Kyungsoo. It was easy for Baekhyun to swim away with Jongdae, seeing as they were the same size, but it isn’t the same for Kyungsoo. While he is struggling, Chaelin and Sandara manage to free the two other girls and start swimming back to the surface. Kyungsoo realizes the effects of the Gillyweed are starting to wear off, and quickly eats some more of the extra he had stored in his belt. He swallows some of the lake water, but the Gillyweed is starting to kick back in.

Struggling, he starts swimming back to the surface with Sehun, slowly. Baekhyun had probably already made it to the surface, and the other two Champions were so far ahead he couldn’t see them. Kyungsoo had almost made it when a mermaid suddenly appeared, grabbing onto Sehun’s arm.

Kyungsoo Stunned her three times, in his moment of panic. However, this only triggered more mermaids to start arriving. One of them manages to grab his ankle, pulling him closer. Kyungsoo kicks her away, but cuts his ankle on her teeth in the process.

His injury is painful, even more so because of the water. Kyungsoo is surrounded by mermaids by now, and he Stuns as many as he can, but they keep coming. He sees Junho and Jinyoung out of the corner of his eye. They’re trying to swim away and avoid the mermaids, but are seen before they can. Half of the mermaids go to attack them as well, but half of them are still focused on Kyungsoo.

His wound is really starting to pain him, so he has no choice. He lets go of Sehun’s waist and swims back up to the surface. He does a Spell to undo the effects of Gillyweed before he surfaces and pulls himself onto the dock. The crowd cheers loudly at first, but it dies down as they notice Kyungsoo is alone.

“Kyungsoo?” Baekhyun asks, wrapped in a towel and sitting on the dock along with Jongdae, Chaelin, Sandara, and their two friends.

Yixing, the kind Hufflepuff, tends to Kyungsoo’s leg as another medic wraps a warm towel around his shoulders.

“Sehun’s still down here,” Kyungsoo gasps, trying to catch his breath. “I couldn’t save him.”

“Well then, if you cannot complete the mission, Hogwarts is-”

“No!” Baekhyun interrupts. He stands up, handing the towel to Jongdae. “The Tournament is in pairs this year.”

Before Kyungsoo can say anything, he’s already dived back into the water. The crowd is in shock before they start cheering again. Kyungsoo looks into the water in horror.

“It’s fine, Kyungsoo,” Jongdae comforts.

“No,” Kyungsoo shakes his head. “If the effects of my Gillyweed wore out down at the statue, then his Gillyweed . . .”

-

The water is cold and shock to Baekhyun’s senses when he dives in. He shivers but lights his wand up and starts swimming. The webbing between his fingers and toes is almost gone, and it makes it harder for him to swim.

He sees Sehun when he sees the light of Junho and Jinyoung’s wands, and dives towards him. The mermaids surround him immediately, and he tries to Stun as many of them as he can. Jinyoung manages to make to make it past them with another boy around his age.

The mermaids only have two people to focus on now, and they start swarming the two of them. Baekhyun’s Gillyweed is losing its effect, and he finds it increasingly difficult to breathe. Suddenly all the mermaids are focusing on him, and they’re everywhere. Some are pulling at him, others are pulling at Sehun. He can’t possibly fend them all off now

-

Jinyoung surfaces, gasping, as he pulls himself and another boy onto the dock. The crowd cheers. Kyungsoo looks into the water nervously. The crowd looks into the water nervously because of the fact that whoever is next wins the second place.

Someone breaks the surface and when the crowd sees who it is, they cheer. Junho pulls himself onto the dock. They stop cheering when they realize, yet again, that he is alone.

“I can’t,” Junho gasps as the medics hurry to tend to him. “No,” he pushes them away, sitting up. “He’s still there, with the mermaid. My brother.”

“Baekhyun and Sehun are still down there too,” Kyungsoo reminds them.

“If they don’t resurface within the time limit it is counted as not being able to complete the mission,” Professor Lee announces. There are only a few minutes left in the one hour time limit, the giant numbers in the sky read.

“Do you think they’re okay?” Luhan asks, a part of the Hufflepuff medic team. Kyungsoo feels guilty at his anxious tone.

“I’m sure all three of them are fine,” he assures.

“Nothing better have happened to my brother or else-” Junho seethes, but Jinyoung puts a hand on his arm to stop him.

“The mermaids won’t hurt your brother,” Kyungsoo says.

“Exactly,” Jinyoung agrees. “He’s too young and they probably know about his . . . condition.”

Junho finally accepts the medical help from Yixing, and it turns out he has a deep cut on his arm that prevented him from rescuing his brother.

“It may be the Tournament but it’s still for Sixth and Seventh Years,” Jongdae adds. “The mermaids won’t do anything serious.”

Jongin sits beside Kyungsoo quietly, surprising him. He hadn’t heard him come down from the bleachers and make his way to the dock. Kyungsoo puts a comforting hand on his shoulder, seeing the worried way he bit his lips. “It’s alright, Jongin.”

Joonmyun enters the bleachers next, fussing over Jongdae who insists that he’s fine. He smothers him in towels, even though he’s partially dry already.

“There’s only one minute left,” Yixing comments. Kyungsoo doesn’t bother looking at the timer.

“Why are you guys so down?” Professor Song asks. “Have some faith!”

“Professor Song is right,” Luhan agrees. “We never know what will happen.”

“Get the search crews ready,” Professor Lee tells them. “Medics on standby.”

“Let’s go,” Professor Kim says. “There’s no more time to was-”

“I see something!” Jongin yells suddenly, standing up. “I see something! It moved! The water moved!”

“The one hour time limit is over!” Professor Lee announces through the speakers. “We are now sending out search crews.” The crowd is disappointed, though Beauxbatons cheers.

“I was expecting something more from Hogwar-” the deck is sprayed with water. Kyungsoo wastes no time in reaching for the first thing that he reaches at the edge of the dock - which happens to be Sehun.

Luhan, with his fast reflexes, helps lift him onto the dock. Kyungsoo isn’t fast enough as people are already helping Baekhyun on and putting towels around him.

“I . . . . I brought him,” he wheezes out between coughs. They all look to see who the ‘him’ is but before anyone can react, Junho has already abandoned his towel to pick the little boy up, cradling him against his chest.

The crowd goes wild with their cheering as the dock in swarmed with people. Several medics go to tend to Junho’s brother first. Sehun is deemed fine by the doctor and Luhan is now taking care of him with the help of Jongin. There’s a crowd of people surrounding Baekhyun that Kyungsoo can’t see through. He gets and pushes through to get to the front.

“Baekhyun?” He asks when he gets to front. He’s not moving and his eyes are closed, Yixing checking for his pulse.

He nudges his shoulder lightly with his hand, receiving no response. His skin is ice cold to the touch, much colder than what the water felt like to Kyungsoo.

“Get up,” he shoves his shoulder.

“You idiot,” he shoves him harder.

“Kyungsoo,” Yixing tells him off.

“Will we have to do CPR?” Professor Lee asks.

“No,” Yixing answers. “That won’t be necessary anymore.”

“Anymore?” Kyungsoo asks. “Anymore? What do you mean anymore? What kind of a Tournament is this? Did you not check the safety measures before you did this?” He stands up, stepping closer to Professor Lee. “What kind of a school is this? Why would you hold a Tournament if-”

Kyungsoo stops his rant when he hears a strange but familiar sound. He spins around on his heel, staring at Baekhyun. “You.”

He sits up, laughing, as Yixing tries to get him to lay down again.

“I hope you choke on your laughter,” Kyungsoo glares. He turns red and apologizes to an amused Professor Lee quickly.

“But why did you say he didn’t CPR anymore?” he asks Yixing.

“I meant his breathing wasn’t stable at first but then it evened out,” Yixing is obviously trying to hold in his own laughter. “You jumped to conclusions, I guess.”

“I hate you all,” Kyungsoo says, walking away. He goes to check and apologize to Sehun, but he’s lying with his head on Luhan’s lap as he towel dries his hair.

“Sehun, can’t you do that yourself?” Kyungsoo asks.

“My hands hurt,” Sehun moans, causing Luhan to coo at him.

“Aw, poor thing,” he pats Sehun’s hand. “Are they cold? Do you need me to warm them up for you?”

“Yes,” Sehun whimpers. “Please, hyung.”

“Of course, Sehunnie,” Luhan finishes drying his hair and puts the towel down, attending to his hands.

“The doctor said you had no injuries,” Kyungsoo comments. “Like none. As in no cuts or bruises.”

“Luhan-hyung, my head hurts. Why is everyone talking?” Sehun whined.

Kyungsoo rolls his eyes as Luhan continues fussing over him. He catches Junho and his brother to the side. He seems fine, but he’s wrapped up in both his own and Junho’s towels. Even then, the small boy is still shivering. Kyungsoo feels bad for him, so he wordlessly hands Junho his own towel, leaving to go back to Baekhyun before he can even reply.

“Thank you for bringing Sehunnie back,” Luhan says, hugging Baekhyun (though it seemed more like he was trying to kill him with how tight it was ).

“Yes, and for bringing Jongdae too,” Joonmyun pats his shoulder. “I’m sorry about how I treated you and Kyungsoo unevenly just because of a scandal that turned out to be fake.”

Baekhyun opens his mouth to reply when he closes it, looking at Kyungsoo. Or rather, looking at something behind Kyungsoo.

“Thanks,” Junho nods at him curtly, before starting to walk back to the castle with his brother in his arms.

“It seems like you did quite the job,” Professor Lee comments. “Even though you did pass the time limit-”

“Professor, with all due respect, I think Hogwarts deserves first place,” Joonmyun interrupts. “Baekhyun alone rescued the same number of people as the other two teams combined. And it was only a few minutes after the time limit.”

“I second that,” Sehun agrees.

“I do as well,” Luhan joins in. Soon all of the students on the dock, even Jinyoung, Sandara, Chaelin, and their partners are chiming in.

“Professor, he does have a point,” Professor Kim admits.

“It’s true,” even Professor Song asks. “The other teachers agree as well.”

“We do,” Professor Yoo answers on behalf of the other teachers.

“I’d like to add that even I agree,” Professor Park, the Headmaster of Durmstrang adds.

Professor Lee nods, eyes twinkling. “This is it. This is what the Triwizard Tournament is about.”

-

There is no clue for the Third and final Task. It was announced at the end of the Second Task that the standings in the Second and First Tasks combined would determine the advantages for the Third Task.

Kyungsoo’s ankle heals in a week or two, and he’s back to classes in mere days. Baekhyun doesn’t have any serious injuries but he keeps milking them to get out of classes. Unfortunately for him, that doesn’t mean any less homework.

“Kyungsoo,” he whines, resting his head on the desk.

“What?” Kyungsoo asks, annoyed.

“Why do we have so much homework?” he moans.

“Baekhyun, it’s literally been five minutes since we got here,” Kyungsoo deadpans.

“No talking in the library!” The librarian shushes them.

“Sorry,” Kyungsoo apologizes for both of them.

“Can’t you write my Potions essay for me?” Baekhyun asks.

“No!” Kyungsoo refused as if he had asked him to kill someone. “Stop being lazy and do it yourself. I thought you said you were top in your classes.”

“I am,” Baekhyun huffed. “But I thought you liked Potions anyway. Don’t you want to be a Potion when you grow up?”

“I like Potions not writing essays about them,” Kyungsoo turned to face him. “And why would I ever want to be a Potion?”

“I don’t know,” Baekhyun shrugs. “Some people are weird like that. I guess you’ll be like . . . a Potion person. Potionist. Potioneer. Poitionator.”

“I’m not planning on being any of those,” Kyungsoo rolled his eyes. “Not that they exist.”

“Then what do you want to be?” Baekhyun asked, voice full of curiosity. “I feel like you’re going to be one of those grumpy cat ladies.”

“I hate animals,” Kyungsoo deadpanned. “I;m going to be an Auror.”

Kyungsoo went back to his work afterwards, but the odd silence coming from Baekhyun was unsettling him. He turned to face him again. “What?”

“I can’t imagine you being an Auror,” Baekhyun looks up at him.

Kyungsoo turns away again, rolling his eyes. “That’s your problem, not mine.”

After another few minutes of silence, Baekhyun speaks up again. “I want to be an Auror too.”

Kyungsoo raises an eyebrow at him.

“Like, actually. Not just because you said so,” Baekhyun finally sits up. “Why do you think we had so many of the same classes?”

Kyungsoo blinks as he thinks back. Come to think of it, they did have the same homework every time they met up. It just so happened that Kyungsoo actually did his.

“Yeah, well I can’t imagine you being an Auror, either,” he replies in the end, before going back to his work.

Baekhyun huffs in response before finally, finally getting out his own work.

-

Kyungsoo reviews defensive and offensive spells with Baekhyun, which somehow ends up with Park in the medical wing. He feels bad for Yixing, who has to take care of him when he doesn’t have classes. There’s nothing much other than that they can do, not knowing anything about the Task.

Hogwarts is in First Place thanks to Baekhyun during the Second Task, followed closely by Beauxbatons. Junho and Jinyoung are in last place, which satisfies Kyungsoo, although he wouldn’t admit it.

In the meanwhile, Luhan merges into their group (more like he’s just always with Sehun) along with his other two Hufflepuff friends, Yixing (who Kyungsoo was familiar with already) and Kris. He occasionally spends time with Baekhyun outside of practice or study sessions, which he sometimes regretted. He now saw Jongdae and Joonmyun together all the time, and decides that perhaps the dating scandal might’ve been a good thing. The scandal had been proven to be false at the Yule Ball, and people no longer believed they were dating. Joonmyun and Baekhyun were back on good terms after it was cleared up and he saved him during the Second Task. It turned out that Jongin and Sehun got along well with Jongdae and Park too.

It was quite strange for Kyungsoo, since his friend circle had almost always consisted of Jongin and Sehun. He wasn’t complaining though. It did feel nice.

The Seventh Years, Luhan, Yixing, Kris, Joonmyun, and a Hufflepuff named Minseok, agreed to teach them for the Third Task. He still didn’t know why Sehun always insisted Luhan was manly, not he was particularly not manly, but he decided there were some things better left unsaid. Minseok turns out to be an amazing dueller, and eventually accidentally puts Park in the medical wing again. It’s a good thing they know Yixing or else they probably would’ve gotten in trouble with how much they end up in there.

With all this comes spring, and the weather warms up. The Hogwarts lands are finally green and in full bloom again, and life really does seem perfect to Kyungsoo.

At last the day of the Third Task arrives.

Kyungsoo doesn’t even complain about getting up early this time. He simply heads to the field wordlessly, meeting Baekhyun there with the other Champions. For once he’s not the last one to arrive, as Junho arrives right before they start.

The last Task takes place at the Quidditch Field, at the end of June. Kyungsoo feels nervous, but he knows Hogwarts has an advantage because of their placing. Although he still doesn’t know what the advantage is.

The field has been transformed. Kyungsoo can’t see, but there are tall hedges surrounding the edge. They’re too thick to see through, so the actual Task itself is unknown. The Champions line up by the entrance to the maze as the last preparations are finalized.

Kyungsoo can see Sehun and Jongin in the crowd. Sehun, as always, is with Luhan. The rest of his new friends are there too, some of them cheering for him. Even though they’re sitting halfway in the bleachers, Kyungsoo can hear Tao’s screaming loud and clear. He screams a little too loud and chokes, and starts coughing. Kyungsoo would laugh if it wasn’t for Professor Lee stepping up to the podium and magical mic.

He does the same old introduction and greeting before he finally gets to stating the Task.

It’s so quiet you could hear a pin drop as the entire field is focused entirely on him. The anticipation is suffocating, and Kyungsoo feels restless. He just needs to know the Task now and formulate a plan.

“The Third and final Task will determine the winners of the Tournament,” he begins, and no one cheers this time. “I’ll cut straight to the point. Champions, you will each enter this maze. There will be a ten minute interval in between each pair entering, and of course you will enter in the order of your standings.”

So that’s what their advantage was. There was a lot they could do in ten and twenty minutes. Kyungsoo nods to him.

“Inside these hedges is a maze,” he pauses. “The maze is filled with various enchantments and creatures that will do everything in their power to stop you. Champions, you must endure that and get through them. Hidden in the maze is the Triwizard Trophy. The winner of the Tournament will be decided by who touches the Trophy first. Only one person from each pair has to touch the Trophy to win. The Trophy is a portkey back to here, so you don’t need to worry about anything after that. If you are ever in trouble or wish to forfeit, send out these red flares and a teacher will come get you.”

The flares are handed to each of the Champions, to tuck into their belts.

“I wish you all the best and good luck,” Professor Lee finishes.

The crowd starts cheering louder than ever. Some groups chant things they’ve made up, and Tao resumes his crazy screaming (he doesn’t choke this time).

Kyungsoo barely has time to register anything before he and Baekhyun are pushed to the front of the entrance.

“Time starts now!” Professor Lee calls. Baekhyun obviously isn’t as dazed by the instructions and pulls Kyungsoo in after him as soon as the shot is fired. They stumble into the first turn, blindly choosing to turn left.

“Baekhyun, stop,” Kyungsoo calls. “We need a plan. We have time.”

“What plan can we make?” Baekhyun asks, but stops walking, nonetheless. “It’s a maze, we just have to cover as much ground as we can until we find. Only one of us needs to touch it. Maybe we should split up?”

“That’s a horrible idea,” Kyungsoo disagrees. “It’s dangerous in here.”

“Then what do we do?” he asks, sounding completely lost.

Kyungsoo sighs. “It’s okay. We’re fine. We can do this. We just need to keep walking. Let’s go with always turning left.”

Baekhyun seems unsure but nods anyway as they continue to make their way down the maze. They make two more turns by the time they hear the second shot go off, signalling Chaelin and Sandara have entered.

Eventually the third shot fires as well and they keep walking. It feels weird to Kyungsoo that nothing has attacked them yet. He furrows his eyebrows and looks around.

“Something isn’t right,” he says.

“Well of course it isn’t. It’s left. Let’s go!” Baekhyun goes to make the next turn but Kyungsoo pulls him back.

“Something feels very wrong here,” he looks around.

“Stay there,” he tells Baekhyun. “Don’t move. I’m going to go check if there’s anything behind us. There’s a possibility we’re being followed.”

He uses a Silencing Charm on his footsteps and runs back the way they came, knowing that they always took a left turn. Nothing happens and he doesn’t see or hear anything, so he starts going back the way they came. He contemplates what the unsettling and eerie feeling could be as walks back calmly.

He had started feeling uneasy after the third shot was fired. Maybe it was just his nerves? Maybe Junho and Jinyoung actually were up to something? He shook his head. It would do neither of them any good to start getting paranoid. Still, he couldn’t shake off the strange sensation that-

“Kyungsoo!” Baekhyun screamed in the distance, causing him to break out into a run. He draws his wand as he screeches to a stop at the place they had stopped.

“I thought I told you to stay here!” Kyungsoo yells, looking around for where he had gone. There were no clear hints, but he could see marks on the ground indicating towards the right passage. Kyungsoo paused. They had gone left all this time. If he had to go too far down the passage he could get lost in the turns.

“It’s too dangerous to do alone,” he shook his head, and starting to run down the left passage.

“Baekhyun?” he called, “Where are you?”

“I’m right here,” he hears a voice from behind him, causing him to jump.

“What were you thinking?” he says. “And what happened?”

Baekhyun shrugs, “I ran into a small creature. I overreacted. It was nothing. I’m fine.”

“Okay,” Kyungsoo accepts. It does sound odd but to be fair it’s not like Baekhyun is your average person. He doesn’t have any obvious injuries but his hair and clothes are rumpled.

“Let’s go back!” Baekhyun exclaims cheerfully suddenly, turning around and skipping back down their planned route.

“We can’t. We lost the path. We’ll just have to keep going from here,” Kyungsoo stops him.

“Aw,” Baekhyun pouts. “Fine, let’s go then.”

They start walking, now simply taking every left turn. Eventually they come to where they have three choices of passages to choose from.

“We should stick with the left,” Kyungsoo proposes.

“No, the middle!” Baekhyun points.

“A three-way is too hard,” Kyungsoo says instead. “Let’s just go back and take the right. It probably leads to something different.”

They turn around to walk when suddenly Kyungsoo is pulled down to the ground by Baekhyun. He’s about to ask him what he’s doing when he hears a screeching sound from above them.

They both stand up and back away from the creature as it takes a U-Turn and flies back towards them. It looks like a miniature dragon of sorts, but much skinnier. It’s scales are a deep shade of purple and it has short but sharp claws and teeth.

Kyungsoo fumbles for his wand as it flies straight towards them again. Baekhyun manages to Stun it before it can get to them, and it hisses before dazedly sinking to the ground.

“Hurry!” Kyungsoo nudges Baekhyun to run back down the way they came. They come back to the fork and stop to catch their breaths.

“What was that?” Baekhyun asks.

“No idea,” Kyungsoo looks around them. “But we should go.”

They take the right turn, and it leads to a usual fork as he predicted. They start with always taking the left again and wander around aimlessly. Kyungsoo feels something on his ankle.

“Stop kicking me, Baekhyun,” he says.

“I didn’t,” Baekhyun replies from behind him.

Kyungsoo rolls his eyes but it happens again a few minutes later. “Seriously, knock it off.”

“I didn’t do anything!” Baekhyun protests.

Kyungsoo lets it slide but a few minutes later, Baekhyun comments, “Real mature, Kyungsoo.”

“What?” He turns around, narrowing his eyes at him.

“If you’re so annoyed you should know not to do it,” Baekhyun huffs, crossing his arms. “That’s hypocritical.”

“What you’re saying is hypocritical, I didn’t do anything!”

“Well neither did I!”

“Then what did, the maze?” Kyungsoo rolls his eyes. “I know for a fact that we’re the only ones-”

Kyungsoo stops as he feels something wrap around his ankle this time, but it’s obviously not Baekhyun since he’s staring straight at him.

“What is that?” Baekhyun exclaims as Kyungsoo feels it tug harshly on his leg, causing his to fall over. Now on the ground he gets a good look at the thing wrapped around him. It looks almost like a vine, but a much darker shade of green. And vines most certainly aren’t alive.

Baekhyun Stuns it, but nothing happens. Kyungsoo pulls out his wand as well, but his eyes widen as it starts pulling him on the ground.

“Avis!” Kyungsoo casts the Bird Conjuring Charm, before directing his wand at the new birds. “Oppugno.”

The small flock of birds shoot themselves at the vine, attacking it relentlessly. The vine is severed by the sharp beaks of the small birds, and retreats back into the hedge of the maze.

“Hurry!” Kyungsoo stands up quickly, dragging a still shocked Baekhyun with him down the passage and away from the vines. They take another left and stop to catch their breath again, standing as far away from the hedge walls as they can.

However, this time they come to yet another three-way. Baekhyun starts walking through the middle passage, and Kyungsoo follows wordlessly, too tired to protest. It’s when they walk past a side passage that Kyungsoo notices something very faint.

“Baekhyun,” he calls softly, looking at the passage. “I think I see something.”

Baekhyun comes to stand beside him. He looks at the passage. “What?”

“Don’t you see,” Kyungsoo motions at the side passage. “There a light.”

There an extremely faint light coming from inside the passage. Kyungsoo hears Baekhyun gasp.

“Kyungsoo, I think I saw a passage that led that way before,” he says suddenly, pulling him by the sleeve to go backwards.

“What are you talking about?” Kyungsoo asks, confused. He didn’t remember seeing any side passages except for the one they just left.

Baekhyun stops suddenly, taking a step back. Kyungsoo hears him shout some sort of enchantment. It happens so quickly and suddenly that he doesn’t realize what happened.

“Nevermind,” Baekhyun shakes his head, “I thought I saw something. But it looks like the passage isn’t here. Let’s go back to that one.”

Kyungsoo supposes Baekhyun is probably just paranoid as well, and starts leading the way back to the side passage.

“I think we found it!” Baekhyun exclaims as they head down the passage.

It opens up into a small clearing of grass and in the middle sits a large grey rock. Resting atop the rock, is the Triwizard Trophy. Baekhyun makes some sort of noise of happiness as Kyungsoo simply smiles.

The relief of winning elates him and he laughs. He walks toward the Trophy slowly until he comes to stand next to it.

“We really did it,” Kyungsoo says in awe. “We won.”

“I’m afraid not,” Baekhyun says.

“What are you-Hey!” Kyungsoo shouts as Baekhyun Disarms him, sending his wand flying across the clearing. “What are you doing? We were about to win.”

“I’m afraid not,” a different voice repeats from behind him. Kyungsoo stiffens as he turns around slowly.

“I’m afraid I can’t let that happen,” Junho tilts his head to the side. “Sorry.”

Kyungsoo Disarms Junho quickly, sending it flying to the other side of the clearing. He makes a dash for the Trophy when one of the vines manages to grab Junho by the ankle, but Baekhyun stands in front of it before he can reach it. “What are you doing, Baekhyun? Touch it or move!”

“Where is that boy?” Junho screams as he struggles against the vine. He pants, out of breath, and looks in their direction. “Baekhyun, help me.”

If Kyungsoo was confused before, he’s even more confused now when Baekhyun draws his wand. “What are you doing?”

Baekhyun sends the Bird Conjuring Charm and then uses the same Jinx Kyungsoo did back when he defeated the vines. Junho is freed from the vine but another smaller one wraps around his wrist.

Baekhyun prepares to help him again, but Kyungsoo forcibly knocks the wand out of his hand. “What are you doing? Baekhyun, move!”

“Stay!” Junho commands, still struggling against the vine.

Kyungsoo looks between the two of them before it clicks in his head. He turns back to a now completely motionless Baekhyun. “The Imperius.”

“Took you long enough to figure out,” Junho sneers. “Get your wand and free me,” he repeats.

Kyungsoo makes a move to grab Baekhyun’s wand but he manages to get to it quicker, freeing Junho from the vines. He coughs slightly as he gets up, heading towards them, limping heavily.

“Undo the Curse!” Kyungsoo says. “That’s illegal! It’s one of the Forbidden Curses!”

“Move away from the trophy, Kyungsoo,” Junho orders calmly.

“Undo it first,” Kyungsoo replies back, equally as calm.

“If I do he’ll touch the Trophy. And if he moves then you’ll touch the Trophy,” Junho reasons. “I can’t do that.”

“Forbidden Curses were forbidden for a reason,” Kyungsoo tells him.

“I need this,” Junho sets his eyes on the Trophy, “He needs this.”. He sends a flare from his wand up, not one of the ones that Baekhyun sent, and stands patiently. “When Jinyoung comes, he’ll be able to help.”

Kyungsoo knows that once he arrives, it’ll be all over for him. He eyes where his wand lays, but Junho picks up on it.

“Baekhyun, attack,” he orders.

Kyungsoo barely manages to dodge the Blasting Charm sent at him, and instead a portion of the ground explodes and bursts into flames. He stretches his arm out and grabs his wand, standing up again. Junho scowls.

Baekhyun casts a Banishing Charm on him, and this time Kyungsoo is unable to dodge in time, still recovering. He’s sent flying towards the hedge, and gasps as he hits it before sinking to the ground.

“Good. Come here,” Junho motions for Baekhyun to come closer. “Stand in front of me, don’t let anything happen, okay?”

Kyungsoo breathes heavily, fingers fumbling to grab his wand as Junho limps towards the Trophy, Baekhyun matching his steps. Jinyoung arrives out of breath at the passage, looking at the scene before him.

“Jinyoung, good, you’re here,” Junho sighs.

Jinyoung eyes widen as he looks around. “It worked.”

“Yes, for once you actually did well, now come help me,” Junho rolls his eyes. Kyungsoo narrows his eyes as the gears turn in his brain.

“That flare back there,” Kyungsoo says slowly. “It wasn’t an accident. It was a signal, wasn’t it?”

“Wow, great job,” Junho claps sarcastically. “You have Common Sense.”

Kyungsoo eyes the two of them. Baekhyun wasn’t someone that overreacted in serious situations. When Kyungsoo Stunned him in the lake, he hadn’t freaked out when he woke up. He just went along with it. Even when the cork got stuck in the First Task, he still stayed on top of the dragon.

“Back at the beginning of the maze,” Kyungsoo realizes. “We only started experiencing creatures a while after the third shot was fired.”

“Exactly, you should thank us for taking care of you,” Junho scoffs.

“You only did that so your Imperius Curse wouldn’t go to waste if one of us got injured,” Kyungsoo narrowed his eyes. “It was back at the beginning, wasn’t it?” Now that he thought about it, Baekhyun had overreacted back then as well. “That’s why he screamed.”

Junho raised an eyebrow at him, “Yes? Can we move on now? Jinyoung, come help me. Help me get to the Trophy or go get me my wand.”

“Don’t!” Kyungsoo shouted at him, causing him to hesitate. “It’s a Forbidden Curse, Jinyoung, that’s illegal.”

“He knows it’s illegal,” Junho growls. “But I need it. My brother needs it.”

Jinyoung takes a step back. “Maybe - maybe you could just get loa-

“No!” Junho cuts him off. “Jinyoung come here and help me.”

Jinyoung eyes Kyungsoo, who has his wand drawn and pointed at him already. He doesn’t budge, still standing still.

“What? Him?” Junho laughs. “Fine, I knew a Mudblood like you would be too weak to do it. It’s okay, though,” he waves it off. “Why do you think he’s not trying to attack me?”

Jinyoung looks at Kyungsoo nervously, and ducks back into the passage to avoid a Disarming Spell sent at him. Kyungsoo still has his wand pointed at him when he steps back, and he looks at him nervously.

Junho rolls his eyes. “Hurry. The other two Champions have seen both of the flares by now and they’re probably heading here.”

“I - I can’t,” Jinyoung still has his eyes locked on Kyungsoo nervously.

“We’re wasting time,” Junho says annoyed. He turns to Kyungsoo. “Give me your wand.”

With Junho’s attention now on him, Kyungsoo manages to stand up shakily. “Are you crazy?” he asks. “No one just hands over their wands.”

“I need to touch the Trophy now,” Junho snarls. “Fine, I don’t even care who gets the glory anymore. I need the money, Jinyoung, touch it!”

“I can’t!” Jinyoung refuses. “He’ll shoot something at me!”

Junho sighs and looks back at Kyungsoo. “Hand me your wand, now.”

“Undo the Curse first,” Kyungsoo answers flatly.

“Chaelin!” They hear Sandara call in the distance, “Over here!”

“We’re running out of time. Fine, Baekhyun go stand over there,” he points to a spot a little bit further away from him, though still making sure to keep him in between Kyungsoo and him. He turns back to Jinyoung. “I don’t have my wand, so you’ll have to do it,” he motions in their direction. “You know the Cruciatus Curse?”

“Wait, what?” Kyungsoo stares at him in disbelief. “How can you even think of that?”

“Give me your wand,” Junho demands. “Jinyoung, are you ready? Make sure not to hit me. Actually, we’re too close. Baekhyun walk closer to him. If it’s going to miss and hit someone else, might as well be useful.”

“Jinyoung, you can’t possibly being thinking about actually doing this,” Kyungsoo turns to him as well.

“Sandara, where are you?” they hear Chaelin calling, much closer.

“Jinyoung!” Junho shouts at him.

“I’m sorry,” he apologizes to Kyungsoo. “Crucia-”

“Wait!” Kyungsoo cries. Jinyoung halts mid-curse and Junho looks at him expectantly.

“Here,” he throws his wand near Junho’s feet.

“Excellent,” Junho picks it up and smiles. “Baekhyun, come back here.”

Junho tries to heal his own injury with Kyungsoo’s wand as Jinyoung finally enters the clearing. It isn’t strong enough and he groans. “Jinyoung, keep those girls out. Baekhyun, go get my wand.”

Kyungsoo keeps his eyes on Junho as Baekhyun picks his wand up and starts walking back to Junho. He’s halfway back when a flock of birds comes flying at Junho. Kyungsoo sees him helpless and starts to run as fast as he can in his condition to the Trophy, which isn’t fast at all.

“Jinyoung!” he screams. Baekhyun hesitates and stops walking back to him when he sees the birds.

“Give me my wand already!” Junho screams at him, but Baekhyun still doesn’t move.

Sandara stands at the passageway with her wand, Jinyoung standing behind her nervously. “Hurry up and give me my wand, Baekhyun!” Junho shouts.

“I - what?” Baekhyun looks at the two wands in his hand in confusion. Kyungsoo keeps limping to the Trophy.

“Touch the Trophy!” Kyungsoo shouts at him, realizing that Sandara’s attack on Junho has partially freed him from the Curse. “It’s right behind you, touch the Trophy!”

Baekhyun looks back at Junho, who commands him to give him the wand. He still doesn’t move, in confusion as to what he can do. Kyungsoo has made it closer to the Trophy, and keeps urging him to touch it in the mean time. “Touch it, Baekhyun! Just touch it and this is all over! We can go back to normal! We’ll win the Tournament and then it can finally go back to how it was before!”

“Back . . . back to before?” he repeats in confusion.

Kyungsoo nods, still trying to make his way to the Trophy. “Yeah, you know. You’ll be doing idiotic stuff with Jongdae and Park again and I’ll be trying to prevent Sehun and Jongin from doing idiotic stuff.”

Baekhyun blinks, vaguely recognizing the names.

“Give me the wand now!” Junho yells, managing to stand up.

“It’ll be a regular school year again,” Kyungsoo continues. “Like last year, I guess.”

“Last year?” Baekhyun asks, tilting his head to the side.

Kyungsoo nods, almost to the Trophy. “Yeah, you know. Fifth Year. I guess, before we were partners and the Tournament and all that.”

“Before the Tournament,” Baekhyun repeats softly.

“Give me my wand!” Junho shouts, now staggering towards them with the birds still relentlessly attacking.

Baekhyun furrows his brows in confusion. “But . . . Before the Tournament. I don’t want to go back to before the Tournament. Without Sehun and Jongin,” he tilts his head in deeper confusion. Kyungsoo smiles, as he’s only a few steps away from the Trophy, and Baekhyun is recognizing and remembering names.

“And Yixing, and Joonmyun. Oh, Joonmyun and Jongdae!” he exclaims. “And Jongdae and Chanyeol. And Luhan, Kris, and Minseok,” he giggles. “Minseok put Chanyeol in the hospital wing.”

“Yes, Kyungsoo nods, as he reaches him. “And Tao cried.”

“Tao! Tao, too,” Baekhyun nods. “And who else?” He blinks. “And . . . you.”

Baekhyun shakes his head, looking up at Kyungsoo. “What-” he looks around.

Junho and his flock of birds are alarmingly close, and Kyungsoo limps as fast as he can. “Baekhyun, touch the trophy!” He shouts, hoping they’ll both touch it and get away from Junho.

Baekhyun, now fully back to his sense, sees the trophy and reaches for it the same time Kyungsoo does.

“No!” Junho screams, “Avada Kedavra!”

There’s a huge flash of light as they touch the Trophy. Kyungsoo feels a huge wave of vertigo as they are transported through the Portkey, and gasps when they land. The first thing he registers is the hard platform they’re lying on. The second is the loud cheering. He gets his senses back, pushing himself up on the platform, smiling widely.

Kyungsoo laughs out of pure joy, “We did! We won, Baekhyun!” he cheers, to no response. “Baekhyun?” he turns around. He turns around and like the first Task there is a crowd of people surrounding him that he can’t see through. Kyungsoo weakly pushes the medics away, crawling over to him and pushing through the legs of people surrounding him.

“Baekhyun, wake up,” he nudges his shoulder lightly. “It’s not funny when you do it twice. No, it wasn’t funny the first time either.”

It’s then that he remember the Curse that Junho cast right before the touched the Portkey. Kyungsoo looks around, and sees Junho being attended to by medics too. He touched it at the same time then. That means that the Curse made it through.

He turns back to Baekhyun urgently, voice growing louder. “Wake up! Hurry and wake up! We won!”

“Kyungsoo,” Yixing says sternly, pushing him away. The doctor comes as well and soon a crowd of people form around him again. Kyungsoo is pushed away, but doesn’t make any move to get out of the way. There’s a medic asking him something, but it just goes in one ear and out the other.

Kyungsoo doesn’t move from his position sitting on floor. He doesn’t answer any of the questions the medics ask him, or the authorities. He sees Baekhyun’s pale and limp hand peeking out from the crowd and grabs it. It’s cold and stained with dirt, lying motionless on his lap. Kyungsoo cleans it off on his robes, picking the dirt out from under his nails. What a shame, he always had such pretty hands. As the crowd thins out he moves closer, now done cleaning to the best of his abilities. He doesn’t know how long it’s been, it could be an hour or it could be a few minutes.

The other Champions are slowly being retrieved from the maze, and given their own medical attention on the platform. Kyungsoo interlocks one of his hands with Baekhyun’s, having to manually do it himself since it won’t move.

He sits there like that, still refusing to talk to anyone. He doesn’t know if he’s not in the mood to talk or if his brain just isn’t functioning. Sandara is retrieved and sits beside him, being treated herself. She has minor injuries and is left to sit there while a medic slowly bandages her arm.

She takes it upon herself to talk to Kyungsoo and tell him what happened afterwards. It’s a nice distraction and Kyungsoo is thankful for it.

“After you left the birds flew away. They might’ve disappeared or something. Jinyoung ran away, and I haven’t seen him since. They’ve retrieved him, probably. He’s coming here now. Chaelin got attacked by a Blast-Ended Skrewt before she could get to the clearing. She used the flare and they rescued her before you could touch the trophy.”

They sit in silence for a while before she nods her head in Baekhyun’s direction. “Will he be okay?”

“I don’t know,” Kyungsoo admits. “I hope.”

“We’re moving all the Champions into a tent,” Yixing bends down and informs them gently. “The results are being decided.”

“Decided?” Sandara asks. “They won, it’s as simple as that.”

Yixing look at them in confusion. “Didn’t Junho win?”

“We touched it first,” Kyungsoo tells him. “And you can’t possibly let him win after he used two Forbidden Curses and intended on using the third.”

“What?” Yixing is alarmed. “Is this true?”

“Sandara, you saw it right?” Kyungsoo asks.

“I saw two of the Curses,” she answers. “I never heard about the Cruciatus.”

“Two is more than enough,” Yixing assures her, troubled. “But the word of two people won’t be enough. At least half the Champions need to have seen it.”

“The only other person that saw was . . .” Kyungsoo trails off. Yixing pats his back comfortingly.

“No,” Sandara pipes up suddenly. “There was one other person.”

“Who-” Kyungsoo is about to ask before he realizes. “Jinyoung!”

“I’ll talk to him,” Sandara stands up, “You can stay here, or go to the medical tent.”

“Thank you,” Kyungsoo says sincerely. They move all the injured Champions into the medical tent, but the commotion is still pretty big. The crowd doesn’t know whether Hogwarts or Durmstrang has won, as the judges hadn’t announced it yet. He’s sure that no one knows about what happened with Junho yet either. The tent is used only for privacy purposes, as they’re still sitting on the ground, with the makeshift beds for patients being sheets laid on the grass.

“Hyung!” Kyungsoo hears a voice call.

“Jongin?” He’s pretty sure no one is allowed in the tent other than Champions and medics. “How did you get in here?”

“Are you kidding me?” He rolls his eyes. “You’re asking me that when I’m friends with Chanyeol and Sehun?”

He sits down beside Kyungsoo and notices the solemn air in the tent. “Hyung? What’s going on?”

Kyungsoo fills Jongin in on what happened briefly, causing his eyes to widen. “And they’re still letting him win?”

“We need the word of one more person,” Kyungsoo informs sadly. “And the only other person that saw that can testify is Jinyoung. Sandara went to talk to him.”

“I’ll talk to him,” Jongin starts to stand up, but Kyungsoo pulls him back up. “Don’t. I can’t walk on my own and Baekhyun . . . well.”

Jongin sits by him in silence. Kyungsoo doesn’t bother doing anything, he just sits there. Occasionally someone checks up on him and Baekhyun. He knows that they know Jongin shouldn’t be here, but let it slide.

“I’m back,” Sandara announces, entering the tent and sitting beside them.

“How’d it go?” Kyungsoo asks.

Sandara coughs awkwardly. “Well . . . Not so well. But I had a better idea.” She motions to the entrance. “Come in!”

“What is he doing here?” Jongin narrows his eyes.

“How will this help?” Kyungsoo asks.

“I’m sorry I’m not . . . good at stuff like you are. I couldn’t convince him but I thought you could,” she explains sheepishly.

Jongin draws his wand, “If he tries anything-”

“It’s fine,” Kyungsoo lowers Jongin’s wand. “Besides there’s other people around as well.”

“Come sit,” Sandara leaves her seat. “I’ll see you later! I’m going to go check on Chaelin.”

Jinyoung sits between Kyungsoo and Jongin awkwardly.

“I’m not sure what to say,” Kyungsoo starts. “Just testify.”

“I’ll try,” Jinyoung says.

“Try?” Jongin repeats in disbelief.

“Jinyoung,” a medic calls him. “Junho is calling for you, he’s in the tent next to us.” Jinyoung looks relieved and gets up eagerly, bidding them farewell hastily. Kyungsoo sighs.

He grabs Baekhyun’s hand again and sets it in his lap. He furrows his eyebrows, pulling the sleeve of his shirt down to reveal his wrist. With two careful fingers, he probes around the area until he finds it. A pulse. Kyungsoo holds three of his fingers in his hand as he turns around to find where Jongin went.

“Jongin,” he starts excitedly, but the hand in his lap has already moved, grabbing his and interlocking them.

“I thought I told you to do it properly.”

Kyungsoo punches Baekhyun in the shoulder, causing him to whine. “That’s going to bruise.”

“Shut up for once,” Kyungsoo tells him, before leaning down to connect their lips. It’s very brief, the contact probably lasting for less than a second, but coming from Kyungsoo it means a lot.

Kyungsoo is expecting Baekhyun to say something - I don’t know, not necessarily romantic but something other than ‘Wow, I didn’t know you were that flexible.’

“Did you call me here just to see that?” Jongin asks, standing behind them awkwardly.

“How are you alive?” Kyungsoo asks, ignoring him. Baekhyun shrugs as best as he can while on the ground.

“Beats me.”

“Well,” Jongin starts. “Didn’t Junho use your wand to cast the spell, not his own?”

“Yes,” Kyungsoo agrees. “But that shouldn’t weaken his magic that much. The only one that touched it other than him was . . .”

“I don’t remember doing anything,” Baekhyun says. “In fact, I don’t remember anything other than after you left- Junho and Jin- Kyungsoo!” He sits up suddenly. “Junho and Jinyoung, they-”

“We know, we know,” Kyungsoo pushes him back down gently. “A lot happened when you were under the Curse.”

“Yeah,” Jongin confirms. “A lot. I think a lot of stuff happened. Implying certain things. Maybe you two should-” Kyungsoo elbows him in the gut swiftly.

“Talk it out,” Jongin wheezes, leaving the tent.

Baekhyun turns to Kyungsoo expectantly. “What happened?”

Kyungsoo sighs, “Long story. Just know that we need Jinyoung to testify against Junho.”

“I can testify now!” Baekhyun adds.

“But you don’t clearly remember what happened, do you?” Kyungsoo asks. Baekhyun’s face falters.

“I guess not.”

“Hyung!” Jongin reappears in the tent. “They’re announcing the winner!”

Baekhyun helps Kyungsoo limp his way over to the platform where the other Champions are waiting, being fine himself. They’re late and make it there halfway through Professor Lee’s speech, but just in time.

“The winner of the Triwizard Tournament!” he shouts. “Is none other than . . .”

If Junho wins, then they’re lost. Kyungsoo and Sandara’s claims will be disregarded as nothing other than them being bitter over their loss. Especially Kyungsoo, seeing as he was so close.

“Durmstrang!”

No.

Kyungsoo’s mind goes blank as the two climb onto the podium where the Professor is speaking. Baekhyun nudges him forward. “This is it.”

“What? We can’t do it now, there’s no way-”

“I have an objection!” Sandara steps forth. Everyone stops and looks at her at once. Junho glares and Jinyoung starts fidgeting.

“Junho used the Imperius Curse and attempted to use the Killing Curse on the Hogwarts Champions,” she declares, making the crowd burst into whispers.

Kyungsoo decides it’s now or never. He steps up with Baekhyun’s help. “I second that. Not only that, but he pressured Jinyoung into using the Cruciatus Curse, and he was about to use it had I not met his demands.” The crowd breaks into even more whispers.

“These are lies conjured up to try and mask their failure!” someone cries. “Durmstrang wins!” Half of the crowd cheers and agrees with the stranger. The other half disagrees. It breaks into a commotion and the teachers have to settle everyone down.

“You know the rules,” Professor Lee looks at them. “At least half the Champions must-”

“I agree!” Jinyoung steps forth. Kyungsoo gapes at him in shock. Baekhyun almost loses his hold on Kyungsoo, nearly sending him falling.

Professor Lee nods. “Well, we shall examine everyone’s wands.”

“We’ve done that already,” a Ministry worker comes up to him and speaks into the mic. “While Jinyoung’s is true, the Killing Curse was cast from no other than Do Kyungsoo’s wand.” The crowd gasps, breaking into a fit.

“He tried to kill his own partner?”

“It must’ve been the glory.”

“That’s not what happened!” Baekhyun tells them. “Check Junho’s wand!” he tells Professor Lee.

“Sir, it’s true that the Imperius Curse was sent from his wand,” another worker tugs on his robes.

“From what the evidence shows,” Professor Lee finally announces. “It seems that Durmstrang will have to be disqualified for use of a Forbidden Curse on another student.” Some of the Durmstrang students protest this, standing up. Professor Lee waves them to sit back down.

“However, Hogwarts-”

“Junho did it!” Jinyoung interrupts, grabbing everyone’s attention. “He took his wand and cast the Curse from there.”

“I also witnessed this,” Sandara steps forth.

“Do you two testify to this as well?” the Professor asks Baekhyun and Kyungsoo.

Kyungsoo nods and Baekhyun does as well, albeit hesitantly.

“Well then,” Professor Lee tilts his head. “It seems that the true winner of the Triwizard Tournament is Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry!”

-

After the formalities are settled, the prize money is handed to Kyungsoo as they ready the stage for the Trophy ceremony. As much he hates him, there’s still something he has to do.

“What are you doing here?” Junho scowls when Kyungsoo comes to sit by him.

“Here,” he hands him a small sack, dumping it on his lamp. Junho groans in pain before looking at it curiously.

“For your brother,” Kyungsoo explains simply. “Mind you, I’m doing this for him, not you.”

Junho looks at Kyungsoo in wonder, before breaking into a wide smile. It then occurs to him that this is the first time he’s seen Junho smile.

“Thank you!” Junho throws his arms around Kyungsoo before going to count the money. “This is more than enough.”

Kyungsoo is already starting to limp away though, back down to the Trophy stage where Baekhyun is standing impatiently.

“What takes so long to hand out a trophy?” he whines when Kyungsoo arrives, collapsing into his chair.

“They have to redo it, you know. Add Hogwarts and our names onto the plaque and stuff,” Kyungsoo rolls his eyes.

“Does it take that long?” Baekhyun grumbles beneath his breath, sitting down next to Kyungsoo. He turns to face him. “And you gave him half the money too. Don’t you want your trophy or money?”

“Well, I got something better instead,” Kyungsoo mutters. “Wait, did I say that out loud?”

It’s too late though and Baekhyun has already let out a loud exclamation of ‘Aw, Kyungsoo has emotions too!’ before proceeding to hug him sideways.

Kyungsoo rolls his eyes, patting his head.

“Hey! Baekhyun, Kyungsoo!” Jongdae calls, followed by Chanyeol, Jongin and Sehun. Sehun, naturally, is with Luhan (Kyungsoo calls him by his real name now), who brings along Minseok.

“Jongdae, don’t shout!” Joonmyun scolds as he reaches them as well.

“You didn’t say that to Tao,” he scoffs.

“I was cheering, there’s a difference,” Tao glares. Kris pats his back.

“You choked,” Yixing reminds him, now done assisting the medics.

“I was still cheering.”

Kyungsoo shakes his head, smiling. Maybe the Tournament wasn’t such a bad idea after all.

“Hey guys, guess what Kyungsoo said before you guys came here!”

Nevermind. He hates it. He hates the world.

“Does that mean you’re together now?” Chanyeol asks. “Wow, to think I’m still single.”

Baekhyun kicks him in the thigh. “You’re still single because you’re gross.”

“You’re gross too!”

“Am not!”

“Am too!”

Kyungsoo sighs. Next year is going to be eventful, that’s for sure.

(And maybe, just maybe, now he has something to thank the Goblet of Fire for.)

Leave all comments on livejournal!