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hogwarts! au: basically you and sehun are the top students in your year, causing a rivalry that’s lasted since first year, but what happens when you actually work together? very fluffy, a teenie bit of angst if you squint
wordcount: 6k
note: i had to rewrite the ending to this about three times and i still dislike it, but hey ho, what can you do? enjoy!
A breeze wafted by you, the top pages of the large book you were hunched over fluttered slightly, causing your gaze to move from the words in front of you to the person who had caused the draught that had subtly disturbed you. Your eyes narrowed as they landed on the stoic perpetrator who had seated himself on the bench opposite you.
As if he felt your gaze on him, he looked up from the feigned interest that he’d had in the book he held in front of him, Flesh-eating Trees of the World. His lips curled into a smirk as he raised his eyebrows at you, as if questioning you on why you’d interrupted him, instead of it being the other way around.
“Oh Sehun.” You muttered under your breath watching the Slytherin’s smirk grow as brought his quill to his chin, his eyes still on you as a form of challenge. “Our essay for Professor Longbottom isn’t due for another four days, don’t you have a defence against the dark arts exam in two to study for?”
Oh Sehun cocked his head at your words. “I think you and I both know that I’m sailing through that exam. Besides, what if we need a Snargaluff pod in the exam, you might need to know how to get one. Not all defence is about spells.”
You frowned at his words, peering down at your own book that was marked with plenty of page markers. If there was one thing you disliked about Oh Sehun, and there was a lot, it was that he always tried to one up you in every test, every piece of homework. He seemed to look at you like a competition, ever since you’d been the first one to transform a mouse into a matchbox in your first transfiguration lesson. Since then, he made it his one goal to beat you in every class you had together and as a result the two of you were the top two students in the year: a muggle-born Ravenclaw and a pureblood Slytherin who never seemed to study, ever.
“Our exam is going to be on nonverbal charms, I doubt you’ll need a plant to help you with that,” you retorted, making a point to look back at your book in interest.
A hand came in front of your vision and the book you were reading was suddenly dragged across the table, a bubble of irritation erupting in your chest as you looked up at the Slytherin. He had pushed the previous book to the side, waving his wand and muttering and you watched in disbelief as it travelled behind the bookshelf. You then shot your attention back on him.
“Hey, I’ve borrowed that for this exam,” You hissed, reaching to grab the book. Only, Sehun had seem this coming and moved the book far from your reach.
“As I was kind enough to lend you my copy of History of Magic, I think you should let me borrow this.” Sehun said it with such conviction you were tempted by his words.
However: “No. You lent me a copy of History of Magic, which I already own and haven’t used since second year. That’s not the same.”
Sehun tilted his head at your words, his brown eyes narrowing in on you as his lips twitched slightly, betraying his amusement on his impassive face. He placed the book back down on the table and before you realised what he was doing, he was next to you on the bench. His hands grabbed the book and flicked it open to the non-verbal spells page before he turned to face you.
“Well, I guess we’re study buddies then,” He stated triumphantly.
Inwardly groaning, you realised you’d have to let him do whatever it was he wanted to do, you were after all, in the library, meaning Madam Pince would zone in on you with her vulture like senses the moment you made a scene.
It was silent for about two minutes before you were distracted yet again by the boy next to you. Looking at him, you saw him fiddling with his deep green and silver tie, not even paying attention to the book that he so desperately wanted to share with you. Frowning, you slammed the book shut and grabbed your quills and parchment.
“If you’re not going to study, I’ll be going, and taking this with me.” You grabbed the book, mildly irritated at the Slytherin who had not only succeeded in distracting you from studying, but also in annoying you to the max that even if he wasn’t next to you, you’d still be too wound up to study.
Sehun’s eyes widened just a fraction and he stood up to match your stance.
“No- I was just thinking. Why are you reading about non-verbal spells when we should be practicing? Physically.”
You froze and stared at him. Annoyingly, he did have a point but he also knew nothing about your own learning methods, which consisted of reading everything there was to know about the subject before delving into spells. Coming from a muggle family, you had experienced the consequences of trying out a spell without finding out its meaning back in your first year. There had been an explosion that only alumni Seamus Finnigan could compete with.
So, you weren’t about to have some pure-blood Slytherin, one who was as annoying as he was handsome, tell you how to study. Though, he did have a point about practicing, after all, the non-verbal spells were going to be spells you’d already studied anyway.
“I just wanted to read around the subject,” You muttered, you didn’t know much about Oh Sehun on a personal level but you did feel slightly judged by him. “I don’t want it to go wrong.”
Oh Sehun bent down so he was level with you and his dark eyes bore into your own.
“I think Read-a-lot the Ravenclaw needs to put her knowledge to the test,” He stated. “We can practice together.”
Narrowing your eyes, you held your things tighter against your chest.
“What are you going to get out of it?” You asked him. “Oh Sehun doesn’t do things for people without a price. Especially not me.”
Sehun smiled, the smile not quite reaching his eyes. “It’s simple. Let me read your essay for Professor Longbottom – and I know you’ve already done it, I saw you reading Flesh-eating Trees of the World at breakfast, that’s why I picked it out.”
“Read my essay? Why? So you can copy it?”
“That’s exactly why.” Sehun winked. “Herbology is the only subject you’ve consistently been top of the class. And it’s time for that to change.”
“You could just ask me to help you.” You stated, turning around to leave the library before Madam Pince caught the two of you and took points away for disturbing the study space. “Or are you too prideful for that?”
You knew Sehun was following behind you, his longer legs catching up to your pace easily and soon you were walking down the corridor side-by-side.
“I’m not too prideful,” He stated, the usual mocking tone absent from his words as you walked. “Anyway, where do you wanna practice? I’d suggest by the Great Lake because I don’t think the courtyard is the best place to be practicing aguamenti.”
“That might be a bit too far away from the castle, what if you accidentally drown me?” You shot back.
Sehun scoffed at your words. “Please, if anyone is drowning anyone, it will be you. I was the one with 100% on the last DADA test.”
You narrowed your eyes at his words and turned to face him. “I would have done better if you hadn’t distracted me in the last second.”
Sehun simply smiled. “It’s not my fault my good looks caught your attention.”
While you were tempted to huff and hit him in retaliation, you didn’t. He was somewhat right. Your last DADA exam had been a duel, and much to your delight you’d been paired with Oh Sehun. You’d both been at a stalemate until the last spell. You’d been watching Sehun’s hand and eyes as keenly as you could, so you could perform a counter curse or a defensive spell in time. However, Sehun had annoyingly winked at you before he performed the spell. He’d winked.
It was a guilty secret that you found the annoying Slytherin attractive, not that you were alone in that matter. He had plenty of admirers. When he’d winked at you, your heart had betrayed you and fluttered in your chest, causing you to stutter out your counter curse and you’d ended up flat on your back.
You vowed to beat him in this next test, if it was the last thing you did.
“What about here?” Sehun’s voice cut into your thoughts and you turned to face him, your eyes quickly drifting from his face to the surrounding area. It was well out of the way of the corridors and large enough to provide space for by passers.
“It will do,” You replied with a shrug, tempted to just sit down and open your text book again.
Before you could do anything though, Sehun had already tugged your books out of your arms and flicked them over to a bench. His eyes narrowed in on you and he smiled as a way of saying let’s begin.
You allowed Sehun to go first, not to be polite, it was so you could watch his hand movements. If you were being honest, Sehun was slightly better at wand work than you, probably due to the fact he’d grown up around wizards, you’d been thrown into this and had to learn most of what you knew from books rather than seeing it in the flesh. That didn’t stop you trying though.
Watching as Sehun flicked his wand gracefully, you twisted your hands in your skirt. His eyebrows furrowed and his teeth bit into his bottom lip in concentration. He was handsome, but you wouldn’t let him know you thought that.
Sehun then clicked his tongue in annoyance and you noticed that the only water that had left the end of his wand was a couple of drops rather than the spirt he had been aiming for. His eyes flickered to yours and he shrugged.
This time, you tried, tracing a horizontal ‘s’ in the air as you mentally forced aguamenti into your mind. Your wand pushed back into your hand and your eyes widened as you watched water spout out of the end of it. You grinned in achievement and you moved to look at Sehun.
“I did it- oh.” Without realising, you’d drenched Sehun in your excitement.
His eyes were dark as he glared at you, water dripping from his hair as it stuck to his forehead. Gulping, you lowered your wand, the water slowing to a couple of drops. You chewed on your bottom lip, trying to contain the giggles that were threatening to escape as you took in the sight of Oh Sehun soaking wet.
“I’m sorry I-” A bubble of laughter interrupted your apology. Sehun’s glare only intensified and you hastily waved your wand a little and muttered the incantation to cause hot air to fly out of your wand, drying him off almost instantaneously.
“How are you so clumsy?” Though his real question seemed to be focussed on the fact you’d managed to achieve what he’d been trying to do.
So, you took a page from his book and cocked your head to the side with a smug smile on your face.
“I think the real question here is how I managed to perform that non-verbally.” You quipped and Sehun frowned.
“You did everything I did, how did it work for you?” He queried, moving to stand where you’d just been standing.
Watching him flick his wand and furrow his neat eyebrows at the complete lack of liquid that was coming out of his wand, you felt somewhat guilty. However, it was watching him that made you realise what he’d been doing wrong.
“I knew reading around spells would be helpful,” You stated as soon as you realised.
Oh Sehun looked at you curiously, his hand stilling as you raised your own wand, being careful not to say or think, the spell you were about to demonstrate for Sehun. “You’re doing the wrong wand movement.”
Sehun’s eyes followed your hand as you showed him the horizontal ‘s’ you’d done before. His own hand mimicked your movement, just to imbed the action into his mind. The entire time in his practicing he’d just been making a vertical ‘s’, the reason behind his failure becoming crystal clear as he once more tried the spell, this time a gush of water spurting out of his wand.
As much as it pained him to admit, you had been right in reading around spells. He just didn’t want to tell you that, it would give you leverage over him, something that he did not want. So instead he just looked at you and smiled triumphantly, genuinely thankful that you’d begrudgingly come along to practice with him.
“See, reading does get you something,” Your words caused Sehun to let out a chuckle. “Maybe instead of reading my essay, I can help you with yours?”
Sehun thought about your words for a moment before letting out a defeated sigh. “Fine.”
By the time you arrived back to the common room, you were shattered, Sehun had made you go over practically every spell in the book, making sure he got it right. Not that you thought you had much authority over that, he was technically, on average, higher than you in DADA. However, he seemed rather insistent on his practicing. Which also made you rethink your opinion of him, perhaps he did care a lot more about his studies than he let on. Then again, maybe he just wanted to one up you, as usual.
“What’s got you so worn out?” A voice called, and you turned to see Do Kyungsoo sitting on one of the armchairs, his navy and silver tie wrapped around his hand. “You look exhausted.”
You flopped down next to him, tugging on your cloak and pulling out a box of glacial snowflakes and offered one you your friend, who happily reached into the box. “I was just practicing for the test we have in DADA.”
Kyungsoo looked at you, his dark eyebrows furrowed as he examined your face. “I’ve never seen you look this tired after studying.”
“I was practicing with Oh Sehun.”
Kyungsoo’s eyes widened slightly and he leaned forward on his chair before hissing his response under his breath. “You willingly spent time with that Slytherin, your so called ‘arch-nemesis’?”
You grumbled and pushed him back into his seat. “Shut up. It’s just for class. I’m helping him with his herbology essay after the exam.”
If you thought that Kyungsoo was shocked before, you should have seen him then. Your friend’s mouth opened slightly, as if he was going to say something, and then it closed again. Speechless.
“It’s just help Kyungsoo.” You muttered. “I wasn’t this shocked when you went to the library with Byun and Jongdae.”
It had been no secret that Kyungsoo couldn’t stand the mischievous pair, the Slytherin and the Gryffindor getting on his nerves without fail. You were sure that Kyungsoo learnt common hexes and jinxes with the intention on using them on those two.
Surprisingly enough, however, just a week earlier you’d been walking out of the library to watch Kyungsoo walk in with the both of them. You hadn’t yet spoken to him out it, now seemed like an appropriate time to bring it up.
Kyungsoo’s eyes narrowed at your response and he huffed. If he wasn’t going to fess up then you weren’t going to allow him to make a fuss of you spending time with Oh Sehun. Besides, after this essay was done, you were making a vow to avoid him as much as possible.
One little practice with Oh Sehun wouldn’t make you like the guy. At least, your pride wouldn’t forgive you if you became friends with the boy you’d been repeatedly competing against for the highest grade. What if your grades depleted because you stopped trying to beat Sehun?
You couldn’t let that happen.
“I was just wondering if the two of you had finally come clean about the feelings you have for each other.”
Kyungsoo’s blunt words pierced through you like a knife and you blanched.
“What?”
“Everyone knows you and Sehun like each other.” He said with a subtle shrug, oblivious to the surprise that was bubbling around inside you. “I thought you might have admitted it to each other.”
“Kyungsoo, I do not like Oh Sehun.”
He did not look convinced.
“Look, I don’t know where you’ve got this information from,” You rubbed your forehead in exasperation. “But I don’t like him, we’re not even friends. Why would I have a crush on a guy who I can’t even tolerate being around for longer than five minutes?”
“You’ve been with him all afternoon-”
“That’s not the point, Soo!” You reached over and hit his arm, his lips quirking upwards showing you that he was simply teasing. “I don’t like him.”
“Whatever you say.”
You walked out of the Defence Against the Dark Arts classroom with a wide grin on your face, Kyungsoo walked impassively next to you, ignoring your tight grip on his arm as you tried to contain your excitement. You’d got your highest mark in a DADA test yet, while usually your mark was high, your professor looked impressed today, which made you feel lighter than air, as if you’d eaten a whole packet of Fizzing Whizzbees.
Kyungsoo on the other hand was trying to fix his cloak that you’d managed to skew out of place while grabbing his arm. He wasn’t paying any attention to you or your words, knowing you’d most likely be repeating the same “I did it” over and over again because you’d finally got full marks in that class. Not that he wasn’t happy for you, he was, he’d just heard your exclamations for the previous five minutes already.
“Hey, Read-a-lot,” A familiar voice cut through your daze and you let go of your best friend, restraining yourself from turning to face the owner of the voice. “How’d you do?”
You noticed the speaker come around to your side and you gave in, your eyes falling on the smug face of Oh Sehun as he tucked his wand into his cloak.
“100%.” Was your reply and you began to walk again, tempted to run to catch up to Kyungsoo who had carried on walking without you.
“Hey!” Sehun’s hand gripped your arm gently and you were forced to look at him again. “Don’t I deserve a thank you for helping you practice?”
Rolling your eyes you tugged your arm out of his grip.
“I doubt you had anything to do with it, after all, I showed you the correct motion for aguamenti.”
Sehun narrowed his eyes before putting on his dazzling smile, and you struggled to ignore how handsome he looked as he grinned at you.
“I still think I helped, without me, you would have been in the library all night, with no practice.”
“Fine, I guess you helped a little.” You muttered. “Thank you. Is that better?”
Sehun’s smug smile softened at the edges, his eyes looking at you earnestly. This subtle change in his expression caused your stomach to (inconveniently) do a little flip. But, as fast as it appeared, Sehun’s sincerity left.
“So, eye for an eye?” He rose his perfectly sculpted eyebrows. “Can I cash in on that herbology help?”
You couldn’t help but notice with apprehension that Kyungsoo had completely abandoned you with the Slytherin boy and reminded yourself to scold him when you got back to the common room. However, you also knew that there was a sense of duty to help Sehun with his essay; after all, it can’t have been a miraculous coincidence that your highest DADA grade had been after the best in the year had practiced with you.
So, you sigh and nod. “When do you want to do it? It’s due in a couple of days so-”
“Now.” Sehun stated, surprising you with his firmness, usually he was so flippant it was hard to tell if you were coming or going.
“Now?”
“Now.”
And with that, the pair of you were off, Sehun leading you towards the library, which was becoming a common meeting point for you both. You weren’t sure if you liked that. Although, something deep inside of you was somewhat thankful that this ‘knowledge exchange’ was postponing the feud between you and Sehun, it was much less tiring.
When arriving at the library, Sehun once again, instead of taking the seat opposite you, sat down beside you on the bench. Though this time, there was a decline in the annoyance that his actions caused you, and you pushed the book you’d used for your own essay further towards him, opening it on the key pages.
You showed him passages that you used, talked him through analysing evidence, giving him pointers whenever his sentences were too colloquial. It wasn’t long however, before Sehun was gradually taking everything in. Quite easily. You noticed this and grabbed another book, one that may come in useful for the next History of Magic essay.
“Do you ever stop studying?” Sehun asked, causing you to pause your page flipping and look at him.
Your eyes left the pages of the book, meeting his deep brown ones. You narrowed your eyes.
“I do have a life.” You snapped, unintentionally harshly. “But I need to study a lot, I don’t have the advantage of growing up with magic around me.”
“I- I didn’t mean it like that.”
For once, you felt bad that you’d been harsh with him. You knew that he hadn’t been trying to wind you up, but studying and grades were important to you. You also knew that it was unfair to mention the background privilege, but when Sehun seemed so at ease with everything.
“Sorry, it’s a touchy subject.” This was most likely the first time you had apologised to Oh Sehun, without the push of a professor. “I didn’t mean to snap at you.”
Sehun shifted.
“No, I’m sorry – it came out wrong.” He replied. “I only asked because I always see you reading. Even at breakfast. Even in the Hospital Wing after Kim Jongdae set half your bench on fire in Charms.”
Your eyes widened. How did he remember that? That was back in third year, and it had been the reason you had to spend the first two days of the Christmas holidays in Madame Pomfrey’s care. You didn’t thank the Gryffindor for that.
“I like it too,” You admitted.
“You like studying?” Sehun seemed to be in disbelief.
You rolled your eyes and softly glared at him. “Some subjects are interesting, Oh Sehun, especially when you’ve been alive for eleven years without knowing anything about the existence of dragons.”
Sehun smirked. “Touché, Read-a-lot, touché.”
“More to the point, do you often watch me read? Or is it a rare past-time?”
Sehun clearly didn’t expect your quip and he paused for a second, blinking in response. However, it wasn’t long before he snapped out of his daze and his lips curled at the edges gently. His eyes were warm as he smiled at you.
“It’s just funny to watch your face scrunch up when you’re concentrating.” He stated without any shame.
Your own eyes widened at his words and you reverted your gaze back to the book you were reading before returning it to the boy sitting next to you. You saw him shift in the corner of your eye, a sigh leaving his mouth, before his pen hit his parchment again and he began writing.
As the two of you worked quietly side by side, you realised that perhaps you were wrong about Oh Sehun. Perhaps he did care about his studies as much as you did. You felt somewhat guilty that you bore a grudge towards him, especially when he did genuinely seem to want to improve. However, you also knew not to take his sincerity seriously, he’d once tricked you into believing that you’d been assigned to tutor him in Charms until you realised he was just copying all of your work.
It felt odd to be sitting next to the Slytherin without arguing though. It felt, dare you say it, nice.
“I think I’m finished.” Sehun announced after a couple of hours. He’d been showing you certain paragraphs, inquiring after your advice, which you did give him, and he followed it keenly. “I’ve just made the last changes to my conclusion.”
You looked up at him, your head hurting a little from staring at the pages of the book in front of you for too long. He was looking at you earnestly, his brown eyes soft, devoid of their usual mocking glint. He seemed pleased with himself and you couldn’t help but give him a soft smile.
“You should rest,” You told him. “You’ve been working all afternoon and evening.”
Sehun’s eyes widened ever so slightly and he shook his head.
“I think you’re the one who needs a break. Have you even eaten yet?” He asked, you shook your head. “The Great Hall will shut soon, you should go and grab some food.”
Chewing on your bottom lip nervously, you tugged the book on the desk a little further towards you. “I need to finish this last chapter.”
You felt the book being pulled out of your grasp and you looked at Sehun in disbelief, ready to hiss an insult at him, but the look on his face stopped you in your tracks. He was looking at you with a concern in his eyes that you’d only ever seen from your mother when she told you that your dog had not come back from the vet with them.
“Sehun, I need to finish that chapter.”
He shook his head.
“Sehun-”
“What you need, is a break,” He stated, cutting your complaints off. “The essay you’re working on isn’t due for another five days. Relax, please, you’re working yourself too hard.”
His words left a new resonance in you, for once, you didn’t want to smack him in the face. He was right, your head was throbbing from the work you’d been focussed on, you didn’t need to be working this hard. This non-stop.
“Fine.” You gave in, and Sehun’s smile was blinding. It wasn’t smug or mocking, it was content.
The two of you got up, packing your stuff away together, a weird feeling in your chest occurred as you walked out of the library next to Oh Sehun. He then stopped once he reached the corner of the corridor, you stopping with him. You watched him turn to face you, his gaze travelling to the floor with a shyness you’d never seen in Oh Sehun before.
“Thank you,” He said, quietly, but you heard it. He looked up at you. “I really appreciated your help, herbology essays aren’t my forte.”
You gave him a kind smile. “Everything is your forte Sehun.”
Sehun’s gaze did not leave your face as you spoke. It was intense, and you realised he’d never looked at you for that long without his lips curling up into a sly smirk.
“I mean it, thank you.” The sincerity in his voice was impossible to disregard and you felt heat flood to your cheeks in a blush.
“You’re welcome,” You thought that the ground was better to look at than his face as you answered him.
“I’ll see you around?”
“Of course,” You replied. “I can’t get away from you, even if I tried.”
Oh Sehun just smiled, and the two of you parted.
The sound of the crisp white snow crunching under your feet was relaxing as you walked with Kyungsoo through the winding streets of Hogsmeade. Hopefully there would be a free table in the Three Broomsticks, but it was a busy period, so your hopes weren’t considerably high.
Your mind too, was in a labyrinth at the moment. Ever since your encounter with Sehun and helping him with his essay, your dislike towards him seemed to be dwindling, like a tealight that was flickering in a breeze, it was struggling to stay alight. It was difficult to feel any animosity for the boy, especially when he seemed so happy with his essay grade. You were beginning to tolerate him.
“Are you even listening to me?” Kyungsoo’s voice cut through your thoughts and you snapped your head to look at him. “Obviously not.”
You gave him a sheepish smile. “Sorry, Soo, I was distracted, what were you saying?”
“It’s not that important, I was just asking if you wanted to go to the Chudley Cannons and Puddlemere United match over the Christmas holidays with me, Park Chanyeol bailed out last minute to visit his cousin.”
“Of course, do I ever turn down an opportunity to see Dean Thomas in the flesh?”
Kyungsoo chuckled. “Anyway, moving on, what are you thinking about that distracted you from the great Dean Thomas?”
You felt your heat plummet as you knew you’d have to explain to your best friend. You didn’t want to. You felt like admitting it out loud would make it real, and you didn’t, for the sake of your pride, want to admit that you liked Oh Sehun.
“Nothing, the last essay we did for Professor Longbottom.”
Kyungsoo narrowed his eyes and you knew you hadn’t succeeded in lying to him. “What’s really the matter?”
Sighing, you let your thoughts tumble out of your mouth. You explained that you were confused about your feelings towards Oh Sehun. That you didn’t understand why the usual animosity you held for him was declining, and why you had been so willing and complicit in helping him with his herbology. The usual you would have declined, it was the one subject you were clearly better than him at.
Kyungsoo listened to your problems with a curious look on his face, knowledge flickering around in his soft eyes. He then smiled when you stopped talking and you knew that what he was about to say was not going to be what you wanted to hear.
“So what you’re telling me is that you like Oh Sehun?”
“No-” Kyungsoo raised his eyebrows and you dropped your shoulders. “Yes. I think so.”
“I told you so!”
“But I don’t know what to do about it.” You complained. “I want to just ignore it, no good will come from it, it’s probably completely one-sided.”
Kyungsoo clicked his tongue in disappointment.
“I told you, it’s obvious you both like each other.”
“Soo, up until a few weeks ago, I- we hated each other, he probably still hates me.”
“There’s a fine line between love and hate.”
“Kyungsoo! Be serious. I don’t know what to do.” You kicked up some snow, the white flakes narrowly missing one of the Slytherin quidditch team’s beaters. “Help.”
“I think you should tell him.”
You looked at your friend in surprise. What? Tell him? Tell Oh Sehun, your arch nemesis for six whole years that you suddenly liked him? Kyungsoo was basically just giving you a death wish.
“What’s the worst that can happen? You like him, he says no. Great, you can get on with your life. If you don’t tell him you’ll probably regret it. You’ll see him at graduation with his new girlfriend and regret not telling him that you think you like him.”
When he said it like that, he had a point.
“Fine.” You stated. “Next time I see him, I’ll march up to him and tell him.”
“Promise?”
“Promise.” You nodded.
Unfortunately for you, the next time you saw Oh Sehun was when you opened the door to the Three Broomsticks. Kyungsoo left you to go and order your drinks from the bar, and you went to find a free table in the bustling pub.
Brushing your hair out of your face, your eyes scanned the busy room, ignoring the spoons swirling in hot chocolate by themselves, falling on a familiar head of hair by the bar. Oh Sehun. Remembering your promise to Kyungsoo, you began walking over, however, you stopped in your tracks as soon as he turned around.
Your heart plummeted as you watched Sehun walk to a table, his arm around the shoulder of one of the girls from Slytherin’s quidditch team. She was pressed up against him extremely closely and you immediately felt stupid for even entertaining the idea that Sehun would like you back. Of course he wouldn’t. This was Oh Sehun, he could get any girl he wanted, even you, it would seem.
Without thinking for another second, you turned to rush out of the door, crashing into someone carrying three pints of butterbeer, all three of which clattered to the ground due to your clumsy movements.
“I’m sorry- I’m sorry.” Hastily you tried to get yourself out of the way.
“Read-a-lot?” You heard Oh Sehun call your name.
You gave him a desperate look before you dashed out of the pub, vowing to make it up to Kyungsoo once you got back to the common room later. While rushing out, you heard a commotion and realised to your dread that the annoying Slytherin boy was following you. Which only made you run faster, turning blindly into an alley beside Zonko’s.
Halting due to the dead end, you let out a breathy pant, hearing the footsteps behind you come to a stop.
“Hey, why are you running away?”
Your wide eyes looked up at him, betrayal evident within them. He simply looked confused.
“It’s nothing, Oh Sehun,” He flinched at your use of his full name, something you hadn’t done in the past few weeks. “You should get back to Angela.”
It was then that a flash of realisation appeared in Sehun’s eyes and he shook his head frantically.
“What you saw in there – if you saw it-”
“You with your arm around yet another girl, I saw it. It doesn’t bother me.”
“I wasn’t- look, Angela hurt her leg in Quidditch practice, Byun and I have been helping her around Hogsmeade so she could find a Christmas gift for her girlfriend.”
You felt awful. Guilty. And stupid.
Glancing down at your feet, you mumbled: “I’m sorry, I thought it was something else.”
Sehun’s fingers grazed your chin and he forced you to look up at him, an amused smile was drifting onto his lips as he stared down at you endearingly.
“I guess now would be a good time to tell you that I’ve had a crush on you since you turned that mouse into a match box, wouldn’t it?” He let out an attractive chuckle.
Your eyes widened.
“Since first year?”
“Yeah,” He scratched the back of his neck in embarrassment, smiling at you. “Why else do you think I tried so hard to be top of the class. I’ve been trying to get your attention… except it made you hate me.”
“What-”
“I like you, my little nerd.”
“Nerd?” You guffawed. “You’re just as bad as I am!”
Sehun frowned playfully.
“I am not.” He denied. “I’m a Slytherin, I can’t be a nerd.”
“That literally makes no sense, Sehun.” But you couldn’t help but laugh at him, your eyes shining as you looked up at him.
“Come on, let’s get inside, it’s chilly.” Sehun wrapped his arm around your shoulder, pulling you into him.
The two of you walked back into the pub together, feeling strangely relieved that there was no flame of hatred between you anymore. Only a mutual warmth that would only bloom and grow.
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