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Fic: Study Break
Title: Study Break
Fandom: Exo
Focus: Xiumin-centric
Genre: Gen
Rating: G
Length: Oneshot, 1797 words
Summary: A bunch of third years set someone on fire, but it's not like Minseok's in a position to actually do much about it. Harry Potter!AU set in this verse.
Original Post: Here.
Author's Note: I actually wrote a lot of the beginning on the worldoftext for HG AU lol. But the ending changed a bit? I was having trouble with the chingu-line vibe :( I'm not particularly good with any of them, sadly. Anyway, this was mainly inspired by the beginning of the third Harry Potter book where he has to write an essay on witch burning. I thought that Chanyeol might be the type to get a kick out of it, what with his MAMA superpower being fire... and who else would oblige him besides his same-age friends? lol Anyway, this is set in my HP verse where Xiumin is aiming to become an architect. That's why he's interested in the protective spells. Also, here, chingu-line would be in the same year as Harry and Xiumin and the others in 90-line would be the same age as the Weasley twins. :3
I'm not gonna lie. A lot of Xiumin's feelings are my own. I've been stressed about MCAT prep and the fact that I've grown so distant from all of my friends... Writing didn't make me feel better, but it did help to distract me from all of that stress and loneliness, the way I have Xiumin feeling a bit comforted by his own distraction. Unlike me, at least Xiumin had something to look forward to -- a passing of the torch in a sense. It doesn't feel as nostalgic because that wasn't my angle, but in retrospect, I can recognize my own feelings bleeding into this...
Fandom: Exo
Focus: Xiumin-centric
Genre: Gen
Rating: G
Length: Oneshot, 1797 words
Summary: A bunch of third years set someone on fire, but it's not like Minseok's in a position to actually do much about it. Harry Potter!AU set in this verse.
It's less than two months into Minseok's fifth year and he's already spent more time studying in the library than he has in the past four years combined. It's not an entirely miserable experience seeing as his O.W.L.s are still a good eight months away and the pressure hasn't built up to a soul-crushing intensity quite yet, but there's no denying that the seemingly endless hours of self-study would have been far more enjoyable if his friends hadn't proven themselves exemplary enough to be chosen as the prefects and Quidditch captains of their year and were thus stuck patrolling the halls, supervising detentions, or devising game plans for winning the Quidditch Cup.
It's not like he doesn't see them -- Yifan and Junmyeon, who's as busy with Quidditch as the others were with prefect duties, room with him and he still sees all three of them in most of his classes, of course. But it's oddly quiet in the library without Lu Han guffawing ridiculously at one of Yifan's unintentional body gags or the Picasso-esque doodles etched on his parchments during one of their earlier classes.
Two months into his fifth year, and Minseok already misses his best friends.
"Maybe I should practice my cheering charms," he mutters, twirling his wand between his fingers. Even the warm sparks coming off the tip of it -- blue and white and snowflake-shaped just like the ones he'd seen the first time he had waved it around at Ollivanders -- don't feel quite as bright as usual.
His eyes start wandering from the spellbooks laid out in front of him, focusing instead on how far the sparks from his wand will land. It's a nice, mindless distraction and a relief from his intense study session. But as he watches one particularly active spark fly out of the nook in his corner of the library, he suddenly notices a flash of red and orange in-between a couple of the other aisles.
When he looks more carefully, he realizes that there's a person on fire.
There's smoke rising from the student's flashy red and gold Quidditch robes and his arms are flailing ridiculously and all Minseok can do for those first few moments is watch in horror because what the hell, there's no way immolation of any kind is permitted in the library and why is that kid on fire, for the love of Merlin.
He finally notices the three other boys sitting further beyond the flaming Gryffindor, all seated at a table with their bags scattered around them. They looked to be more concerned with whatever they were discussing than the lightshow going right in front of them.
"How appropriate," he thinks with very little malice when he sees the alternating green and silver of their loosened ties.
Minseok gets up from his seat, his chair screeching across the stone floor as he pushes it back, and marches over to the four with his wand out.
"Glacius!"
He points directly at the boy engulfed in flames, and if the sparks from his wand had looked like snowflakes before, they're nothing compared to the outright blizzard that erupts the second he finishes the incantation. The four students barely have enough time to look over before their faces are blasted with ice, but in the split-second he sees their faces, Minseok realizes he knows these brats.
"Park Chanyeol," he says, crossing his arms over his chest as Lu Han's infamous beater pouts at him, icicles hanging from his large ears like a pair of Yifan's dragon-tooth earrings. "Shouldn't you be on the pitch right now with Lu Han?"
At least Chanyeol has the decency to look a little sheepish, which is a surprise given how often Minseok hears about his impertinence and how he has even personally witnessed the way Chanyeol flies in circles around the Quidditch pitch, crowing shamelessly after breaking another player's bones.
As for his three friends...
"Jongdae. Kyungsoo." Out of the four, they're the two he's most familiar with. Jongdae had spent the majority of his first two years at Hogwarts attempting to win over Peeves's favor, and several of those attempts had resulted in Minseok covered in too many different concoctions for him to even remember. Kyungsoo, on the other hand, tended to linger around the entrance of the Hufflepuff common room in search of the hidden kitchens. They may have been a bit more mischievous than the average third year, but they had seemed like good enough kids. For Slytherins. Still not the type he would have picked out as most likely to casually set one of their yearmates on fire, even if the Gryffindor-Slytherin house rivalry was taken into account.
But maybe he should rethink that, because before he knows it, all three Slytherins are laughing.
"You've got us wrong, hyung!" Jongdae insists, although with that trickster's smile, Minseok isn't very inclined to believe him. He settles for raising a single eyebrow and awaiting a further explanation.
Jongdae looks over at the other two for help, but when they don't pipe up, he keeps going on his own. "It's just--"
"Third years are learning about witch burnings," Kyungsoo finally supplies, staring blankly at Minseok like that should suffice.
And maybe it does. If Minseok thinks hard enough, he can kinda remember writing his own ridiculously lengthy essay on the subject when he was their age. He definitely remembers Lu Han spending their first day back begging him for help on the subject. But still.
"So you thought you needed a living example?" he asks skeptically, watching all four of their heads bobble like one of his little sister's toys back at home. "Really. Have you guys even been taught the flame freezing charm yet? And why Chanyeol?"
All three Slytherins look at each other before shrugging at him.
"We've set him on fire probably ten times in the last hour," Baekhyun sniffs, "Chanyeol likes how it tickles, for whatever reason. Probably makes those fairy ears tingle."
"Probably makes his dick tingle," Jongdae adds, not even bothering to muffle his laughter in spite of the fact that they're in the library and Madam Pince is most definitely not deaf.
Chanyeol reaches over, dripping water all over the place in an attempt to shove Jongdae out of his seat, and Minseok catches Kyungsoo's foot knocking into the leg of Jongdae's chair hard enough to force him to tip over. Jongdae probably didn't though, now sprawled out on the ground with a sour expression on his face as his robes soak up all the melted ice left behind by Minseok's spell.
Even Minseok can't hold back his chuckles.
"Seriously, you four are the worst third years I've ever met."
One of them snorts, although Minseok's not sure which one. "Please, we've heard all about your exploits with Lu Han when you were third years," Baekhyun laughs, leaning over the table so he's just that much closer to Minseok. It'd be more intimidating if he was a larger Slytherin, but Baekhyun is still small even for a third year and Minseok doesn't anticipate him growing much taller over the years. "You might not have set Yifan on fire, but you can't say you've never done worse."
"Surrendering Yifan as a test subject for the Weasley twins was a move done for the good of the Hufflepuff house," Minseok says, trying to sound stern even as the corner of his lip tilts up at the memory of Yifan's helpless expression as the Weasleys had carted him away to their shop in the one of the many disused bathrooms in the castle. "If we didn't choose a representative, we'd all be subject to their pranks."
"Excuses, excuses," Jongdae mutters as he wrings the water out of his robes miserably. Minseok had forgotten that students didn't learn the Hot-Air Charm until the end of their fourth year, and in light of that, helpfully dries him off with a swish of his wand. Jongdae smiles thankfully at him, and Minseok beams back.
"Seriously though, you could have set one of the books here on fire," he continues, "and how in Merlin's name did you not wind up catching Madam Pince's attention? I would have thought she'd be on you like a threstral on raw meat."
Chanyeol laughs and slaps a hand on Kyungsoo's shoulders. "Kyungsoo's been messing around with a few repelling charms his brother taught him over the summer. Pince probably doesn't even know we're here!"
"It's supposed to repel authority figures like teachers and prefects," Kyungsoo says quietly, "but I guess you wouldn't count. Yifan's the Hufflepuff prefect and you're in no position to take away points."
Minseok can't even bother feeling offended at his bluntness because more than anything, he's still too busy marveling over Kyungsoo's spell.
"You're a third year and you're already modifying repelling charms?" he asks, pulling out a chair and sitting down next to Baekhyun. "That's pretty impressive. I wasn't looking into protective spells until last year myself and they're really something. Intense stuff."
Kyungsoo looks surprised that that's what captures Minseok's attention, but nods anyway. "Well, my brother's a curse-breaker, so he's told me a few things. Not much though."
"We should talk more another time then." Minseok ignores the looks Baekhyun, Jongdae, and Chanyeol send each other as he keeps talking. "I'd love to hear more about what your brother taught you."
Chanyeol tugs Kyungsoo closer to him and the others and squints suspiciously at Minseok, his eyes going uneven. "You can't just expect our resident charms expert to spill all of our trade secrets to you!" Baekhyun and Jongdae make noises of agreement alongside him while Kyungsoo sits in the middle of them all, rolling his eyes.
Minseok laughs, feeling lighter than he has in a long while. It's nice to see them banding together, even if it makes the absence of his own friends that much more tangible.
"I'll make a deal," he says, leaning over and keeping his voice at a low whisper, "you let me and Kyungsoo go over those protective spells and I'll share the prefect patrol schedule with you after each session."
The four third years all look at each other, as if having a silent conversation with just their eyes, although Chanyeol's face twitches a bit as he tries to convey his own thoughts. Minseok knows they've made their decision when Baekhyun straightens in his seat and nods at the other three.
"Deal," he says, taking Minseok's outstretched hand. There's a dangerous smile on his face -- on all four of their faces, really -- but like Hogwarts has ever suffered too greatly from a group of friends having a bit of fun. Someone has to pick up the slack from his own group of friends, after all.
It's not like he doesn't see them -- Yifan and Junmyeon, who's as busy with Quidditch as the others were with prefect duties, room with him and he still sees all three of them in most of his classes, of course. But it's oddly quiet in the library without Lu Han guffawing ridiculously at one of Yifan's unintentional body gags or the Picasso-esque doodles etched on his parchments during one of their earlier classes.
Two months into his fifth year, and Minseok already misses his best friends.
"Maybe I should practice my cheering charms," he mutters, twirling his wand between his fingers. Even the warm sparks coming off the tip of it -- blue and white and snowflake-shaped just like the ones he'd seen the first time he had waved it around at Ollivanders -- don't feel quite as bright as usual.
His eyes start wandering from the spellbooks laid out in front of him, focusing instead on how far the sparks from his wand will land. It's a nice, mindless distraction and a relief from his intense study session. But as he watches one particularly active spark fly out of the nook in his corner of the library, he suddenly notices a flash of red and orange in-between a couple of the other aisles.
When he looks more carefully, he realizes that there's a person on fire.
There's smoke rising from the student's flashy red and gold Quidditch robes and his arms are flailing ridiculously and all Minseok can do for those first few moments is watch in horror because what the hell, there's no way immolation of any kind is permitted in the library and why is that kid on fire, for the love of Merlin.
He finally notices the three other boys sitting further beyond the flaming Gryffindor, all seated at a table with their bags scattered around them. They looked to be more concerned with whatever they were discussing than the lightshow going right in front of them.
"How appropriate," he thinks with very little malice when he sees the alternating green and silver of their loosened ties.
Minseok gets up from his seat, his chair screeching across the stone floor as he pushes it back, and marches over to the four with his wand out.
"Glacius!"
He points directly at the boy engulfed in flames, and if the sparks from his wand had looked like snowflakes before, they're nothing compared to the outright blizzard that erupts the second he finishes the incantation. The four students barely have enough time to look over before their faces are blasted with ice, but in the split-second he sees their faces, Minseok realizes he knows these brats.
"Park Chanyeol," he says, crossing his arms over his chest as Lu Han's infamous beater pouts at him, icicles hanging from his large ears like a pair of Yifan's dragon-tooth earrings. "Shouldn't you be on the pitch right now with Lu Han?"
At least Chanyeol has the decency to look a little sheepish, which is a surprise given how often Minseok hears about his impertinence and how he has even personally witnessed the way Chanyeol flies in circles around the Quidditch pitch, crowing shamelessly after breaking another player's bones.
As for his three friends...
"Jongdae. Kyungsoo." Out of the four, they're the two he's most familiar with. Jongdae had spent the majority of his first two years at Hogwarts attempting to win over Peeves's favor, and several of those attempts had resulted in Minseok covered in too many different concoctions for him to even remember. Kyungsoo, on the other hand, tended to linger around the entrance of the Hufflepuff common room in search of the hidden kitchens. They may have been a bit more mischievous than the average third year, but they had seemed like good enough kids. For Slytherins. Still not the type he would have picked out as most likely to casually set one of their yearmates on fire, even if the Gryffindor-Slytherin house rivalry was taken into account.
But maybe he should rethink that, because before he knows it, all three Slytherins are laughing.
"You've got us wrong, hyung!" Jongdae insists, although with that trickster's smile, Minseok isn't very inclined to believe him. He settles for raising a single eyebrow and awaiting a further explanation.
Jongdae looks over at the other two for help, but when they don't pipe up, he keeps going on his own. "It's just--"
"Third years are learning about witch burnings," Kyungsoo finally supplies, staring blankly at Minseok like that should suffice.
And maybe it does. If Minseok thinks hard enough, he can kinda remember writing his own ridiculously lengthy essay on the subject when he was their age. He definitely remembers Lu Han spending their first day back begging him for help on the subject. But still.
"So you thought you needed a living example?" he asks skeptically, watching all four of their heads bobble like one of his little sister's toys back at home. "Really. Have you guys even been taught the flame freezing charm yet? And why Chanyeol?"
All three Slytherins look at each other before shrugging at him.
"We've set him on fire probably ten times in the last hour," Baekhyun sniffs, "Chanyeol likes how it tickles, for whatever reason. Probably makes those fairy ears tingle."
"Probably makes his dick tingle," Jongdae adds, not even bothering to muffle his laughter in spite of the fact that they're in the library and Madam Pince is most definitely not deaf.
Chanyeol reaches over, dripping water all over the place in an attempt to shove Jongdae out of his seat, and Minseok catches Kyungsoo's foot knocking into the leg of Jongdae's chair hard enough to force him to tip over. Jongdae probably didn't though, now sprawled out on the ground with a sour expression on his face as his robes soak up all the melted ice left behind by Minseok's spell.
Even Minseok can't hold back his chuckles.
"Seriously, you four are the worst third years I've ever met."
One of them snorts, although Minseok's not sure which one. "Please, we've heard all about your exploits with Lu Han when you were third years," Baekhyun laughs, leaning over the table so he's just that much closer to Minseok. It'd be more intimidating if he was a larger Slytherin, but Baekhyun is still small even for a third year and Minseok doesn't anticipate him growing much taller over the years. "You might not have set Yifan on fire, but you can't say you've never done worse."
"Surrendering Yifan as a test subject for the Weasley twins was a move done for the good of the Hufflepuff house," Minseok says, trying to sound stern even as the corner of his lip tilts up at the memory of Yifan's helpless expression as the Weasleys had carted him away to their shop in the one of the many disused bathrooms in the castle. "If we didn't choose a representative, we'd all be subject to their pranks."
"Excuses, excuses," Jongdae mutters as he wrings the water out of his robes miserably. Minseok had forgotten that students didn't learn the Hot-Air Charm until the end of their fourth year, and in light of that, helpfully dries him off with a swish of his wand. Jongdae smiles thankfully at him, and Minseok beams back.
"Seriously though, you could have set one of the books here on fire," he continues, "and how in Merlin's name did you not wind up catching Madam Pince's attention? I would have thought she'd be on you like a threstral on raw meat."
Chanyeol laughs and slaps a hand on Kyungsoo's shoulders. "Kyungsoo's been messing around with a few repelling charms his brother taught him over the summer. Pince probably doesn't even know we're here!"
"It's supposed to repel authority figures like teachers and prefects," Kyungsoo says quietly, "but I guess you wouldn't count. Yifan's the Hufflepuff prefect and you're in no position to take away points."
Minseok can't even bother feeling offended at his bluntness because more than anything, he's still too busy marveling over Kyungsoo's spell.
"You're a third year and you're already modifying repelling charms?" he asks, pulling out a chair and sitting down next to Baekhyun. "That's pretty impressive. I wasn't looking into protective spells until last year myself and they're really something. Intense stuff."
Kyungsoo looks surprised that that's what captures Minseok's attention, but nods anyway. "Well, my brother's a curse-breaker, so he's told me a few things. Not much though."
"We should talk more another time then." Minseok ignores the looks Baekhyun, Jongdae, and Chanyeol send each other as he keeps talking. "I'd love to hear more about what your brother taught you."
Chanyeol tugs Kyungsoo closer to him and the others and squints suspiciously at Minseok, his eyes going uneven. "You can't just expect our resident charms expert to spill all of our trade secrets to you!" Baekhyun and Jongdae make noises of agreement alongside him while Kyungsoo sits in the middle of them all, rolling his eyes.
Minseok laughs, feeling lighter than he has in a long while. It's nice to see them banding together, even if it makes the absence of his own friends that much more tangible.
"I'll make a deal," he says, leaning over and keeping his voice at a low whisper, "you let me and Kyungsoo go over those protective spells and I'll share the prefect patrol schedule with you after each session."
The four third years all look at each other, as if having a silent conversation with just their eyes, although Chanyeol's face twitches a bit as he tries to convey his own thoughts. Minseok knows they've made their decision when Baekhyun straightens in his seat and nods at the other three.
"Deal," he says, taking Minseok's outstretched hand. There's a dangerous smile on his face -- on all four of their faces, really -- but like Hogwarts has ever suffered too greatly from a group of friends having a bit of fun. Someone has to pick up the slack from his own group of friends, after all.
Original Post: Here.
Author's Note: I actually wrote a lot of the beginning on the worldoftext for HG AU lol. But the ending changed a bit? I was having trouble with the chingu-line vibe :( I'm not particularly good with any of them, sadly. Anyway, this was mainly inspired by the beginning of the third Harry Potter book where he has to write an essay on witch burning. I thought that Chanyeol might be the type to get a kick out of it, what with his MAMA superpower being fire... and who else would oblige him besides his same-age friends? lol Anyway, this is set in my HP verse where Xiumin is aiming to become an architect. That's why he's interested in the protective spells. Also, here, chingu-line would be in the same year as Harry and Xiumin and the others in 90-line would be the same age as the Weasley twins. :3
I'm not gonna lie. A lot of Xiumin's feelings are my own. I've been stressed about MCAT prep and the fact that I've grown so distant from all of my friends... Writing didn't make me feel better, but it did help to distract me from all of that stress and loneliness, the way I have Xiumin feeling a bit comforted by his own distraction. Unlike me, at least Xiumin had something to look forward to -- a passing of the torch in a sense. It doesn't feel as nostalgic because that wasn't my angle, but in retrospect, I can recognize my own feelings bleeding into this...