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Yixing has a reputation for being good with chemicals and not asking questions. That had been the sole reason Baekhyun had even bothered seeking him out. Unfortunately, whoever had spread that glowing recommendation had obviously been a fucking liar.

"You do know what you're commissioning is chloroform, yes?" Yixing asks, glancing over at the dead weight Baekhyun had brought along with him. There's a frown on his face, far too disapproving and judgmental for someone in his line of work. Baekhyun did not come here for this.

"Look, either you give me the chloroform so I can use it for its intended purpose, or else I'm gonna have to club this guy over the head again when he wakes up." He is not looking forward to that. Kidnapping, fine. Not like that wasn't already scratched out on his bucket list. But repeated battery of the prime minister's son?

Yixing sighs, giving Kim Junmyeon's unconcious body one more look of pity before he hands the bottle over.

Admittedly, Junmyeon's water clones are about as coordinated as he is, which is to say, not very. When he summons one or two, it's not so bad. Maybe they'll wobble a little here and there, but for the most part, they're reliable and pack a pretty good punch against his most of his enemies.

Unfortunately, two water clones don't seem to be enough this time around. He can't help but start to sulk as he watches the giant key slice his second clone in half shortly after making quick work of his first, and not for the first time does he wish that his elemental affinity had been something a little more solid.

"That was rude of you," he sighs, his fingers slowing as they pluck idly at his sitar, "I know they're just made of water, but those guys have feelings, too."

At least the mage seems to take his words to heart, lowering his staff so that it's only positioned in front of him defensively rather than poised for another hard-hitting spell. The same can't be said for the little guy waving the key around with far too much enthusiasm though.

"Don't listen to him, Yixing hyung! Water doesn't have feelings and neither do Nobodies!" the Keyblade wielder shouts with a voice far too loud for someone his size.

And this is why Junmyeon would rather lounge around at the Organization's base, playing meaningless melodies in peace and watching his clones attempt to dance along off-beat. Sure, the other members could be dicks sometimes -- he still hasn't forgiven Chanyeol for singeing the bottom of his too-long black robes, is merely waiting for the day he can douse him in the middle of one of his flashy pyrotechnics -- but at least they were in the same boat as him.

But letting some stranger be mean to him? Maybe the Keyblade wielder was right about Nobodies not having feelings, but that doesn't explain the constant simmering in Junmyeon's chest, right where his heart used to be before it'd been unceremoniously ripped out of his body. Steam starts to rise from the water under his control, streams of which begin to circle around the platform acting as their makeshift arena. A tiny whip of it lashes out at the Keyblade wielder before he can even react, leaving behind an angry burn.

"Fuck, ow!"

"Ah, Baekhyun! Heal!"

Yixing's staff glows green as soon as he utters the incantation, gold and green blossoms instantly appearing over Baekhyun's head. Light sprinkles down on him, healing the burn and any other damage he'd incurred in their battle so far.

"Thanks, hyung!" Baekhyun grins, cheerfully slashing his Keyblade in an x-shape in the air right in Junmyeon's direction to celebrate his complete recovery. Again, rude.

Junmyeon's eyes narrow, the embers in his empty chest starting to flare into something that'd make Chanyeol proud. Behind Baekhyun and Yixing, several more water clones form, steam still rising from their boiling hot bodies.

"Dance, water, dance," he commands, and despite the number of them, this time he has little trouble at all controlling them as they attack once more.

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.

 

Kai / Xiumin - fortune-telling 

 

Lu Han is the one who comes up with the idea of using fortune ladders to allot roommate assignments during one of their overseas trips, but as Minseok follows the inked trails down, it's Jongin's name -- nice, quiet Jongin who sleeps like a log and doesn't wake up at ungodly hours of the night to start pillow fights or pinch his cheeks -- he finds at the other end of the line marked with his own name.

 

 

 

 

Minseok pulls Jongin aside after one of their dance lessons because whatever the other trainees are planning for the top candidate for the position of SM's next golden boy is most likely going to be petty and immature; while the rest of them may be children, Minseok -- despite his tiny stature and his rather inconspicuous presence -- is a grown man and like hell is he going to let this happen under his watch.

 

 

 

 

"Another one from China," someone whispers into Junmyeon's ear, voice dripping with condescension as they watch one of the new guys introduce himself -- but rather than his dark eyes or heavy accent, Junmyeon notices the strong set of the kid's jaw and the overflowing confidence in the kid's stance and remembers a time when he used to be able to recognize those qualities in himself.

 

It's a pity that Jongdae's pretty skin is fang-shatteringly difficult to pierce, and even moreso that his cold blood is stale compared to the fresh tang of actual human blood -- but he lets out these delicious little moans that have Lu Han nibbling his neck anyway, hungry in a way that won't destroy Jongdae like all of his other nightly treats. 

 

 

 

 

Lu Han gets picked for the dance-off of course -- the program is being recorded in Beijing and the MCs are obsessed with showing him off like some sort of hometown hero -- but it's both surprising yet, in retrospect, expected when Jongdae's arm shoots up like a rocket after the MCs ask for one of the others to go up against him, all too eager to soak in the limelight.

 

 

 

It's only after their youngest have been given their obligatory coming-of-age presents that Junmyeon whips out a bottle of expensive bokbunja that shines a deep ruby red under the living room lights, pouring each of them a glass with experienced fingers and watching them down it with excited giggles, all while pretending he doesn't notice the way the wine's rich red color stains Jongin's lips.

 

Luhan / Sehun - wilted roses 

 

Lu Han constantly, loudly reminds everyone he doesn't like people on his bed, but that doesn't stop Sehun from sitting down on it anyway so he can pull the blankets up over Lu Han's sleeping body -- Lu Han may be the hyung, but as Sehun looks down at how the faded red dye of Lu Han's hair draws out the pallor of his skin, he figures that hyungs deserve just as much care as maknaes sometimes.

 

 

 

 

"My grandmother would make this for me when I was growing up. Good for the body," Zitao announces as he switches out Jongin's water bottle for a thermos of tea smelling strongly of peaches and ginger, and when Jongin looks up at him -- tired and sore from a long day of rehearsals -- Zitao mimes drinking it and smiles when Jongin obediently copies him with an endearingly grumpy expression.

 

06/22/13 responses: 

 

 

Minseo is so tiny in Seyeon's arms as they hug each other good-bye that it's hard to remember that she's the unnie, although after EXO-M's plane to China takes off Seyeon can't imagine how she'd ever forget Minseo's quiet, strong, reassuring presence during the years they spent walking down the corridors of SM together, their hands mere centimeters apart but never quite touching.

 

 

 

 

Their first CF as twelve members is for some fizzy juice brand Baekhee finds too tangy to really enjoy, but then Zitao spills a can of it all over herself in-between takes and Baekhee spends the ten minutes the production staff gives them for clean-up with Zitao's sticky fingers in her mouth, savoring the sweet taste as she sucks each digit clean and Zitao dirties her free hand under Baekhee's mini-skirt, rubbing her thumb against Baekhee's clit and curling her fingers in Baekhee’s pussy until Baekhee comes all over her with a muffled moan.

 

 

 

Baekhyun / Tao - karaoke room 

 

The best thing about all of their maknaes now being of drinking age is that when they celebrate their comeback, there's no excuse why everyone can't get ridiculously drunk at one of SM's high security noraebangs -- so drunk that all Baekhee has to do is sit back and enjoy the show, pretending that her panties aren't already soaking wet from watching Zitao alternate between obnoxiously grinding up against Chanmi and shamelessly making-out with Minseo.

 

 

 

 

"You didn't see anything," Baekhee sternly tells Kyungri, scooting away from Chanmi's drawer of padded bras and concealing the bottle of itching powder behind her back; she can't be sure Kyungri with her unfairly huge eyes noticed the latest shot fired in the cold war between Baekhee and Chanmi, but that doesn't stop the guilty flush in Baekhee's cheeks or the adrenaline pumping through her veins.

 

 


06/25/13 responses: 

(a/n: Kai coming out of his shell both literally and figuratively lol /rimshot)

 

The two of them don't work together often if only because it feels like overkill on the off-chance that they are partnered up; between Baekhyun bending light around them like an invisibility cloak and Lu Han's ability to lift ridiculously valuable trinkets from their pretty, little pedestals without raising a finger, all the fun gets taken out of the very act of burglary and the whole thing starts to feel like an actual job rather than the petty dalliances of bored meta-humans.

 

 

 

"Does the pain ever go away?" Baekhyun asks despondently as they watch yet another media outlet speculate about SNSD's slow, messy disbandment due to conflicting interests between the girls and complaints against apparent company favoritism, and while Lu Han wishes he could answer that time heals all wounds, he still can't face his Mirotic-era poster of DBSK and not sigh over better times and his still-broken heart.

(a/n: Set in the future. Fans can get emotionally scarred for life because of disbandments, just saying u__u, This may or may not be based on reality lol)
 

 

 

"That's pretty special, that you were already famous in China before all of this," Kyungsoo tells him while they're washing dishes together one night after Lu Han pulls out online clips of Yixing's child star days, but Yixing honestly doesn't feel special at all and hasn't felt so since the last time he performed on a stage for an audience screaming his name, rather than merely blending into a faceless crowd with nothing to show for years besides a heavy heart and his chest filled with longing as he watches others race towards the stars.