Chapter Text
Watching another kid get on the train with his brother, and Junsu thinks its really not fair.
He’s still holding onto Junho’s hand, hasn’t let it go yet, because where Junho looks excited and maybe more envious than he wants to let on, Junsu is a mix of anxiety and fear about going away from his own brother for so long. Sure, they’ve been apart, because twins doesn’t mean literally attached at the hip, duh, but, this is for a long time. This is until Christmas! And its not just Junho, its his mom and dad too, he doesn’t get to see them at all until then.
The sound of a snotty snuffle, like crying, has him turning to look at Junho, thinking maybe his twin has finally let it sink in, that they’re not going to have an already spoken-for buddy in each other at school this year. But no, Junho’s still dry eyed and slack mouthed with awe about it all, the scarlet steaming train engine hidden behind a solid brick wall, just like he was when Junsu was picking out a wand.
Just beyond his brother though, is another kid, and although his face is hidden in his mother’s shirt, Junsu is pretty sure those suspicious sniffles are coming from him. Getting on his tip toes and leaning around Junho, he catches the sight of some red rimmed eyes and yup that kid is definitely crying.
It makes Junsu feel a bit better.
And like he wants to cry into his mother’s shirt too.
-------
Half an hour later, and Junsu’s on the train, thinking about the put upon sigh his mother had made when she’d noticed the snot stain he'd rubbed into her blouse, though she hadn’t hugged him any less for it. And then there was Junho’s inevitably tacky sleeve too, from wiping Junsu’s nose like the super twin he was.
“We’re gonna write all the time, and its gonna be so cool, like getting an owl every week is going to be awesome,” Junho had said with a grin, radiating the excitement for the fact that MAGIC WAS REAL the same way Junsu still felt about it too, just, not so much at the moment when magic being real means going away from family for school. But Junho goes on about how everybody else has to call their friends and here he gets to write to Junsu by owl-carrier. Which of course is way cooler than any thought of the classic homing pigeon delivery might be. Owls were just badass like that.
Still though, once he’s left his family behind, even if he’s excited and nervous for the unknown, he’s a little removed, stuck staring morosely out the window of the train while he snuffles back the stuffy feeling of crying. He almost doesn’t even notice when someone else comes into the compartment, though the sound of a familiar sniffle snaps him to attention.
“Ah. Its you,” Junsu says, feeling a sense of camaraderie about having the other teary-eyed boy here with him. “Still crying? I stopped a while ago but my nose is all gross now and I don’t have any tissues-"
Junsu stops, because the other boy is glaring at him from the other seat over a tissue just then, wiping his nose neatly with it, like he’s daring Junsu to say something about it.
“Can I borrow one of those?” Junsu asks, rubbing at his nose with his shirt collar absently.
After the boy doesn’t do anything but keep glaring at Junsu, he starts to retract his outstretched hand, not sure if this is rejection in the making. For a second he’s distracted by something in the hall, a pile up with students and a cat running loose after someone’s toad, only to look back and find an entire packet of unopened tissues set right on his knee.
“Thanks!” Junsu smiles.
The boy doesn’t say anything, only goes back to glaring judgmentally when Junsu honks loudly into a tissue and tries to give the pack back.
—————
It turns out the boy’s name is Shim Changmin, and is a first year too, though the information is given seemingly reluctantly after Junsu introduced himself. But Junsu just figures the guy is embarrassed about crying in front of people, and tells him not to worry because as cool as he is, Junsu himself cries a lot too.
"Just don’t tell anyone, okay?"
Shim Changmin doesn’t make any promises, but he doesn’t seem super talkative either so, things should work out okay.
Its nearing time for the train to get a move on to the place of magic that doesn’t have Junho, the whistling warning blow making Junsu a little edgy again with nerves. Kids are still finding seats, though mostly they walk past, and leave the two red-eyed boys and their used tissues alone.
“Its cause we’re first years,” Changmin says solemnly. Junsu frowns at that, because it sounds like he’s already unpopular. Who knew that there was a school of magic and that other than being in a castle and having magic (and no Junho), it was still going to be like every other school?
Some shouting from outside the train distracts him from the unfortunate thoughts of popularity and probable teasing from bullies to come, to where he looks outside and he sees that the platform is rather empty. Sitting up on his knees, Junsu presses his face against the window for a better look at the commotion. He isn’t let down, because there’s an entire pack of noisy girls running and lugging around trunks, with a short boy as the very last of them struggling with his things most of all. Junsu himself isn’t so keen on being on time for things, but right now, he’s glad that his parents are highly punctual people, because as fearful as it is going someplace for so long without his family, missing a chance to say goodbye, or missing the train - and possibly magic for the rest of his life - would have been rather horrifying.
The group from the platform announces their arrival onto the train too, because even though there’s no need for shouting once on board they keep doing just that. Looking over, Junsu sees Shim Changmin just as attentive to all the commotion, but he looks disgusted by it, winkled nose and everything. Thinking they’re just going to be moved past once again, its a surprise that has Junsu flopping back from his knees onto his butt when a bunch of older girls are suddenly crowding up their compartment. The intense smell of sugary perfume makes him sneeze.
“Ah! First years!”
“Joongie!”
“Hey get Joongie up here!”
“No no don’t bother with that its fine you need to make friends that’s your job!”
“Joongie its ridiculous to be shy at this point!”
“No! You’re not sitting with us!”
"Get on and make friends!"
And with that, between the gaggle of girls, a young boy nearly tumbles off his feet into their compartment. His hair is a flurry of hands that pet him, and with another chorus of things like "Have fun baby brother!", and "See ya Joongie!", Junsu is left gaping at the other kid.
Who doesn’t say a word.
Well, Junsu thinks, if all the boys are so shy at this school, then nobody’s likely to make fun of him, right?
———
Kim Jaejoong, the boy with the billion (well actually eight, but thats a crazy number of human babies isn’t it? more like a kitten litter) sisters, isn’t shy like Junsu had initially thought.
He’s actually just odd.
He’s odd because he’s already trying to look through Shim Changmin’s stuff, and man, even Junsu could tell that was a bad idea. The kid might have goofy ears but his glare - even coupled with snotty nose - is no joke. Though maybe this Kim Jaejoong isn’t scared of stuff like that any more, cause his sisters all seem a bit scary too anyways.
Junsu watches while Shim Changmin tries to wrangle his bag out of Kim Jaejoong’s weirdly strong, and orange nail polish tipped, fingers.
“What kind of weirdo are you!? That’s private!” Shim Changmin screeches in anger.
“But you shared things with Junsu!” The new boy counters right back.
Kim Jaejoong’s decided they should just call one another by first names already, because their lasts are the same and wouldn’t that get confusing?
“I gave him tissues because he was a blubbering crying mess! And it was annoying me!”
“Hey!” Junsu interjects, upset too now. “You promised not to tell!”
“No I didn’t!” Changmin shouts back, because it seems like once he’s started shouting he can’t stop (or maybe its the whole being attacked by two people at once while in a strange place and without a familiar face in sight kind of thing?) “I didn’t promise anything!”
Junsu doesn’t mean to be a distraction, but when Kim Jaejoong finally wrestles Shim Changmin’s bag all to himself then, he sort of can’t help feeling a little smug about it.
———————
Yunho first meets his friends in a compartment full of screaming, where a boy with sparkly orange nail polish on his fingers is rooting around in someone else’s stuff.
When he’d been looking for a place to sit, he’d envisioned somewhere quiet, to be honest, but. . . he’d have felt bad later, guilty, just walking past when he saw someone’s privacy obviously being violated. The nosy kid doesn’t even stop when someone else sees him doing it either, actually, he seems to take advantage of the situation that is a new person in the compartment and furiously catalogues things all the more, to another boy’s indignant squawking.
“Hey. . . that’s not your’s, is it?” Yunho asks, in a moment where the yelling seems to lull some.
The boy looks up for a moment, seems to assess Yunho, and finds himself unimpressed.
“No, its not,” the angry kid answers instead, leaning over and finally snatching the bag right out of the non-guilty looking kid’s lap.
For a second, it goes all quiet then, two of the kids staring at Yunho and the third now muttering and looking through his own bag, trying to make sure its got everything its supposed to probably. Yunho supposes he stands there for a bit too long to be subtle about it, because the kid who’d been doing most of the yelling yet not actually having anything of his messed with speaks up.
“You wanna sit with us?”
When Yunho sits down next to the one named Kim Junsu, he’s surprised, but not offended or anything, when the one named Kim Jaejoong doesn’t say hello, but instead reaches out for Yunho’s backpack with something like pleading in his gaze.
They all eventually end up watching Kim Jaejoong pilfer through their things, the very upset boy before looking much less so now that he’s not the only victim any longer.
——————
By the time they get to Hogwarts, everyone’s heard about the first year who got train sick.
“Well at least he didn’t have to suffer through your absurdity,” Changmin snaps at Jaejoong in a very adult tone, still holding tight to his wand inside his robes like Jaejoong’s going to try to steal that too.
Jaejoong pouts cutely in reply.
Yunho watches Junsu go about on his tip toes, so he nudges him in the side to get his attention.
“Who are you looking for?”
“The one who blew chunks.”
Yunho makes a face, but says helpfully, “They would have cleaned up the mess right away you know, probably a Prefect.”
“A what?” Junsu asks, but it sounds distracted as he’s still up on his toes looking around the heads of the other first years. Jaejoong starts to copy him for some reason.
“A Prefect. They’re older students picked by the Headmaster. They help younger ones like us or enforce rules, they’re really respectable young people,” he informs Junsu, who happens to be from a muggle family and doesn't seem to know much about Hogwarts yet.
Changmin snorts next to him. “You wanna be one, huh? Or Head Boy maybe?”
Yunho doesn’t reply to that, but he might feel his face flush a little.
————
Eventually the boy is located, though its more by chance than by Junsu's and Jaejoong’s interrogation, because the boy ends up in the same boat as them.
They know its him because just four minutes after the boats float sedately from the dock, the boy’s throwing up over the side into the lake.
Junsu and Jaejoong give shouts of delight.
————
The Sorting gets delayed, just a bit, because the Professor doesn’t really want to send a queasy first year up on stage, where the nerves may cause him to try and empty his already empty stomach all over again. He gets a potion, and looks thoroughly better after a few minutes. Though, he probably gives them a small smile and a name because Jaejoong’s been rubbing a hand on his back the entire time.
“Yoochun,” he says once he’s feeling better, putting his hands in an odd L-shape and deepening his voice. “Park Yoochun.”
Junsu cracks up laughing while the rest of them exchange confused looks.
————
“Its magic!” Junsu says, bouncing in his seat at their table when they all end up in Gryffindor.
Yunho shares a bright smile with Yoochun.
Changmin looks up at the enchanted ceiling and sighs like the world’s betrayed him.
Jaejoong makes happy faces out of the peas on all their plates.
————
The first day of classes, Changmin leaves early, bed already made, his shoes gone by the time Yunho gets out of the bathroom. Yunho spends a moment to just frown at the not-quite-precisely folded blankets before he wakes up the others.
Junsu pops awake with a squeak of a yelp when he realizes Yunho is someone he hardly really knows.
Jaejoong stuffs his head under his covers and changes out of his underwear there.
And Yoochun nearly gets dragged out of bed, until Jaejoong chimes in from under his covers that they ought to just try tickling his feet.
———
“I swear it was the after affects of the potion, who knows what was in it anyways, fairy dust I’ll bet,” Yoochun says in defense of himself once they’re on their way to breakfast. He’s still yawning though, so Yunho’s doubtful.
“Why’d Changmin leave early?” Junsu asks, because nobody actually cares about Yoochun trying to sleep in. One of their new roommates leaving early on them though, that sort of puts a damper on everyone’s exciting first day.
“Maybe he’s pee shy,” Jaejoong says after a moment, with something like consideration on his face. Yunho’s a bit doubtful if he’s read that expression right too, though.
“You mean like how you’re shy about changing in front of us?” Junsu pesters him with a grin.
Jaejoong sticks his tongue out at Junsu for the teasing. “I never had any brothers before, okay?”
For a second Junsu’s face falls, like he suddenly remembered that he’s going to be missing his twin brother he told them all about for a really long time. Apparently though, Jaejoong wasn’t too offended by being teased about his own shyness, because he’s taking hold of Junsu’s hand with his own.
“Kim Twins, yeah?”
Junsu nods once, looking a bit relieved, and the two of them hold hands while they walk.
Behind then, Yunho looks over at Yoochun.
“Yeah. . . I’m good,” he says, keeping his hand to himself.
He laughs when Yunho hurries to catch up to the other two.
————
“Traitor,” is the first thing anyone says to Changmin that morning. Or rather hisses, right in his ear, so that their breath is touching his neck, which is not a sensation he likes very much, and makes him whip around to face the offender.
He feels his face curl up when he finds it to be Junsu.
“I shouldn’t ask, but what did I do to deserve such a greeting?”
Jaejoong plunks down next to him, and Changmin bats the boy’s hand away when he moves to take Changmin’s fork.
“You have your own!”
Jaejoong huffs and turns to his own plate, thankfully, although it doesn’t matter so much because Junsu flanks his other side.
“You came down without us,” is Junsu’s firm statement.
Changmin doesn’t resist the impulse to roll his eyes. “At least I didn’t do what I was thinking of doing, then,” he says dryly.
“What’s that?” Yunho asks, in his nicely curious way that’s okay, but Changmin’s still keeping his eye on him, because its suspicious, being so thoughtful.
Though the non judgmental set of Yunho’s gaze as he tucks in across the table maybe makes Changmin lose some of his venom as he replies, “Sit over with the Ravenclaws.”
Changmin hears Jaejoong drop his fork in shock.
“You smart or something then?” Yoochun asks with a smile, not skipping a beat. Changmin gets the impression Yoochun is making fun of him, so he scowls at the kid.
“Yes.” Its all he says though, because really, he’s got nothing to base it on other than his mother’s praise and you don’t just start talking to other boys about how you’re a momma’s boy. Not that Changmin is. At all.
When he doesn’t want to give any more, Yoochun seems to lose interest in him.
“Cheer up Jaejoong,” Yoochun says, still smiling that smile but not at Changmin even if its probably because of him. Yoochun hands over a clean fork from another place setting to Jaejoong.
When Changmin looks to his left, he only catches Jaejoong’s melancholy gaze for a second, before the boy’s taking the fork and resolutely looking away, stuffing his face with eggs without seeming to swallow so that his cheeks chub out.
Changmin mentally declares this group pathetic.
—————
Their first lesson, Charms, starts with a bang.
Literally.
They haven’t even gotten to talking about spells yet, the Professor’s just going on about rules and conduct in the classroom, when to Yoochun’s right there’s a near deafening cracking sound followed by a whiz and Junsu’s unmistakable shriek that fairly outdoes any magic.
Yoochun tries not to laugh while the Professor gives Junsu a tirade about controlling himself, “This is not a playground Mr. Kim.” For his part, Junsu looks thoroughly repentant, and fearful.
Once the teacher’s gone back to addressing the whole class, Yoochun hears Yunho tell Jusnu in a consoling manner, “At least she didn’t take any points from the house.”
“Yet,” Changmin adds snidely.
Yoochun frowns at him for that unnecessary barb, even if fifteen minutes later it holds true because Jaejoong had gotten his wand stuck in his shoelace, panicked, and accidentally hexed a poor Hufflepuff girl’s socks.
After the five of them have been bereaved once again, for misbehaving on the first day, Junsu looks downtrodden as he scuffs along and says, “I don’t know how much fun this whole magic thing is any more.”
Yoochun pats a hand on his shoulder in reassurance. “Hey, you got something to happen with your feather, unlike some people.”
Junsu brightens up considerably at that, while Changmin walks beside them, suspiciously silent.
————
“Its not like I’m bad, at magic,” Jaejoong tells Yunho during lunch. He doesn’t really have an appetite, but he hadn’t known what to do besides follow the others over to the Great Hall to eat. He’s at least glad that Changmin didn’t try to ditch them again, so he can afford himself one bite of the sandwich.
“Of course not,” Yunho says, and Jaejoong appreciates how sure he sounds, even though they only met, even though he doesn’t know any of Jaejoong’s favorite habits.
Or how he hasn’t been able to manage any spell that wasn’t hex-like yet.
“I just want to turn into a cat. Or turn something into a cat. That’s all.”
Yunho nods, like he understands, although he ducks to hide the way his eyes widen in uncertainty. See. Jaejoong knew he’d find it weird too.
“My sister’s an Animagus,” Jaejoong keeps talking on because its better than awkward silence. “She can turn into a cat.”
“What about cats?” Junsu asks, elbows on the table as he leans towards them. “I love cats!”
Jaejoong’s really glad Junsu’s a Gryffindor.
————
When they turn in for bed that night, they all pretend to be cool and act like they’re not wiped out from their first day. Even though somehow they migrate from the noisy common room full of older students talking about their summers still and into their dorm instead.
Yunho thinks that Jaejoong’s loud sisters might have something to do with it, but he doesn’t say anything because he’s just as tired as the rest of them are pretending not to be.
Junsu falls asleep first, almost mid sentence, with his head on Jaejoong’s shoulder. Jaejoong looks pretty happy about it.
“Yo, Changmin, want to cuddle with me?” Yoochun teases, lifting up a corner of his blanket.
Yunho watches with sleepy eyes as Changmin throws a shoe at him and misses, terribly.
Eventually, Yunho falls asleep in their shared room to Yoochun’s soft laughter, and Changmin’s snappy replies, surprised with himself at being able to sleep here so easily.
————
Jaejoong wakes them all up the next morning, already dressed and looking chipper for the day.
Yoochun laughs over Changmin’s particularly ruffled display for being woken by wet willy. After he stomps off to the bathroom, Junsu peeks his head up from underneath the covers of Jaejoong’s bed.
“You think he’d be upset if we left him this time?”
Yunho rolls over on his side, looking at them curiously.
Yoochun decides to be honest, but its not because he doesn’t want anyone’s feelings hurt or anything. “Yeah. We’re stuck with each other, so might as well be buddies now I say.”
It sort of feels nice, having the three of them smile at them like they agree.
————
Yunho walks with Junsu up to the Owlrey. All five of them have already been up here, after a tour of the castle from the fifth year Prefect, so this time around its actually to send some mail. Junsu is particularly ecstatic about mailing someone by owl, which Yunho finds both bizarre and amusing.
“This is really my first time sending a letter like this!” he says while he bounds up the steps in front of Yunho, sealed envelope waving in his hand. “I mean, we got the Hogwarts letter and replied and everything but this is my first official owl-mail on my own!”
“So. . . how’d you send letters, then?” Yunho wonders, confused.
Junsu actually stops in his bounding up the stairs for a moment. “Oh man, Jaejoong said there were people like that but. . . you don’t know the internet, do you?”
Fifteen minutes later, and Yunho feels more confused about this Internet than before he even knew about it.
————
“You knew about Internet?”
Jaejoong peeks up from where he’d been arranging his bacon strips into a bed for his egg.
“Yeah. My dad’s a muggle.” He sighs. “I really miss my phone already.”
“Your parents let you get a phone?” Junsu asks, envious.
Jaejoong grins and picks up a piece of bacon to nibble on it. “When I was ten,” he says smugly, around the bacon strip.
“Ugh,” Junsu groans. “So not fair. I can’t have one until I’m thirteen.”
Jaejoong pats him on the head and offers him a piece of bacon from his plate, even though there’s some on Junsu’s dish already.
“But what’s a phone have to do with the Internet?” Yunho can’t help but to ask them, because he at least knows what a phone does.
“You have much to learn, young Padawon,” Junsu tells him, waving the bacon he took from Jaejoong.
Yunho doesn’t get it.
———
Despite charms still being particularly difficult for Jaejoong, he turns out to be a real genius when it comes to Potions.
“Who knew?” Yoochun says, a smile that’s all happiness for their friend on his lips.
Yunho thinks that Jaejoong keeping busy, moving his hands and having to really concentrate is the reason he’s good at it, since he’s usually something like Yunho’s mother would call ‘scatterbrained’. Its probably has something to do with why Yunho himself is fairly hopeless at Potions.
“This is so straight forward, how did you even manage to mess this up?” Changmin whispers to him, sparing no bite in his tone of disbelief.
Yunho shrugs, rubbing a hand through the hair at his nape. He keeps looking down at the directions, unable to find which ingredient he missed or which step he mixed up.
Its not until the Professor walks by and shows him that his (hazardly) diced Bolgy Bladder ended up cooked to the side of his cauldron instead of in it.
Yoochun shrugs and smiles amiably, while Jaejoong gives him a pitying look.
Junsu stays after and helps him clean up his rather messy station.
———
“So. Quidditch.”
Yoochun watches as four entirely different reactions come from just the mention of the sport.
As predicted though, Junsu’s got this adorable blank expression on his face. Yoochun thinks that he tries to figure if he’s misheard half the words he hears at Hogwarts, even though they’re pretty much standard to the wizarding community.
“My sister is on the team, a beater,” Jaejoong says, the first one to speak even as Yunho shifts eagerly on his bed.
“Which one?” Changmin asks, though he hasn’t even looked up from his book so he doesn’t sound too interested, sounds more like he’s trying to be snide. Nobody answers him.
“Well okay, but do you want to try out?” Yoochun carries on instead.
Its pretty predictable too when Jaejoong shakes his head, now that they know he’s got a sister on the team.
“Hm,” Yoochun hums, drawing it out. “I was thinking about it.”
Its also predictable when Jaejoong looks rather lost, thinking one of their gang is going to do something he isn't in on.
“What would you try for?” Yunho asks, apparently too enthused about the topic to worry over Jaejoong’s less than happy expression.
“Dunno,” Yoochun says with a shrug. “I wouldn’t mind any spot. Just think it would be fun.” That, and his dad had always said how it helped complete the school experience, like being on the team made him someone.
“Maybe a chaser,” Yunho adds thoughtfully, before Junsu pipes up, finally.
“What are we talking about?”
“Quidditch,” Changmin supplies, shutting his book and giving the rest of them his attention. “Its a sport utilizing various balls, goal hoops, and broomsticks.”
Junsu still looks confused so Yoochun tells him simply, “Flying, Junsu. Flying.”
Junsu nearly falls off the bed.
————
Jaejoong isn’t happy about it, but what’s he to do if he doesn’t come with the others anyways? He doesn’t know the girls at all in Gryffindor and he hasn’t taken the time to get to know the boys in the other houses either. Not exactly a smart move, but, he’d sort of worried that if he divided his attention at all, then the four roommates he calls friends would slip out of his sight and forget about him.
So now he’s here, on the Quidditch pitch, feeling begrudging for the sport and its possible impending doom of drawing his friends away.
Its also why he gets on the broom and helps steady Junsu up in the air.
Well that, and he’s the only one that can somehow manage to keep up with the unlearned flyer’s sporadic jolts and dips.
“Say, Jaejoong,” Yunho says later, after they’ve all come out okay without breaking any bones (thanks to Changmin’s really good save when Junsu had mishandled his broom out of Jaejoong’s grip), “You sure you don’t want to give tryouts a go?”
All of them, even Changmin, are looking at him for his reply, which is confusing.
“I don’t think so?” he says, entirely unsure now. “That’s just how I always am on a broom?”
Yoochun goes to put an arm around him but that’s exactly when the Groundskeeper notices the first years with brooms on the pitch.
So they make a run for it.
————
Junsu’s sold on the Quidditch thing. So completely sold that he badgers at Yoochun and Yunho for everything they know about the sport.
“I’ve always loved football, and this would be great to show Junho sometime. Can people who don’t know magic ride brooms?”
None of them are sure, so they end up looking at Changmin, who sits up straighter from all the attention.
“I’d assume its possible. A squib could ride a broom if they wanted.”
After learning what a squib is, Junsu is sold even just a little bit more on the sport than he already was, which was lot in case you didn’t know.
————
Because they didn’t get any more secret practice sessions in, what with the Groundskeeper staunchily keeping an eye out for wayward first years, they collectively agree that its the reason none of them made the team this time around. Never mind the fact that they’re first years and its highly unlikely they would make it at all.
Junsu is more than a little heart broken when he doesn’t make the cut, but he’s got the others in the same boat (“Hey Chunnie, wanna go out on the lake?”) with him after all, so it’s not so bad as it could be.
And when they head down to watch the first match, Junsu finds that as exciting as playing Quidditch looks, everyone in their uniforms and moving in tight formations across the pitch, he thinks he’d like to wait a couple more years to bulk up a bit before playing against any Hogwarts team. Hopefully, maybe by fourth year, he’ll be a bit taller, and less likely to be swiped entirely off his broom by a passing gust of wind.
Yeah.