double, double, toil and trouble

Chapter 35

Almost as if he could sense the disappointment and tension radiating from the Ravenclaw, Yukhei joins the groups quietly, his hands holding onto a rather large basket. They smell the contents before they see it.

"You brought chicken!" Chenle cheers and Yukhei places the basket down in the middle of their group.

"I didn't know if this would take all lunch, so I figured I'd come prepared."

"Not bad", Jaemin muses, a glimmer in his eyes as he adds, "for a Gryffindor."

Yukhei only laughs, gesturing for people to dig in if they wanted to.

"The last time we tried this, it didn't go well..." Jisung mumbles, but Donghyuck only waves his hand.

"Everyone's alive, aren't they?" He asks, doing a quick headcount of their group as if to just make sure, "Then I'd say it didn't go too badly."

Not entirely convinced, there are a few grimaces shared between certain group members before Donghyuck continues.

"Right, so, who wants to go first?"

"Are we just going to line up?" Jaemin teases, no one making a move to volunteer.

To which Chenle just furrows his eyebrows, "What happened to practicing on something smaller first?"

"We might as well attempt the spell here", Donghyuck cuts in, "What's the worst thing that could happen?"

The question causing Jeno to pipe up, "Uh, Yukhei almost set fire to the Room of Requirements."

"But I didn't!" Yukhei announces proudly, to which Donghyuck just claps, turning to him with a grin.

"Exactly!" He beams, turning to face his group of friends, not a trace of doubt present on his face nor in his voice. If it was acting, it was extremely convincing, "So, who wants to go first?"

Begrudgingly they all begin to line up, trying to shuffle back as far as possible, so they're towards the back of the line. Slightly fed up and just wanting to get this over with, Renjun takes a few strides up to the shed and points his wand at it threateningly.

"Capacious extremis!"

Part of Donghyuck was expecting that the spell would work, given Renjun's determination to finish this, but alas, nothing happened.

Next up to the mark was Jaemin, but again, the spell didn't stick.

Mark, Jeno and Yukhei try one after the other, but no noticeable changes occur and the group's optimism begins to fade.

When Donghyuck steps up to try, everyone holds their breath... but after he's done, the shed is still as small as it was before. He gives them a sheepish smile before returning to the back of the line.

"Down to our youngest two..." Yukhei announces, jazz hands out as Chenle and Jisung are at the front of the line, "Maybe there needs to be an incentive?"

"Being out in the cold isn't an incentive enough?" Renjun responds just as Jeno reminds them all of the creature's previous hide-and-seek game that they don't want a repeat of.

"Whoever can do the spell can have the biggest chicken drumstick Yukhei took from the hall?" Jaemin voices, and as soon as he does, a new line forms behind Chenle and Jisung, everyone trying to push their way to the front.

Just to get some space between himself and his feral friends, Chenle steps forwards and speaks the spell, but just like everyone before him, nothing happens.

Jisung is the last one up for the first round, and seeing everyone else fail didn't exactly fill him with confidence. Twidling his wand between his fingers, Jisung grimaces as he points it towards the shed, the words repeating in his head like a mantra as he makes sure that he gets them right.