As another charmed bird, made from folded paper, flies its way to Mark's desk, the Gryffindor hides a smile as he cradles the paper softly, unfolding it to read his boyfriend's scribbles whilst his desk mate, Yukhei, was occupied.
'hey, are we still meeting in the astronomy tower tonight?
look back and act annoyed if we are'
With a slight smirk and a shake of his head, Mark looks over his shoulder in the direction of his boyfriend, narrowing his eyes playfully to which Donghyuck just beams at.
A slight jab to his arm brings him back as he looks from Yukhei to the professor at the front of the class who is still enthralled by their textbook.
"What does it say this time?" Yukhei whispers, this note being the third one to land on their desk in the last ten minutes.
Someone to the left of them accidently drops their quill and as Yukhei quietly moves his chair so that they can reach down and retrieve it, Mark whispers a hurried 'illegibilus' charm under his breath before placing the note in the space between them.
When Yukhei looks back at the piece of paper, his eyebrows furrow as the writing is completely illegible, he can't work out what a single word says.
"He's just messing with me" Mark covers, folding up the note and sliding it into the pocket of his robes.
Nodding his head, Yukhei throws a quick glance over at Donghyuck who instead of doing work is gossiping with his friend, before he turns his attention back to the task laid out in front of them.
"You know, you never told me what happened yesterday" He mutters, careful not to talk too loud to attract the attention of their professor.
"Yesterday?" Mark echoes, dipping his quill in his pot of ink before drawing it to his parchment.
"Yesterday, with pranking Donghyuck- which for the record, I told you would be a bad idea"
The dark marks under Mark's shirt collar beg to differ.
"Don't you have Quidditch to worry about?" Mark inquires, very poorly trying to change the topic of discussion.
"My best friend might've accidently started a prank war with the Lee Donghyuck and you're asking me about Quidditch?" Yukhei hisses in disbelief, "You don't even like Quidditch, I'm certain that you don't even know the rules despite coming to quite a few games"
"That's not true" Mark protests weakly as Yukhei gives him a knowing look.
"Alright then" His best friend starts, "What is a bludger?"
Mark pulls a face to which Yukhei silently takes his victory.
"It's uh, it's... they are the people with the bats, right?" Mark concludes, to which Yukhei then drops his head onto the desk, the girl sat next to them, jumping slightly in her seat.
Yukhei apologises quietly before he turns back to Mark, disappointment evident across his face, "The players with the bats are called beaters, they hit the bludgers which are a type of ball"
At the explanation Mark just looks at him, "It's not my fault there's like five different balls, it's all so confusing!"
"There are only three different balls" Yukhei clarifies, "And anyway you're not going to do it again, are you?"
"Do what?" Mark asks, to which Yukhei sighs loudly, the professor looking up from his book to which Yukhei mumbles some poor excuse about their difficult task, lowering his eyes to the textbook for the first time since opening it.
He waits a few moments until he's sure the professor has looked away before answering Mark, "Get involved with his pranks"
And Mark doesn't voice this, but he already knows that it's too late.
"We'll see" He mumbles, his quill moving swiftly as he writes.
However towards the back of the classroom, a different conversation entirely is taking place, and it's Donghyuck's turn to drop his head against the desk with a sigh.
"Do you think he'll partner up with me in todays class if I ask?" Jaemin drones on, his mind preoccupied by a certain black haired Hufflepuff who is lucky enough to escape this class, "Like, if I tell him it'll be good for our tutoring because it's more hands on-?"
"Hands on?" Donghyuck barks with a laugh, having to lower his tone as two students on the row in front of them turn around. He doesn't apologise, just draws his eyes back to Jaemin, "There's something you want to get your hands on and it's not the creatures"
Jaemin shoots him a glare before running his hands through his brown hair, pouting as he glances over their worksheets.
"Why don't you ask him if he's going to Hogsmeade at the weekend?" Donghyuck suggests, to which Jaemin just bites his lip, unsure.
"Would that come across as too strong?"
"Most of our class is going" Donghyuck reasons, "Plus he tutored you for a couple of weeks last year as well, surely you two are well on your way of becoming friends if you're not already"
"So you think I should ask him?" Jaemin questions to which Donghyuck nods.
"That or hex him"
At the proposition Jaemin elbows Donghyuck's side mercilessly, to which Donghyuck yelps as Jaemin just shakes his head with a whine.
The action causes the professor to look their way, a threatening gaze falling upon them for disturbing the lesson, to which both boys just bow their heads low.
Donghyuck fights back a smile as he looks from the textbook in front of them back to his best friend who is still sulking in his seat.
"I just want to know if-"
"He likes you" Donghyuck finishes, "I get it, but can we perhaps talk about this on our way to Quidditch training, we should probably do the work if we want to pass, unless you want to be assigned another tutor to fall in love with-"
And just as Jaemin lands another blow on Donghyuck's side, a board rubber is launched across the classroom in their direction, their charms professor hissing at them to shut up before he breaks the 'no performance of transfiguration charms on students' rule so desperately reiterated year after year.
~~~
"Three laps around the pitch before we begin our drills!" Jaemin announces to his team, everyone mounting their broom with ease as they kick off from the ground, "Last one to finish has to be target practice for the beaters!"
And with that joke, they all speed off, not wasting another second.
Donghyuck would've laughed at the chaos of fluttering silver and green robes around him, had he not known just how serious Jaemin's threat was. Bludgers were a nasty business, you didn't want to be on the other end of one without some sort of protection charm.
Donghyuck is quick to overtake Rocky, mainly as he's their Keeper and although he still had to be agile, other players such as the Chasers and Seekers were prided more on their speed.
As he glides passed Sihyeon and Hyunjin, two of their Chasers, he allows himself just to close his eyes for a split-second, basking in the bliss that is flying.
The fresh (alternately read: fucking freezing) wind carrying him across the sky, the exhilarating sensation of feeling so free, so alive as his soul sings due to taking just a moment out of his day where he isn't worrying about exams or his future or his family.
Donghyuck loves flying, he loves Quidditch- but as a hobby, a distraction. Unlike Jaemin he didn't see himself playing professionally because his passion was somewhere else. Flying was his method of escapism, and he didn't want to taint that with the pressures and expectations of professional play.
Leaning forwards to accelerate just that little bit more, Donghyuck's broom edges passed Yuna's with gradual ease. And as he takes a moment to look behind, he can't help but pull a face at her as she sticks up her middle finger at him.
He's already ahead of Rocky, Sihyeon, Hyunjin and now Yuna- next to overtake is Yeri, and Donghyuck's sure she won't give up without a fight.
As soon as he begins to gain on her, his broom inching further forwards, with a loud scoff she points her elbows out, and without hesitation leans sideways to collide with Donghyuck.
As she shoves him harshly, Donghyuck just grins.
He loves playing against his fellow Slytherins. They were so cruel, so passionate, and so a victory always seemed that much sweeter.
Lifting his gaze up further, Donghyuck notices that Jaemin is stationary in the air- having already finished. Of course, he expected nothing less.
Yeri gets another good shove in before they're both crossing the finish line, Jaemin holds up his hands in defeat before they begin badgering him about who finished first.
As he watches his team members complete the laps one by one, Jaemin then signals them all to touch back down, wanting to collect their respective playing balls and discuss what drills to cover.
As the last of them returns to the ground, Jaemin smiles, albeit a little smugly.
"See, this is why you're our captain" Rocky boasts, "Our fastest flyer, always finishing first-"
"Flattery will get you nowhere" Jaemin cuts him off with a chuckle, "Make sure to charm yourself before training with the Beaters, yeah?"
"Don't worry" Yeri chimes in, her and Yuna stopping either side of Rocky, "We'll take good care of him"
Looking behind their beautiful smiles, Donghyuck shuddered. If there was one thing he knew, it was that Rocky was screwed.
~~~
The first half of training was spent with Rocky flying round the pitch like his life depended on it (because it kinda did) as Yuna and Yeri both swing their bats, aiming the iron ball for Rocky and his broom. Donghyuck hovered above them with his wand out, ready to charm the Bludger to stop or slow down so that they don't lose their Keeper to the Hospital Wing before their first game.
With the Chasers- Jaemin, Hyunjin and Sihyeon- they were practising some flying drills, weaving in and out of one another as they toss the ball up into the air for the next player to catch. Donghyuck often looked over in awe at just how swiftly they moved- he had mad respect for all of his teammates, they became like family (he supposed that's what bond you form from insanely long training sessions and death-defying situations).
Their separate training drills wrap up quickly as Jaemin then calls for everyone to gather together to play a quick match just to warm them all up for a new year. Next session they'll go over strategies and new formations, but for their first meeting since the summer, Jaemin could tell that they were all just itching to play, to get back into the rhythm of things.
And so he releases the second bludger and the golden snitch, watching how Donghyuck seems to zoom in on its location straight away.
He throws the quaffle into the air just as he lists off the two separate teams they'll divide into for a quick match... and then, just as he plans, all Hell breaks loose.
———————————————————————
Notes-
This is just a filler chapter so I'm sorry it's a bit boring!!
but yeah, anyway, it's been a week since Eurovision and oh boy I am obsessed with Måneskin someone send help 💀💀