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It was the most amazing thing he had ever seen. To be sure, over the past month he had seen and heard things that he had never thought possible, but this had to outstrip them all.
Yunho sat on a narrow window seat, not the most comfortable spot to be sure, but it was worth it to watch the Quidditch players conducting tryouts down below; this window had the closest view for sure. Technically, he was still in Charms class, so he couldn’t run down to get a closer look like he wanted to, but he could make out the small flying figures well enough to be thoroughly impressed.
It was Friday, and Professor Flitwick had given them the last ten minutes of class to split into partners and practice wingardium leviosa (much of the class was still struggling immensely). Yunho had mastered the charm already at the beginning of the week, so he was able to sneak to the back corner of the classroom without feeling too much guilt, although he genuinely hoped Professor Flitwick wouldn’t notice.
He had heard others at the Gryffindor table talking about “Quidditch” tryouts that morning, and had learned from a rather snotty fourth year that it was some kind of magical sport. His interest was piqued; he had always loved sports and usually did rather well. He loved playing games, whether he needed to practice hard or rely on sheer luck, but what he loved most was watching himself improve over time, and working alongside others toward a common goal. Of course, he dashed to the library at his first break and spent an hour pouring over books describing the rules, history, and strategies of this “quidditch” sport. He tried to imagine what it would be like soaring through the air on a broom and dodging bludgers in pursuit of the tiny golden snitch.
There seemed to be a new group trying for “chasers”, the players that focused on passing the ball back and forth, trying to score through the tall hoops. He watched one of them fall off their broom clumsily, not even five feet into the air. The other two weren’t so bad; the second had unpredictable accuracy but dodged bludgers hit their way rather well, and the third made an impressive shot near the end. He wondered vaguely how many new chasers were needed.
Before he knew it, Professor Flitwick had dismissed the class and a general clamor rose of scraping chairs and chatter as they all shuffled out of the classroom. Yunho wormed his way through the crowd (it wasn’t too hard, as he was rather tall for a first year) and tried to remember how to get down and out to the Quidditch pitch.
Once he got outside, he sprinted down to the field, his school robe flying out behind him and his face flush with excitement. Finally, he had just reached the lower stands of the pitch when he saw to his dismay that tryouts seemed to be over; only a few older students remained to finish packing up. One of them he recognized as Oliver Wood, the keeper and Captain of the Gryffindor Quidditch team. As he walked past dragging the Quidditch trunk, Yunho overheard him talking to the girl next to him,
“Well I think our chasers will be decent enough this year with Katie still on the roster, but I’m worried about our seeker. Only two people tried out and that girl just did it as a joke while Jason Peer took almost twenty minutes to catch even a glimpse of the snitch. I really don’t know what we’ll do, we HAVE to win the cup this year but if our chasers can’t…”
Yunho felt a surge of excitement despite himself. There was a spot for him. They needed a new seeker, they needed him. It was true, though, that students weren’t allowed to try out for their house Quidditch team until second year. And then there was the small fact that he had never yet been on a broom… and he didn’t even own a broom… but he couldn’t help it. Before he knew it, his imagination was flying away with him and Quidditch started to occupy most of his thoughts.
-
After that fateful Friday, only a few more days passed before Yunho came to the conclusion he would not be able to retain his sanity unless he experienced, just one time, what it was like to ride a broom. He couldn’t help himself, he had grown up in a simple, normal muggle home and had enjoyed what he could - mainly hanging out with his best friend Mingi - but he had always known there was something more, that he was something more, and ever since he found out he was a wizard he started to feel a kind of relief and freedom. The thought that he wouldn’t get to play Quidditch for a whole year was too much to bear.
It was decided. He would sneak down to the pitch after dinner, most people would be in their common rooms and as he and Mingi weren’t in the same house, he would never know. Mingi just wouldn’t understand, he didn’t feel the same about Quidditch. He would think Yunho was being risky, and not in the way they enjoyed before back at home- with clever pranks and silly dares.
Once he had decided to go through with it, the whole rest of the day was filled with anxious anticipation. It was Monday, so the class mood was lower than usual and Yunho had trouble focusing on his lessons. Finally, dinner arrived. He tried his best to eat at a normal pace so as not to look suspicious, but he needn’t have worried quite so much. A kid in his year, Wooyoung, kept animated conversation going for quite a while in the first years’ section of the Gryffindor table.
Finally he was able to join the first throng leaving the Great Hall saying in passing that he wasn’t feeling very well. As soon as he was out of sight, he dashed through the halls, keeping a keen ear out for their grumpy caretaker Filch’s signature wheeze. When he finally slipped outside, he took a moment to just breathe in the autumn air and felt a thrill of excitement as he made his way over to the school broom shed.
When he got there, he found a padlock securing the door. Expecting this, he pulled out his wand and tried to concentrate on the spell. “Alohomora”
It came easier than he expected, in his charms book it wasn’t supposed to be attempted until near the end of the year, if the teachers deigned it wise to teach the spell at all. He eagerly swung open the door and took in the number of shabby school brooms. He ran his hands over them, checking the names and models. Eventually, he decided on a Cleansweep 7. It was pretty decent compared to the others, and he liked the feel of the wood under his hand, there was a soft vibration that told him it was just begging to fly. He took it and peered outside the shed before entering the pitch. There was still a good amount of light and no sign of anyone around.
He lay the broom on the ground and remembering the book’s instructions, stood next to it. He extended his hand and firmly said, “Up!” The broom flew readily into his hand. Not wasting another second, he swung himself over it and kicked off hard from the ground. His heart skipped a beat as up, up he soared and he felt his body relax and adjust. The broom responded readily to his touch and he tried making different turns. He grinned as he felt the wind whip his face and hair and urged his broom faster and faster. It was pure bliss; he felt light and free as he kept climbing up then made a hairpin turn and dashed around one of the high stands. He was drifting lower, regretting that he wasn’t able to break the quidditch trunk out of McGonagall’s office when he noticed a figure far below coming around one of the lower stands.
He froze. This was it. He was caught, he was done for. They would expel him for sure, not only was he on the grounds alone after hours, but he had broken in and stolen school property. He swallowed as he hung in the air. There was only one thing left to do, he would have to confess and apologize. Hopefully they would be merciful and give him another chance. He didn’t care if he had to serve detention for the rest of his life, he wasn’t going to leave Hogwarts. Not willingly.
He slowly glided lower towards the ground and made his way across the field closer to the entrance. But something was wrong, the figure was too small to be Professor McGonagall and they seemed to be wearing school robes. They came closer. He touched down and stared as he recognized the person walking toward him. Mingi. He looked angry and… yeah, scared. Yunho sighed and braced himself.
“Yunho! What are you doing! Are you trying to get yourself expelled?! I didn’t think you could be THIS thick, I mean REALLY!” Mingi grabbed his hand roughly, eyes darting. “Come ON, let's get back inside before someone sees us, honestly…”
Yunho tried to pull away. “Mingi, please. Calm down, you know I wouldn’t do something like this unless it was really important and I was careful, I planned it out and everything!”
Yunho was going along, trying to match Mingi’s pace as they strode back toward the stands. Mingi was barely looking at him, constantly glancing around as if McGonagall was going to jump out from behind a bush and expel them.
He gave a little scoff, “Oh planned it did you, yeah, with no lookouts or way to know if someone was coming, not knowing where the professors, especially McGonagall, would be after dinner. Then not making sure you could get back into the castle, and not even trying to stay out of sight, I mean you’re wearing a white shirt!”
Yunho paused. He knew what this was really about. “I’m sorry Mingi. I should have told you, I know. I just didn’t think you would want to come, you know? I mean how was I supposed to know you would like flying and Quidditch? You wouldn’t-.”
Great. Yunho had already slipped a lie, he didn’t mean to, but saying Mingi wouldn’t understand just sounded wrong.
“This isn’t about Quidditch, Yunho. It’s about us. It shouldn’t have mattered if I wanted to fly myself or not, you should have told me - we do things like this together. What am I supposed to do if you get in trouble? If you’re expelled?? You’re my only friend.”
Mingi stopped walking. “I- I know we haven’t been here that long. Only what, a couple weeks? And we’re in different houses so we don’t see each other as much, but I thought that we would still stick together. And… and I won’t be mad if there’s someone you want to hang out with more than me, but I can’t stand not talking to you Yunho. What’s happening?”
Yunho looked up and met Mingi’s eyes. They were getting misty, and he saw them starting to look more focused, penetrating. Things around Yunho started getting blurry and before he knew it, he was seeing himself joking about Ravenclaws with Wooyoung in the Gryffindor common room, getting frustrated when Mingi was being loud before the sorting and then teasing him behind his back, old memories of him ignoring Mingi when… no. No. NO. Yunho closed his eyes firmly and breathed deeply, focusing on controlling his thoughts and closing his mind. He opened them and things came back into focus. Mingi was still staring at him, hurt.
Yunho pushed past him. “You said you wouldn’t Mingi. You said you wouldn’t use it against me.”
“Yeah? Well maybe I wouldn’t have to if you would just talk to me!”
Great. This was just great. Things were deteriorating rapidly. Yunho had recently learned that what Mingi could do was called legilimency and that it rarely came to people this naturally, even more rarely to those as young as him. Accomplished Legilimens could look into other people’s minds and see memories, especially. The defense against legilimency was called occlumency, Yunho never knew the term before, but he had found a natural proclivity for it. He found out about Mingi’s ability years ago, and Mingi had promised not to abuse it on him. This was going too far.
“You want to talk about honesty, Mingi? You want to talk about loyalty?! How about you don’t dig through my mind?! Maybe that would encourage more loyalty!”
“Yeah, okay, it’s all my fault, is it?! What did I do? Why are you leaving me like this?! I don’t understand! You know I want to do these things together, you’re abandoning me!”
They were facing each other now. They had stormed away from the broom shed where they were supposed to be replacing Yunho’s broom and were now closer to a weird looking willow tree. Yunho dropped the broom and stared down Mingi, who was breathing hard.
“You’re making it sound so much worse than it is, it’s only been two weeks! I haven’t abandoned you just because I’m not dragging you along everywhere! Has it ever occurred to you that I don’t WANT to put you in danger?! That you mean so much to me, I’m terrified at the thought of getting you into REAL trouble!”
There was a split second, a fraction of a second, where they just stood staring at each other. Tears in their eyes, finally starting to understand when-
WHAM
He was gone. Mingi was gone. Where was he what was-
WHAM
Yunho was on his back, the wind knocked out of him. Adrenaline pumping, he scrambled up to see the gnarled old willow tree bending and thrashing about, the branches whipping through the air. Mingi was wrapped in branches flying up around the top. Yunho’s heart skipped a beat as he watched him slip and get caught again. His screams seemed to echo in Yunho’s ears as if he was right next to him. Yunho didn’t have time to think, he didn’t have time to plan, he grabbed the broom off the ground, swung his leg over it and kicked hard.
He rose up faster than he anticipated, but quickly regained his balance and tried to fly straight for Mingi. He had to quickly drop and roll as a huge vine-like branch whipped right where his head had been. He turned back a bit and reassessed, the branches were too unpredictable, how would he reach Mingi without getting knocked off his broom? Just then Mingi was slammed against the trunk with a sickening crunch and Yunho’s heart dropped to his feet. He shot straight at the trunk, dodging two, three branches and pulled out his wand. He had no idea what spell he used or if what he did could even be called magic by school terms, all he knew was that he was terrified and angry and it all seemed to burst from him in a wave. It was as if the tree had been struck dumb, the trunk suddenly froze, all the branches flinging up in the whiplash and Mingi flung up into the air. He was high up, too high. Yunho urged his broom, but he wasn’t going to reach him in time- Mingi started falling, almost gracefully, and Yunho flattened himself against the broom, every particle of his being focused, calculating at what angle he could reach him. He was getting close, almost there, he started a downward arc, 6 feet…4 feet… 2 feet… he slipped under Mingi, feeling his weight fall onto the back of the broom and yanked the handle up a split second before making contact with the ground. He reached back and yanked Mingi up so he wouldn’t fall, then promptly slid off the broom, holding all the boy’s weight. He was shaking hard, and looked anxiously into Mingi’s pale, squeezed-shut face.
Please be alright. Please. You have to be alright
Mingi coughed and his eyes flew open. “Are we back on the ground yet? Because I think I’m gonna hurl-“
Yunho could cry with joy, and he almost did but-
“JEONG YUNHO WHAT ARE YOU DOING?!”
Professor McGonagall was sprinting toward them, a truly formidable sight with her skirts gathered in her hands and her nostrils flaring impressively. Anger, concern, and something else unreadable were etched across her face. Yunho got up shakily and turned to her, trying to think of what to say. She bent down to Mingi, and surveyed him sternly over her spectacles.
“Mr. Song, can you stand?”
“I - I think so, professor.”
“Good. Come now, I will take you to the hospital wing.”
Yunho helped him up and although Mingi still looked a bit green, and had definitely broken a rib or two, he seemed more worried about Yunho.
“Professor, Yunho just saved my life please don’t do anything-”
“I will be the one to decide what I “do” with him, Mr. Song, now come along.”
She supported Mingi’s arm, and turned to Yunho. “Go straight inside and meet me outside my office, no detours.”
As Mingi was taken away, he kept sparing concerned glances over at Yunho and he could tell Mingi was using all his self control not to protest and argue for him. Yunho made his own way to the castle, still in shock, and dragging his feet a bit. He was trying to take in every second, every detail of what he was sure would be his last hours at Hogwarts. Mingi was right, he had been really stupid, in a lot of ways. He had only just arrived, there was so much more he wanted to do, he felt cold and empty at the thought of leaving for good. The hallways passed by far too quickly, before he knew it he was outside McGonagall’s door. There was no one in the hallway, he just stared at a painting a bit further down of a large old-fashioned ship fighting through a stormy sea. He could hear the sailors yelling as they scrambled about and the portrait next door kept complaining about being sprayed with sea water. He heard brisk footsteps and turned to see McGonagall striding up to him.
“This way.” She walked right past him. Confused, Yunho obeyed.
“Um, professor, where are we-”
“You’ll see.”
He figured out soon enough that they were on their way to the Gryffindor common room. Was she having him pack up already? He thought he would at least be formally expelled first. Professor McGonagall spoke the password to the rather bored portrait of the fat lady and poked her head through the portrait hole before he could attempt to go in.
“Wood? Can I see you for a moment?” Sure enough, out climbed Oliver Wood. He gave a slightly confused look to McGonagall, which significantly grew when he saw Yunho. The professor wasted no time,
“Wood, I’ve found you a new seeker.”
Oliver Wood looked shocked, but quickly recovered. “Really? Isn’t he a first year? Well, I mean, does he have experience?” His voice rose in excitement.
“I just saw this boy perform the most gutsy piece of flying I have ever seen in all my years at this school. After foolishly disturbing our whomping willow, he expertly maneuvered every obstacle and saved his friend’s life, with a drop of more than fifty metres to boot. A dive-and-catch like that-“ she eyed him (with was that- pride?) “he’s a born seeker- there’s nothing else for it.”
Wood looked overjoyed. He shook Yunho’s hand vigorously, “Welcome to the team! There won’t be any problems, professor? With him being a first year?”
“You needn’t worry about that, I’ll sort it all out.”
She looked down at Yunho, her expression still stern but with a hint of a smile playing on her lips. “Well, Mr. Jeong, I expect you to practice hard, understand? Make your house proud. Wood, start training him as soon as possible, we don’t have much time.”
Just like that, she left. Yunho felt strange. Was this a dream? He didn’t know whether to be happy or just shocked, so he settled for both. Wood was eager to escort him in and introduce him as the newest member of the team, but halfway through the portrait hole, Yunho came to his senses. Mingi. Making his apologies, he set off for the hospital wing. He wanted to make sure he was really okay, seeing his best friend like that had been really scary. He tried to think of happier things, Mingi wouldn’t believe it, Gryffindor seeker! Not only had he not been expelled, he had gotten what he had (almost) not dared to wish for. He wanted to give Mingi that relief as soon as possible, and made a mental resolution to share it all with him, not just this amazing news but everything, the good and the bad. They were in this together, now and always.
He had to beg Madam Pomfrey to be let in, but she eventually relented and insisted on no longer than ten minutes (“He needs his rest!”). Mingi was sitting up in bed, looking anxious. When he saw Yunho, he made as if to get up. Yunho thought he best get the most important matter out of the way first,
“It’s okay, it’s okay! I’m not expelled!”
Mingi looked like he might pass out. “Oh, man. Whew. Let’s not do that again, right?” he gave a weak laugh “So how bad is it? Detention for how long? A couple months, at least, right?”
“No detention at all, if you’ll believe it, and actually…”
He recounted everything that happened. Mingi turned from surprised to thoughtful and smiled his signature toothy grin when Yunho finished.
“Well, I’m not surprised, not really. Don’t get me wrong, that was crazy luck that it was McGonagall and that she cares about Quidditch so much. But really, it’s about time people recognize your talent. (Yunho felt himself turning red) Wow! Seeker! I guess I’ll have to root for Gryffindor now, Ravenclaw might end up wanting to disown me! I’ll have to stop by and see you practice sometime…”
The rest of their time passed in jokes and laughter, and the time to leave came far too quickly. Yunho got up off of Mingi’s bed reluctantly, but Mingi squeezed his hand and gave him a smile.
“Hey, I’m fine, really. You know it takes more than some grumpy old tree to get at me. It’s all cool, trust me.”
As Yunho reached his dormitory and climbed into bed, he felt strangely calm despite all the chaos of the evening. He and Mingi were going to be okay. And out of everything, that was what mattered the most. No matter what, as long as they had each other, they could face anything. He stared up at the canopy of his four-poster and slipped into dreams full of flying brooms, roaring cheers, a laughing Mingi, and a whomping willow tree getting chased about by an angry professor McGonagall wielding a big beaters’ bat…