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Why did it have to be him ?
Among all the prefects in the entire school, Mix was sure that Earth Pirapat was the worst . The unnecessarily handsome, tan skinned, really quite fit, friendly with everyone else, worst .
Consider: Mix was absolutely minding his own business, going up to the astronomy tower because he’d forgotten to mark the position of Saturn in his star chart, and there Earth was, leaning against the door as though he’d been expecting him.
“What?” Mix asked, trying to just shove past him.
Earth held out an arm to block his way and Mix could have sworn he was smirking. “You’re out of bed and it’s past curfew.”
“I’m in your own house,” Mix pointed out. “You can’t dock points from your own house.”
“I can if someone in my own house breaks the rules,” Earth replied, and Mix was sure he was mocking him in the way he said ‘own house’.
In conclusion, the absolute worst .
“I just need a few minutes, okay? I just need to mark out where Saturn is and I’ll go back.”
“How do I know that’s not an excuse? Everyone knows what people actually come up here for.”
Of course Mix knew. Everyone had stories of torrid makeout sessions on the Astronomy tower. Well, Mix didn’t have those stories but that’s because the OWLs were more important than making out.
“So is that why you’re here?” he asked instead of answering. “To cockblock people who come up here because you’re too full of yourself?”
Earth might have blushed, it was hard to tell in the torchlight. Mix wondered if it’s because he used the word ‘cockblock’ and it was too much for the do-gooder.
“I’m here to make sure no one breaks curfew,” Earth said finally, his voice stern.
“I told you, I just need three minutes to mark-”
“Five points from Gryffindor.”
Mix’s jaw dropped. This arsehole actually took points from his own damn house?
His wand hand twitched to just stupefy the prefect for an hour or so but that would probably make Earth take even more points off because he was clearly an insane person.
“Fine,” Mix snapped. “You know what? Fine, keep your precious tower to yourself.” He turned on his heel and stalked back to Gryffindor tower, barking the password and practically flinging himself into the nearest armchair.
“I’m guessing you couldn’t find Saturn?”
He hadn’t even noticed Win sitting at the low table, working on his own star chart.
“No,” Mix replied. “Because Earth was there.”
Win’s face was one of wonder. “At the astronomy tower? With whom ?”
“With nobody. Who would want to be with him?” Mix muttered.
“You,” Win laughed, because Win apparently didn’t fear Mix’s ability to cast an Unforgivable.
Mix ignored what his friend had suggested and continued. “He took points off me, Win! For being out past curfew. He took points off his own house!”
“I’ll do it again if you break the rules,” said a voice, as Earth passed them to put up a notice on the board by the mantle.
“Are you just following me around the school now?” Mix demanded.
Earth smirked. “You should be so lucky.”
“Y ou should be so lucky ,” Mix muttered under his breath, then, louder, “What? The astronomy tower doesn’t need guarding anymore? I still can’t believe you stopped me from doing homework.”
Earth opened his mouth as if he was going to reply, then shook his head. “You should have done your homework before curfew.”
Mix rolled his eyes. “Spare me the lecture, I just forgot I needed Saturn to finish the chart. And if you had just let me go instead of wasting my time I would’ve been back at the dorm and I wouldn’t feel like strangling you.”
“I can take points off for threatening a prefect, you know.”
Mix grabbed the nearest object - which turned out to be Win’s inkpot, and threw it at Earth. Who - damn it, quidditch player - caught it. And smirked again. “Good night. Don’t stay up too late.”
Mix wondered if he could stealthily cast a jinx on him and get away with it.
Win looked to be on the verge of falling over with laughter. “You should see yourselves,” he said. “It’s like those muggle films Khao makes us watch.”
Mix gave him a dark look. “I hope you mean the ones about the psychotic killers because I don’t see any other resolution to this.”
“Sure, Mix.” Win’s laugh was almost a giggle. “We’ll see.”
-
Luckily, the next morning Win was able to convince Mix to accept the coordinates for Saturn from Win’s Ravenclaw boyfriend, and Mix was able to hand in his homework to Professor Sinistra in the knowledge that he would get a perfect grade on it. But it wasn’t satisfying . He hadn’t done the work himself, and it bothered him.
They had Professor Aof’s Transfiguration Class later that day, and Mix did a double take when he saw Earth standing beside the professor’s desk.
“What is he doing here?” Mix muttered.
Beside him, Khaotung piped up, “Ooh maybe we learn about the animagus transformation today!”
Mix whipped around to face his friend. “Earth’s an animagus ?”
“Calm down, no he’s not, but I heard he’s taking special classes with Professor Aof to master it.”
Mix frowned. As if Earth could. The animagus transformation was a complex spell and required far more dedication than Mr-Holier-Than-Thou could manage.
“You should really fix your face,” Khaotung pointed out. “You look too murderous.”
“That’s just what I look like when I see his face,” Mix said, as they shuffled into their seats.
Professor Aof was a small, wiry man but they’d heard he could hold his own against Headmistress McGonagall in a Transfiguration contest. Mix liked him because he liked to challenge the students to find answers for themselves and did not hold their hands while teaching them new concepts.
However, Professor Aof seemed to be fond of Earth. That was a definite point against him, as far as Mix was concerned. As the professor explained the basics of animagus transformation, Mix caught Earth’s eye from where he was standing at the head of the class. He made a face. Earth rolled his eyes, but Mix saw his hands move stealthily to form a rude gesture.
“... the full moon,” Professor Aof was saying. “Mister Wongratch, is my assistant’s face so distracting that you can’t focus on my lecture?”
Mix blinked. “No professor,” he said immediately, stomping on Khaotung’s foot because he heard his friend giggle.
Professor Aof eyed him for a long moment. “All right then, you can help with the demonstration today. To master the animagus transformation, you need to have discipline, self control, planning and most importantly, a strong grasp of transformation magic. Now...” He reached under his desk and pulled out a series of objects - a thimble, a pair of opera glasses, a teapot, and a pincushion. “Some of these are transfigured animals, some are not. I want the two of you to demonstrate how to detect whether something has been Transfigured or not, and then, how to change it back… Do you think you can do that?”
Mix got to his feet, not quite able to keep the confident smile from his lips. “Of course, Professor.”
-
In hindsight, Earth thought, he should have been the bigger man.
So maybe this Fifth Year got on his nerves a little bit more than others. Earth wasn’t sure what it was, whether it was that wicked gleam that Mix had in his eyes, or the way he was always so quick with a retort, or that radiant smile that Earth had seen him share with his friends when they shared a table in the Great Hall…
Anyway, Earth was still a whole year older than Mix, and a Prefect to boot, and he should have been better than to start a squabble over detection charms in Professor Aof’s classroom.
It started off innocently enough, they had been tasked with identifying which of a series of objects had been Transfigured, and Mix had insisted that they start by casting Revelio while Earth had insisted that they save time with Reverte spells.
“But what if we cast Reverte and the object turns back into whatever it started off as,” Mix hissed, as they faced the items on Professor Aof’s desk, while the man wandered among the students assigning them work of their own. “What if the pincushion just turns into cotton?”
“Our magic isn’t that strong, Mix,” Earth replied, because who had ever heard of such a thing, anyway. “Revelio is a waste of time.”
“But it’s also more accurate.”
“Reverte is perfectly accurate too.”
Mix made a noise of frustration. “This is you with the astronomy tower again, wasting time arguing, I’m just going -”
Earth saw him raise his wand and he followed suit immediately. Two could play at this game, and he was sure he was quicker on the spell release than Mix.
“ Revelio !”
“ Reverte !”
So they probably should have at least pointed at different objects. But instead they had both chosen the teapot as their target. They watched in horror as the delicate porcelain vessel started glowing red hot, changing form into an amorphous blob that was radiating an immense amount of heat. They ducked under the desk just in time for the whole thing to explode in a shower of alabaster dust.
And that was how Earth Pirapat Watthanatsetsiri, Gryffindor prefect, Quidditch team chaser, and in line to be Head Boy next year, had gotten detention.
On the bright side, the teapot had not been an animal before, so at least they hadn’t murdered an innocent creature.
-
It appeared that the whole of Gryffindor house had heard about how their bickering had caused an explosion in a classroom.
Namtan, for all that she was his close friend and fellow Prefect, did not stop laughing all through dinner. “So what’s the detention going to be?” she managed between mouthfuls of treacle pudding that she was somehow eating without choking. “Oh I wish I could see the look on Professor Aof’s face!”
“How did you do that, though,” Nammon wanted to know. “How did you make something explode?”
“I don’t know, it was obviously not my fault,” Earth said, wilfully not looking down the table at where Mix was undoubtedly having a similar conversation with his friends.
“Well serves you right from taking points off your own house just because you can’t deal with a crush-”
Earth slapped his hand over Nammon’s mouth, looking around to make sure no one had overheard. Namtan, who had, and was very aware of the situation, was now gulping down pumpkin juice, her face red with amusement.
Earth needed better friends.
As if on cue, Tay walked up to them from where he’d been chatting with the professors about something. The Head Boy had a somewhat concerned look on his face as he approached, which to Earth suggested that it was about his detention.
“What did you do to piss off Professor Aof so much?” Tay asked, squeezing himself between Nammon and Earth and ignoring the former’s protests that a Ravenclaw was usurping their property. “He’s assigned you and Mix detention for six nights in a row, starting tonight.”
“Did he say what it was?”
Tay shook his head. “You know how he is, he wants us to experience things and learn from them on our own. But even when Newwie and I set fire to the potions lab, he let us off pretty easy, but maybe that’s because it was when he was having that feud with Professor Godji. Anyway,” he said, finally stopping for breath, “You’re meeting him in the entrance hall after dinner. I’ll go tell Mix too. Don’t be late and make him even angrier.”
And with that, he was gone.
After dinner Earth made his way to the Entrance Hall and found Mix already there, looking at the hourglasses that held their House Point totals. Gryffindor was behind Slytherin by about thirty-five points - twenty of which he and Mix had lost earlier that day, and five -
“I’m just going to say, this is all your fault,” Mix said, just as Earth came to stand next to him.
“It is not,” Earth replied immediately. “If anything, it’s yours.”
“If anything?” Mix demanded, glaring up at him. “I’ll -”
“I’m tired already,” said a voice, and they turned to see Professor Aof watching them with a weary expression. “Come on, there’s a reason we’re doing this.”
He led them in the general direction of the Care of Magical Creatures enclosure, and Earth was suddenly afraid that the detention would involve Professor Hagrid. While their half-giant professor was definitely well meaning, he had very strange ideas of what did and didn’t involve endangerment of students.
Thankfully, Professor Aof moved to a small house-like structure that had definitely not been on the grounds before. He unlocked the door with a spell and led them inside, where they were immediately greeted by the sound of a cat’s meow, though no such thing was in sight. It was a small, sparsely furnished room with nothing more than a couple of armchairs and a fireplace and a small table, besides which there stood what appeared to be several large branching sets of clothes stands that were taller than Earth himself.
“We recently were given a nekomata,” the professor said.
“A what-” Earth began, but cut himself off when Mix immediately asked -
“A magical cat?”
“Yes, Mister Wongratch. We believe it was treated badly by its old owner and has turned quite vengeful. I want the two of you to help Hagrid look after it for the next six days.”
“Look after it?” Earth repeated, while out of the corner of his eye he noticed that Mix was wandering about the room, presumably looking for the cat. “Isn’t that something for the Care of Magical Creatures -”
Professor Aof silenced him with a look. “Are you forgetting that this is a detention, Mr Watthanatsetsiri? That’s why we built this enclosure specifically for Sayuri. Professor Hagrid is handling her most of the time but needs assistance for a few hours every night. That’s where you two come in.”
Mix was looking under the armchairs. “Where is Sayuri, Professor?”
The man smiled. “Well, you’re looking in the wrong place, that’s for certain. She’s too big to be under there.”
Mix got to his feet, while Earth looked around the room for any sign of a magical cat.
Professor Aof cleared his throat, raised his voice and pronounced a spell that neither of them had heard before.
There was a sound, like the soft bang of a distant firework, and suddenly, perched atop the fireplace mantle, was a huge tabby cat with bright green eyes and two long tails that twitched as it watched them.
Mix approached it, raising a cautious hand.
It hissed, and Mix took a step back. It should have been funny if it weren’t slightly terrifying.
Earth was… all right with magical creatures. He didn’t have a talent for it, though he had heard that Mix was hoping to follow a career in the field. If he was lucky, they could get through this detention with minimal incident.
Professor Aof handed him a roll of parchment. “This is everything you need to know about taking care of Sayuri. Nekomata are nocturnal so you don’t have to worry about her during the day. But I expect the two of you here every night after dinner until Professor Hagrid arrives to relieve you, is that clear?”
“Yes, sir,” they said in unison.
The man raised a warning finger. “And don’t you dare let me hear that you two got into another useless squabble and made a mess of things again, all right?”
Earth couldn’t help but cast a sidelong glance at the younger student, and caught Mix looking back. They turned to Professor Aof. “Yes, sir.”
-
It was easier said than done.
Earth was still reading the parchment of instructions for nekomata care the next morning, ignoring the plate loaded with breakfast in front of him but slapping away Namtan’s hand as she reached to steal a sausage.
“Nekomata have very sensitive stomachs…” Earth read, “They’ll only eat mackerel grilled with salt…” He slumped his head on the table. “Don’t tell me we have to cook for the thing.”
“Detention can’t just be to play with a cat,” Namtan pointed out, munching on a sausage that Earth realised was the one he had stopped her from taking earlier. “Your co-detentee doesn’t seem too worried,” she added, tilting her head in the direction of where, further down the table, Mix had an arm slung over Khaotung’s shoulders as they laughed over something that had come for the other boy in the morning owl post.
And here was the thing. Mix seemed to get along fine with everyone except him. It was like from the day he’d come to Hogwarts he’d decided that Earth was his mortal enemy and he’d do anything to make Earth miserable.
Their very first argument, Earth recalled, was one week into Mix’s first year at the school. Earth had made an off-hand comment over something he couldn’t even remember anymore, and Mix had reacted angrily, and the whole thing had escalated into an amateur duel that had to be stopped by the nearest available teacher.
Even after Earth had become a Prefect, Mix continued to deliberately do things that forced him to react, constantly breaking this rule or that, arguing back just to be contrary.
Snapping himself out of his reverie, he got to his feet, rolling up the parchment. He walked over to where Mix and his friends were and tapped the roll on Mix’s head.
“Here,” he said. “You need to do your reading too.”
Mix glared at him, the mirth disappearing from his face immediately. “I don’t need it to know about Nekomata,” he said.
“Keep it anyway,” Earth stated, all but shoving it in Mix’s face. “I’ll meet you in the Great Hall after dinner.”
-
All things considered, it was actually fortunate they didn’t burn the whole enclosure down on the first night.
Mix knew his magical creatures well. He’d been interested in them since he was a child with a pet puffskein and he was still interested in them. He’d never seen a nekomata before, but it couldn’t be that difficult to figure it out. Contrary to what he’d told Earth, he did go through the parchment of instructions Professor Aof had given them, more out of a kind of surety that the prefect couldn’t possibly remember all of that than anything else.
Sayuri was on her preferred position on the mantle when they arrived, her two tails hanging lazily in front of the unlit grate.
They had gotten the kitchens to grill some mackerel for the nekomata’s dinner, and Earth put the plate down on the low table near the fireplace.
They watched Sayuri and Sayuri watched them.
“How do we get her to eat it?” Earth asked eventually.
“Maybe she’s not hungry.”
“That is mackerel, isn’t it?”
“You were the one who asked the house elves to prepare it.”
“Maybe there isn’t enough of a scent from it?”
“I can smell it all the way here,” Mix said. “Maybe she wants it taken to her?”
“What did the instructions say?”
Mix rounded on him. “Didn’t you read them too? Why should I know?”
Earth made a face. “Weren’t you the one who said he didn’t need the instructions at all?”
Mix opened his mouth to retort, realised that Earth did have a point, and shut it. He glared instead, then marched forward and picked up the plate of fish, raising it to the cat’s level.
Sayuri’s gaze did not shift away from them. She made a noise, somewhere between a growl and a purr, and Mix started to take an instinctive step back.
“Wait!” Earth exclaimed. “The instructions said she can sense fear and try to make us more afraid!”
“But what if she attacks me?” Mix asked, although he did remember reading that point.
“Uh- she probably won’t.”
“Probably?!” Mix demanded, not taking his eyes off the nekomata.
The cat suddenly swung her tails downwards and Mix leapt a foot backwards as the fireplace suddenly flared up with blueish green flames.
The fire didn’t stay in the grate but leapt forward after him, and there was a crash as Mix dropped the plate of fish in alarm, just as an arm wrapped around his chest and yanked him backwards out of the range of the flames.
The flames receded in the next moment and the cat that had been calmly watching all this happen hopped down from her position on the mantle and nosed through the broken shards of plate for the blackened mackerel on the floor, which she immediately gobbled up. Green eyes turned up at them and Mix was sure the nekomata looked amused before she curled up on the floor right there.
The corner of Mix’s robes was singed and he sagged backwards, catching his breath. He leaned his head back and only then did he realise that he was leaning on Earth, and that Earth’s arm was still around him, and that Earth looked nearly as shocked as Mix felt.
“You can let me go now,” Mix said, breaking free of the hold.
“Ah. Yeah, are you all right?”
Mix brushed the soot off his robes. “I’m fine. You look like you’ve seen a ghost.”
“You almost caught fire,” Earth said. “It would have been your ghost.”
Mix stifled a laugh because he refused to admit that Earth was funny.
“Thanks,” he said, not looking at the prefect. “For pulling me away in time.”
“Professor Aof would never understand if I got you killed on the first day.”
Mix couldn’t hold back the chuckle this time. “That would look pretty bad.”
Neither of them wanted to go near Sayuri so they chose to slump on the far wall of the room, watching the magical cat sleep.
“She’s a monster,” Earth said. “Why did she do that?”
Mix considered the moment thoughtfully, taking in the broken plate shards on the floor. “I think we need to do more than just grill the fish.”
“Oh?” Earth asked. “We have to… oh! We have to burn it.”
Mix nodded. “I’d think this was Sayuri’s way of telling us that.”
Earth leaned his head against the wall. “Figures.”
They were still like that when Professor Hagrid came to relieve them at around midnight with a “‘course you gotta burn it, didn’ Professor Aof tell ya? She’s too picky to be okay with jus’ grillin’”, and realised that they definitely had their work cut out for them.
-
The second day of catsitting was relatively disaster free. Mix found himself hating Earth a little less, which was horrifying to think of after five years of wholehearted dislike. It was like the prefect had developed a soft side. Suddenly. It had definitely not existed before.
Sayuri approved of their burnt fish offering and actually came down from her usual perch. She was at least three feet tall and came up to Mix’s waist, but she wound around them like a housecat, sniffing and whipping her two tails at them, before starting to climb on one of the tree-like structures on the far wall.
“Ohh that’s what those are for,” Earth said in wonder.
Mix huffed a laugh. “What did you think they were?”
“Clothes hangers.”
“What?”
Earth seemed to be searching for a way to explain. He waved his hands vaguely to convey a shape. “Clothes - clothes stands? The things you used to hang up clothes?”
“I have no idea what you’re talking about,” Mix said. “Why do we need to hang up clothes, we can just dry them and pack… oh god you’re muggleborn, aren’t you?”
“Is that a problem?”
Mix shook his head. “I just thought… you’re so good at quidditch, I thought you’re from a magical family.”
Earth was smiling and Mix realised he had paid the older boy a compliment.
“I’m so good at quidditch, hmm?”
“Shut up,” Mix muttered, feeling his skin prickle with the rising blush.
“You said it, you can’t take it back.”
Mix shoved him. “You’re so insufferable.”
“Takes one to know one,” Earth retorted, but he was laughing. “C’mon,” he continued, going to sit in one of the armchairs. “I think we can take a rest today.”
Mix settled into the other one and they watched the nekomata climb around the branching structure in silence. He wondered if he should make conversation.
“That night,” Earth began. “At the astronomy tower -”
Mix felt himself get riled up immediately. “Oh for fu-”
“Did you really just want to finish your homework?”
“Yes!” Mix said, more of a groan than an actual word. “I had to copy off Bright, thanks to you.”
Earth looked amused rather than rueful, because he was an arsehole. “Should have kept to the curfew.”
Mix narrowed his eyes at him, folding his arms across his chest and shifting until he was further into his armchair. “I hate you.”
-
Day three with Sayuri, and Mix had decided to carry his books along to detention because the nekomata seemed to be behaving and he didn’t want to spend that long trying to make awkward conversation with Earth.
“On the plus side, you’re both in one piece,” Khaotung remarked as they walked to the Greenhouses for double Herbology with the Ravenclaws. “I’m pretty sure many of our classmates have money on that.”
“Well there’s three nights left,” Mix told him. “He’s sure to piss me off before they’re over.”
“I dunno,” Khao said, “Podd said he heard Namtan tell Janhae that she heard Earth tell Nammon that you’re not that bad.”
“Well, you can tell Podd that you heard me tell Win that Earth is still pretentious.”
“I’m not gonna do that,” said Khao. “But I do think that Earth is making an effort to be friendly and you should too.”
“Yes, mum .”
Mix ended up hanging back after the Herbology class for an additional lecture Professor Sprout had on the useful properties of the venomous tentacula, which made him late for dinner. He swallowed everything on the plate before grabbing his bag and heading out to the Entrance Hall.
Earth arrived a little after he did, the mackerel in one hand and a wrapped parcel in the other, which he handed to Mix.
“A peace offering, for making you have to copy off Bright.”
Mix frowned, opening it to find a few still warm pork buns.
“I love pork buns, how did you even know?”
Earth smiled. “I told you, it’s a peace offering. And I saw you were late for dinner so you’re probably hungry.”
“If this is a ploy to get me to like you-”
“Why would I want you to like me?” Earth asked innocently.
Mix bit into a pork bun in lieu of replying.
Sayuri was even friendlier with them today. She came to greet them at the door, ate her burnt fish, and rubbed against them like a real cat. Mix could have sworn he’d heard her purr.
She went to play and they retreated to the armchairs, Mix starting on his second pork bun and offering the last to Earth.
“Peace offering,” he said, through a mouthful of bread.
Earth broke off half of it and left him the rest. “I’m not hungry.”
Mix shrugged. His loss.
“So,” Earth said, a few minutes later. “Is this a truce?”
Mix considered. On the one hand, Earth was still an annoying prefect and senior. On the other hand, Khao had said that he was trying to be nicer and if they were friends maybe he’d stop being so annoying. He swallowed the last of the pork bun and clapped his hands to brush the crumbs, held out a hand. “Truce.”
Earth stretched his hand out but bypassed Mix’s altogether, instead raising it to Mix’s face to thumb at his cheek, just by the corner of his mouth.
“Are you an actual child?” Earth asked, though his tone was so gentle that Mix forgot to be insulted. His chest bloomed with a strange sort of warmth - the kind you feel when you find your right wand - a tingling feeling where Earth’s thumb lingered on his cheek.
Mix wanted to pout or dispute the claim, but Earth’s expression was unlike anything he had ever seen on the older boy’s face, like he’d never seen Mix before. It made him feel too many things that he couldn’t immediately parse, so he - slowly - leaned out of Earth’s touch.
“Truce?” he repeated, his hand still held out.
Earth took it, and if he held onto it for a moment longer than absolutely necessary during a handshake, neither of them complained.
-
“Here,” Mix said to Earth when they reached Sayuri’s little enclosure on the fourth night of detention. He held out the box of sweets he’d gotten from Honeydukes on their last trip to Hogsmeade.
Earth blinked.
“My half of the truce,” Mix said. “Here, I haven’t even opened it yet.”
“And they’re not poisoned at all?”
“Not this time,” Mix replied with his cheekiest grin.
Sayuri seemed almost happy to see them. She bumped her head against their hands and Mix tentatively reached out to pet her. This time, the sound she made was very certainly a purr. She also revealed to them that her magical abilities were actually more than they’d imagined or seen thus far, making her dinner float out of the plate and dance around in the air before she snapped the fish up, then looked at Earth and Mix as though waiting for their praise.
They applauded, and Mix gave her a few head pats. Sayuri actually spent time curled up on the floor near their chairs before going to her usual climbing wall.
“This doesn’t feel much like a detention, does it?” Mix asked, looking up from where he’d been marking out passages in his Transfiguration textbook.
“It does not,” Earth agreed. He’d brought a potions essay along to proof-read, and he had jut realised he’d put in ‘myrtle’ instead of ‘murtlap’. “I think Professor Aof just wanted us to get along… And someone to look after Sayuri.”
Mix’s gaze shifted to the giant demon cat that was currently awkwardly hanging between two platforms. “Do you think it worked?”
“We called a truce, didn’t we?” Earth asked, then added, “And… I think we’re kind of friends now?”
“I think so too,” Mix agreed.
They read in silence for a while, absently munching on the snacks that Mix had brought.
“Ugh, Vanishing spells are the worst,” Mix muttered.
“Need a hand?”
Mix nodded, not looking up from the book. Earth moved to perch on the arm of Mix’s chair, leaning over to look over his shoulder.
“Ahh, it’s the Principle of Artificianimate Quasi-Dominance,” Earth said. “It’s part of Conjuring, only mentioned here so you understand how it works… Professor Aof is really good at explaining this.”
“So I don’t need to learn it by-heart yet?”
Mix turned his head to look at him, and realised in that moment how close their faces were, with Earth still leaning over his shoulder. Close enough to - he caught Earth’s gaze as well, saw his eyes flicker to Mix’s own mouth - and Mix leaned in to close the distance.
It was a gentle kiss, a careful one that tasted of Honeydukes sweets, and still Mix could feel his heart pounding like the beat of a drum. He had never been kissed before but if this was what a first kiss felt like, his heart about to burst with the feeling of rushing blood, he never wanted to stop -
The sound of Hagrid’s heavy step on the threshold made them break apart, and they silently gathered their books as the half-giant professor happily greeted Sayuri, and them, and told them to hurry back to the castle.
They trekked back to Gryffindor tower in silence. Mix thought that like him, Earth wasn’t sure what they were supposed to say, even as they climbed through the portrait hole and into the deserted Common Room.
Mix had just decided that it was best that they never brought this up again, already making his way towards the stairs to the Fifth Year dorms when Earth stopped him with a hand on his wrist.
“Mix-”
Mix’s second kiss knocked the very breath out of him as Earth pressed up against the wall beside the staircase, Mix’s arms around Earth’s neck, the older boy’s fingers cupping his cheek and holding him close. One of them - Mix didn’t know who - made a soft sound, a hum of pleasure - and they broke apart, Earth stepping back breathlessly.
Earth swallowed. Mix couldn’t stop looking at him. “We - we should go to bed.”
Mix nodded, unconsciously licking his lips. Earth leaned in to kiss him again but pulled way without deepening it.
“Bed. Yours. Go,” Earth said.
“Are you sure?” Mix asked, feeling amusement bubbling up now at the expression of a man praying for control on Earth’s face.
“I’m sure. Good night, Mix.”
“Good night, Earth.”
-
Earth was on his way to his advanced Defence Against the Dark Arts class when he was intercepted by Podd and Neen.
“There you are!” Podd said. “Quidditch practice tonight! The match against Slytherin is coming up and so help me if I can’t wipe that smug look off Luke’s face.”
“I have Professor Aof’s detention for the rest of the week,” Earth said.
“But the match is on Monday!” Neen exclaimed. “You’re going to miss the whole week of practice!”
“Why can’t we keep practicing in the mornings?”
Podd made a disgruntled face. “Because Newwie’s gone and booked the pitch for Ravenclaw in the mornings. I’m lucky to’ve gotten a slot at all.”
“We need more practice if we’re going to stand up to Slytherin,” Neen said. “And you know our Chaser formations aren’t perfect yet.”
“Aren’t you just looking after a cat with Mix?” Podd asked. He lowered his voice and leaned closer to make sure no one else could overhear. “I’m sure he can take care of it for a couple of nights. We just won’t let the professor know, alright? C’mon, Earth, if we beat Slytherin we have a clear path to the finals!”
Earth knew it was Podd’s last year and his only chance to win the Quidditch cup. It would be pretty bad if Earth’s lack of practice led to them losing. Of course, he didn’t want to practice, he wanted to spend time with Sayuri and Mix and maybe do more of what they’d done the night before.
And wasn’t that a strange twist?
“Okay, I’ll talk to Mix,” he said.
“Good. We’ll all have dinner early and meet at the pitch. You can go back to your cat in a couple of hours and no one will ever know.”
Earth made his way to Gryffindor tower in hopes of finding Mix or at least one of his friends in the common room. They usually hogged the chairs closest to the fire and the others usually let them. Sure enough, Mix and Khaotung were squished together in one of the big armchairs, Mix leaning into the smaller boy with an arm around his shoulders as the two of them looked over a large book together.
They looked so cosy and content and Earth tried to tell himself that the bitter taste on his tongue wasn’t jealousy.
“I need to talk to you,” Earth said, belatedly realising he was a little louder than he probably should have been, because a few heads rose around the common room.
Mix turned his head up to face him, and possibly for the first time in Earth’s memory, smiled at him: a tiny quirk of his lips that nearly drove what he was there to talk about out of Earth’s mind. Mix had the most distracting lips.
“Ah. I need to talk to you. In private.” He couldn’t help but glance at Khaotung, who untangled himself and excused himself almost immediately.
“What’s up? Do you want to talk somewhere else?” Mix asked. There was a sparkle in his eye, and Earth once again summoned his self control.
“No, here is fine. I need a favour,” Earth said.
“Oh?”
“I’ve missed too many evening practice sessions. Can you cover for me for a couple of hours for the next two days? I’ll be back before Hagrid gets there.” He wasn’t sure how to read Mix’s expression, which was strangely neutral, so he continued. “Sayuri gets along with us now... It should be fine, it’s just watching her and you can do that on your own… You won’t even notice that I’m not there.”
Mix studied him for a long moment. “Okay,” he said finally. “But if you’re not back before Professor Hagrid arrives I’m not covering for you.”
Impulsively, Earth reached to ruffle the younger boy’s hair. “Thanks, Mix. I owe you.”
-
Earth tried his best to focus on formations throughout practice but he couldn’t help but deny that his mind kept flicking to the little hut and whether Mix was having any trouble with Sayuri. It was probably fine, he thought, catching Neen’s pass and smoothly sending the quaffle to Win as Podd called out instructions from somewhere near the goalposts.
It was all going quite well until someone screamed. Earth saw a shape dart across the pitch, bathed in very familiar blue-green flames. Flames that were now floating in the air around the quidditch pitch. The scream had been from when their seeker, Film, had very nearly avoided being scorched by one appearing right next to her.
He pointed his broom down and flew as fast as he could, alighting with a little stumble just in time to come face to face with Mix, who had apparently run all the way there, his face white and eyes wide with horror.
“What happened?!” Earth demanded.
“She - she got -”
Earth didn’t wait for an explanation, he drew his wand and shot off a dousing spell for the flames, already looking for a sign of the nekomata.
“I thought you said you could handle it!” Earth said, as he cast his gaze around the pitch.
“I can handle it,” Mix protested.
Earth spun around to face him. “This is not handling it! How could you let her out of the enclosure?”
“I didn’t!”
“ It looks like she’s outside, Mix! I can’t believe I left this to you! ” Earth had no idea how they were going to explain this to Professor Aof. And they’d have to explain why Earth hadn’t been with Mix at the time, and he’d probably end up facing a suspension or- “This has got to be the most irresponsible -”
“ Will you stop shouting for just one second?! ”
Mix shoved past him and into the middle of pitch, though there was no sign of Sayuri to be seen until - and Earth couldn’t see what he was doing but there was a glow like lamplight from Mix’s hand, and suddenly, the nekomata appeared as if out of thin air, stalking towards him and putting her head in his hand as if eating something out of it.
Earth hurried over just as Sayuri stepped away from Mix and all but leapt at him, brushing her head against his chin like a housecat and not a fearsome magical beast the size of a tiger.
It suddenly dawned on Earth why Sayuri had come here to the quidditch pitch. “Were you looking for me-?”
“Nekomata can teleport themselves over short distances. She got out of the enclosure and came here to find you. Thanks for thinking I’d done something wrong the first chance you got.”
Earth winced. Now that the anger was fading he knew he’d probably jumped the gun a little bit and - He looked up at Mix and felt his heart clench at the look on his face.
“I -”
“Just take her back to the enclosure,” Mix said, turning on his heel. “She’ll obey you if you have a lit oil lamp in your hand. Tell Hagrid I was sick or something. I’m going back to the dorms.”
“Mix-”
“I think you should probably let him go,” said a voice beside him and only then did Earth realise that the whole quidditch team had been witness to that little incident. Podd gave him a rueful look. “Do you need a hand with the ghost cat?”
Earth shook his head. “I’ll take her back… See you tomorrow, Podd.”
As Mix had said, Sayuri was very willing to follow him when he Conjured an oil lamp and led the way back to the enclosure.”
Professor Hagrid was already waiting outside, and Earth prepared to lie.
“Got away, did she?” Hagrid laughed before Earth said anything. “I was wonderin’ why she never tried that till now. Runs off all the time when I’m watchin’ her. Figured she was just fond o’you two… Where’s Mix?”
“He’s - he was unwell so he went up just now.”
“Ohh tha’s too bad. I can’t sign off on the detention if he doesn’t come tomorrow, though, so tell him that.”
“I will,” Earth said, although he was already wondering how he could even get Mix to listen to him again.
-
Earth didn’t see Mix anywhere the entirety of the next day, but he knew two things. The first was that he’d misjudged the situation in his panic yesterday and hurt Mix’s feelings. The second was that hurting Mix’s feelings made him feel terrible. Earth didn’t like leaving things unresolved, and he decided that he would somehow make amends.
Mix was waiting in the Entrance Hall after dinner, book bag slung over his shoulder and examining the House Point Hourglasses, just like he had been on the first night of their detention.
Earth realised that he had perhaps undone all the progress - or whatever more - they’d achieved over the past few days.
“Mix,” he began.
“We don’t need to talk,” Mix said, leading the way out of the castle.
Once they reached Sayuri’s enclosure, Mix waited till Earth had fed the nekomata, who seemed to be less playful, perhaps reading their mood, and said, “You can go to your practice now. Unless you think I’ll fail again.”
“I don’t think -”
Mix’s glare was laced with venom. “Fine, stay here if you think I can’t handle it.”
“That’s not it,” Earth said. “Can you please let me talk?”
Mix ignored him, choosing to read his Advanced Potion Making textbook instead.
Earth felt something nudge his hand and saw that Sayuri was watching him, an eerie look in her eyes.
“You shouldn’t have run out after me,” he told the cat. “I was scared and angry.”
Sayuri meowed. It was unnerving to hear the sound come out of such a big creature, but Earth found it endearing as well.
“I jumped to a conclusion because I was breaking the rules too, so I was afraid I’d get into trouble. I took it out on Mix, and that was unfair.” He flicked his gaze to Mix, to see if he was listening to his indirect apology. Mix was still reading his book but maybe - and Earth could’ve been imagining things - he looked a little less angry?
Sayuri padded over to Mix and nudged his knee with her head. He looked at her, his expression sulky rather than angry.
“What? I’m busy. Go play with someone else.”
The book caught on fire.
It was very sudden but the blue-green flames spread out from the centre of Advanced Potion Making, and Mix flung the book away with a shout.
Earth was there in an instant, wand drawn and a healing spell on his lips as he grabbed Mix’s hands, checking for any sign of burns.
Mix flung out an extinguishing charm at his book - wandlessly, Earth noted, more than a little impressed - and tried to free his other hand from Earth’s grasp.
“I’m fine!” he said, while Earth checked the pale skin of his palms. “You can let go now.”
Earth let out a sigh of relief. “I don’t want to,” he said, kneeling on the floor next to Mix’s chair. “I’m sorry about yesterday.”
Mix pouted at Earth, turning his head away so as not to look at him. “I’m cross with you. You didn’t respect the truce that you called.”
“I did try to apologise.”
“That’s not the point.”
“Okay,” Earth conceded. “But I am sorry.”
“Prove it.”
Earth kissed his hand.
“Wha-!” He glared at him, trying ineffectually to pull his hand back. “ Earth! ”
“Can we reinstate the truce?”
“No.”
“Mix.”
“No.”
He kissed his hand again. “Please?”
“No.”
“Then will you be my boyfriend?”
Mix whipped his head around, eyes wide. “What-!?”
Earth didn’t know where the question had come from, but it had felt right. After five years of arguing over nothing, it was like it was the only thing that made sense to him.
Earth smiled up at him. “I like you, Mix. I think - I probably have for a while now. So - do you - Will you?”
-
Consider: Here Mix was again, at the entrance to the Astronomy Tower, his way blocked by the smirking Sixth Year prefect.
“You’re not seriously going to stop me again, are you?” Mix asked. “You can take points off your own house but you wouldn’t take points off -” he stopped, because even after a week it felt weird to say it out loud.
“Off whom?” Earth teased, leaning into Mix’s face. “Why wouldn’t I take points off you?”
Mix stamped his foot. Yes it was childish but he had been told it was endearing, and endearing would work in his favour now. “ Earth ,” he warned.
“Say the word and I might let you get past me.”
“Boyfriend,” Mix muttered, rolling his eyes.
Earth straightened up, and Mix looked up to see the delighted grin on his face that honestly made this whole thing worth it. “Guess I’ll keep my word then,” Earth said, stepping aside so Mix could go out into the starlit night.
Saturn was bright in the sky, right beside Jupiter, and Mix lit his wand to mark both planets in his star chart.
He heard the sound of the door closing behind him and smiled to himself. “Really, Earth, what are you doing out here?” he asked, turning around to see Earth watching him.
Earth gave him a pointed, wolfish look. “Everyone knows what people actually come up here for.”
Tay caught them not long later, robes in disarray and hair dishevelled, and the Head Boy had spent a good ten minutes telling them about how it was not only against school rules and he should dock points from Gryffindor, but also how it was just bad practice overall and what if they got sick…
Mix had felt Earth’s fingers entwine with his, and the smile that Earth couldn’t quite keep from his kiss-swollen lips and thought that it was probably worth it.
It had to be him , didn’t it?