the amor files: lumos || jaemin na

year two - jinah and the terrible, horrible, no good, very bad idea

"i'd like all of you to be aware of the fact that you're leading us to certain death before we actually end up dying."

kannika nearly chokes on her spit at that, looking at jinah with a frightened look. jeno rolls his eyes, slapping his sister lightly on the arm.

"she's joking. you're joking, right?" jeno's voice grows less assured as he turns to jinah, who merely shrugs, gesturing with her wand at the giant willow tree they were standing in front of.

"come on, jin, don't be such a wuss. we just go into the whomping willow, coerce professor binns inside, and see him receive the biggest shock of his life - er, death," donghyuck says, adding on the last part somewhat hastily.

"what a classy sense of humor you have, donghyuck," jinah says, protesting when jeno swats her arm once more.

"you literally made that joke two hours ago!" jeno exclaims. jinah sighs, pressing her hand to her forehead.

"what can i say, dear brother? i've matured. not something that you lot have discovered yet, as its very clear," she responds, folding her arms in front of her elegantly.

"forget that, that tree looks like it would happily eat me alive. i didn't come all the way to the-middle-of-nowhere scotland just to be chewed up by a tree," kannika says, immediately taking a step back.

"i'm with kannika on this one," renjun says, gulping as he takes in the massive tree. "is this really necessary, jaemin? we'd get weeks of detention just for being out here, much less trying to prank a professor."

jaemin huffs, wrapping an arm around donghyuck and pulling him close to himself.

"fine. all of you thumb-suckers can stay out here. hyuck and i can handle this on our own, anyway. isn't that right, my friend?" jaemin says, looking donghyuck with a gaze of solidarity. donghyuck offers a lopsided grin, throwing his arm around jaemin's shoulder as well.

"until the end, my brother," he says, flashing a smile that's so bright, jinah feels as though the sun has come up, even though it's almost nine o'clock at night.

"who's out there!" a voice booms behind them and none of them even have to turn around to know that only one person with particularly greasy hair had that nasal tone. the group look at each other in panic, thinking the same exact thing.

"SPLIT!" kannika screeches, sprinting as fast as she can to the vegetable garden. renjun and jeno follow her, running so fast, their legs looked like they were about to detach themselves from their bodies.

jinah is about to follow them when someone - she can't tell who - drags her in the opposite direction. feeling their wonderful pursuer mr. filch gaining on them, she follows them blindly, only realizing when they were less than twenty feet away from the beginnings of it that their refuge was in the forbidden forest.

"and this is why i never listen to jeno ever again!" jinah says angrily, ducking into the shadows against her best instincts. she presses herself against a tree, hoping with every single bone in her body that the tree she was leaning against wouldn't try to eat her. or at least, wouldn't try to eat her slowly.

"shut up!" a voice says from somewhere in front of her. jinah scowls at that, raising her wand to cast lumos to see which of her brother's idiotic friends was stupid enough to say that to her, but doesn't get very far, because no sooner had she raised her arm, someone has taken hold of her wrist, pressing her even further into the tree, cupping their other palm over her mouth. jinah struggles for a moment, ready to scream, when she hears heavy breathing behind her.

"i'll tell headmaster dumbledore about this!" filch says, shaking his fist angrily before scooping mrs. norris into his arms, peeking into the deep shadows of the forbidden forest once more, before turning around to see if he would have more luck with the other group of rebels who had darted towards the vegetable patch.

jinah doesn't allow herself to even breathe (not that the person who had their hand blocking any sound was making it any easier to) until she hears mrs. norris meows fade into the distance, pulling the person's palm off of her mouth as soon as she does.

"that's enough of that!" she whispers hotly, darting a quick glance to ensure that the coast was clear for good, and stepping into the dim light of the waxing moon. but she soon realizes that her timing was unfortunate, unable to decipher who had pinned to her to the tree because by the time she turned around, both jaemin and haechan had materialized on either side of her.

"you have terrible ideas. both of you," jinah says after a long pause. jaemin just stares at her before bursting into laughter. it's not long before donghyuck follows suit and soon, all three of them are laughing uncontrollably, unable to understand why they were laughing in the first place.

"what a rush!" donghyuck says as the trio finally start to make their way back to the school once their laughter had subsided. jinah can feel herself grin besides herself, eyes flashing with mischief, and jaemin swears that jinah has never looked so alive.

"whatever, you guys are losers." but there's no malice in her voice, a lighthearted teasing tone seeping into her words in a way that has jaemin's head spinning. donghyuck matches jinah's step, ruffling her hair before making a quick escape, knowing that jinah was not above hexing him, laughing as she chased him all the way to the castle.

and for some reason, as he watches them, jaemin feels strangely at peace and unsettled at the same time. perhaps its the begrudging smile on jinah's lips or the look of utter happiness in donghyuck's eyes as he looks at jinah. whatever it was, jaemin wasn't sure that he liked it.

a/n: tee-hee this is the last chapter before we skip to year four!! i hope y'all are liking lumos so far. it's very different anything i've ever written before so i'm so so so excited for it :D