the amor files: lumos || jaemin na

year four - wolf's out of the bag

the next few days are tense, with kannika and jinah pitted against all of the marauders. to be quite honest, neither kannika nor jinah knew why they were "against" the boys. it wasn't as though they were going to go around blabbing about donghyuck and his condition. but the boys were wary around them any way, refusing to part from donghyuck's side, going to the extent of even following him into the restroom. not that either of them were interesting in cornering donghyuck in the restroom, but the marauders weren't taking any chances. 

"this is ridiculous," jinah groans, slamming her book shut. kannika barely flinches, not looking up from her parchment.

"slughorn will kick you out of the slug club if you don't finish that essay," she says softly, but both of them know that slughorn will do no such thing. he collects outstanding people like a child would collect toys and he has absolutely no intention of risking his collection for silly things like essays. 

"what do they think we're going to do? announce to the world that he's got a slight issue with moons? so he does what he does once a month! he's a decent person every other day. they know that better than we do. so what are they so scared of?" jinah says hotly, dusting off her book sullenly, drumming her fingers on the table as she looks over the library.

"if you had a secret that would get everyone in this school to hate you and the only people that know about it are the people you've been teasing since first year, i don't think you would be jumping at the chance of sharing with them either, jin." kannika sighs, finally resting her quill, and joins jinah in her examination of the library. 

the library was their safe space. the one place that they could stay without having to worry about jinah's brother and his silly friends. and now, it was the one place they knew that they wouldn't counter the marauders and be stuck in an endless cycle of chase and escape.

"i don't understand boys," jinah grunts, giving up her scan to look up at the ceiling instead. last week, the day before the incident, the marauders had enchanted it so that it would only show the sun shining down on them, as if the sky was showing through the ceiling, except contrary to the great hall, it was always daytime in the library. she wasn't sure if the professors hadn't been able to reverse the charm or just simply didn't want to. it wasn't until now that she understood the prank - not that she usually understood them - and now she wasn't allowed to do anything with this new information.

"you don't understand people," kannika corrects with a soft smile, starting to collect her materials, realizing that perhaps they had studied enough for the day. jinah scoffs, pressing a steepled hand to her chest.

"i understand you. and i thought i understand my brother, but i suppose the second one isn't as true as i was hoping," jinah adds on, almost as if it were an afterthought. she notices the slight stumble kannika takes when she mentions her brother, but brushes it off quickly, chalking it up to the trauma that kannika had gone through when she had seen her brother turn into a literal husky.

although it was hard to believe, kannika would never lie to her, something that she had assumed of her brother, until she had discovered this huge secret of theirs.

"how did those rascals manage the animagi process, though? i don't think they can keep their mouth shut for more than half a second; how did they manage to do that for an entire month? and besides, we haven't had any storms for the past...for the past six months!" jinah nearly yells the last part, and kannika has throw her hand around her mouth to keep the entire process being revealed to the others in the library.

"let's have this conversation where we have a little bit more privacy, shall we?" kannika says, giving the librarians a sheepish smile as she guides the both of them out of the library, leaving the thinking to jinah. as usual, her mind was working at a hundred kilometers per hour, putting together all of the pieces of the puzzle that they were never supposed get.

"i don't understand why they thought that they could keep this a secret for forever though," jinah says, somewhat hurt. "do they not trust us? who would we even tell?"

kannika sizes up her best friend, sighing and shaking her head. jinah could understand the most complicated spells, memorize all of the potions and their ingredients, but couldn't figure out the simplest things about human beings. perhaps that's why kannika was so drawn to the girl. there was never any complications with her. whatever jinah thought, she said. 

"jin, my love, you have a long way to go when it comes to boys," she says, shifting so that the parchment she was holding didn't fall out of her arms. jinah raises her eyebrows at that, looking at kannika strangely and her heart stops for a moment, thinking that jinah has finally figured it out. figured out the one and only secret that kannika has ever kept from jinah. instead, jinah smiles, laughing slightly as they walk towards the hufflepuff common room.

"you say that as if you have any more experience than i do," jinah says, bumping shoulders with kannika. if she notices the look of relief on kannika's face, jinah doesn't say anything.

but the peace doesn't stay for too long because they haven't even passed the kitchens when they see them standing outside of the barrels that lead to the hufflepuff common room.

"we need to talk," jaemin says the moment they come into earshot. kannika and jinah exchange a silent conversation before jinah steps forward, locking eyes with donghyuck. she cocks her head before smiling, eyes flashing with a promise of something neither jaemin nor donghyuck can decipher. the only person who can is renjun and he's not quite too sure that he has calculated jinah correctly as he reads her once more. this girl was much more powerful than they had expected. perhaps it was because he really hadn't talked to her much in the past four years of schooling - he was the marauder who was arguably the furthest from the girls - but the cold intelligence that he saw everyday in the mirror was now reflected in the eyes of the girl in front of him.

"yes i suppose we do," jinah says, grinning wolfishly. "after all, the wolf's out of the bag."

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a/n: i hope y'all know that dad jokes run in the family i hold no responsibility for my lack of humor.