KinnPorsche at Hogwarts

Time x Tay x Tem [4]

Tem kept checking his body for totems and spells that were tracking him, because, for some reason, Time and Tay seemed to know exactly where he was. At first, he'd thought they were asking his friends, but Porsche looked confused and Jom narrowed his eyes at Tem. From the way Jom started watching him after, he knew it was only a matter of time before Jom wanted to "talk" about it. And frankly, Tem didn't want to.

It was ruining his focus and his social life, but it was all he could think about. He'd turned down two, handsomely available hook-ups because he couldn't stop thinking about Time and Tay. He'd scored low on his beginning of the term Potions' paper because he hadn't had his head on straight while writing it. If he was honest, those two were ruining his life and a little part of him wanted to wallow in it. To soak in it and accept it.

Because he knew what was coming. Tay was jealous, because Time wanted Tem, because Tay still, somehow, wanted Tem?

Every time he thought of it, plainly, it sounded ridiculous. If he hadn't heard that conversation between Tay and Kinn, Tem would never have believed it. The fact that Time and Tay were now on happy terms again, kissing in the hallways, flirting at the dinner table, it was only a matter of when they cornered Tem to pull him into some weird three-way.

Not weird. Maybe fun? There was the possibility that it would be glorious. Time was a worldly fiend and Tay had the benefit of Tem's thoughts. There was a chance that it would be great. Oh god, they'd definitely blow Tem's mind. He was sure of it.

But he felt so exposed. The thought of Tay's ability to read Tem's mind was, for lack of a better word, scary. He needed his privacy back and he wasn't going to feel alright unless he did something about it.

"NEWTs aren't until next year," Vegas said, swaggering into the secluded part of the library that Tay had invited him to. "But then again, you Ravenclaws have to struggle to keep your "genius" title, eh?"

"Please lower your voice."

Vegas sneered at him.

"I'm sorry," Tem said. "I need your help, but we can't speak too loudly in a library."

"Then why are we meeting here?" Vegas asked, in the loudest whisper possible.

"Do you know what legilimency is?"

A slow, proud smile spread on Vegas's face as he leaned away from Tem.

"Since when do you care about stuff like that?"

"So you know what it is?"

"How do you know what it is?"

"I need help-"

"I can't teach you to read minds, mate."

"I don't want to learn how to do it. I want to block someone from doing it to me."

That sobered Vegas up quickly as he moved closer to Tem.

"Do we know a legilimens?"

"I can't tell you who it is."

"Is it Jom?" Vegas cussed. "That fucking Huffle-"

"It's not Jom," he said quickly before Vegas got it into his head and actually hurt Tem's friend. "I need your help. Will you help me or not?"

"Tell me who it is and I'll give you whatever you want."

"How about you tell me how to block it and I owe you a favor?"

Vegas looked conflicted, his face twitching as he stared up at Tem, obviously trying to find a way into Tem's head.

"Occlumency. Takes months, years to learn it."

"I don't have that long."

"You asked and I answered."

"Help me, Vegas."

He clutched at Vegas robe as Vegas frowned.

"I can find a way," he said, pulling his robes from Tem's hand. "Just know that that's two favors now, Tem."

As he disappeared through the shelves, making his way to the exit, Tem had to wonder what he'd gone and done, by signing two blank checks over to Vegas.

***

It took a week.

A whole week of dodging Time and Tay, while hounding a growingly irritated Vegas for a solution, before Vegas placed a glowing tuning fork in front of him, one evening.

"What's that for?"

"When you see the legilimens around you, tap this gently on any surface, and it should scramble the spell, temporarily."

"How long is "temporarily"?"

"I don't know. If you told me who the legilimens was, I could test it for you."

Tem grabbed the tuning fork, slipping it into his pockets as he looked around. It wasn't full proof, but it was better than the many useless solutions Tem's mind had managed to come up with, over the past few days.

***

When Tem turned into the hallway the next day, and saw Time and Tay headed in his direction, he pulled the fork out, tapped it on the wall and returned it to his pocket. They both looked surprised that he didn't run, but they hastened their steps towards him.

"It feels like we haven't spoken in ages," Tay said, smiling at Tem.

"I've been busy."

"It's fine," Time said, immediately. "It's not like you owe us conversation or anything. It's fine."

"Okay?" Tem put his hands in his pockets, trying not to fidget in nervousness. "Did you want to talk about anything in particular?"

"I just," Time began, looking at Tay, before returning to Tem. "I'm sorry about the other night. I shouldn't have done that. I'm sorry."

"I shouldn't have been mad at you, either," Tay said. "I knew it was not your fault and I wasn't trying to make you uncomfortable."

"You don't have to forgive me right now. I only wanted you to know that I'm sorry."

"Yeah, I get it. It's fine," he said, holding onto the fork in his hand. "If anyone's to blame, it's Vegas and his weird drink."

Tay let out a gust of laughter, but Time shook his head.

"I can't blame the drink. I wanted to do it, so I did it."

Tem's chest clogged up. This was it. He could not believe they were going to just open it up, out here, in the hallway.

"I'm sorry."

"We're sorry," Tay clarified. "Alright?"

"It's okay."

"Okay then," Tay said gently, rubbing his hand up and down Tem's arm.

With identical shy smiles, they both turned from Tem and headed back the way they'd come.

"Is that-" Tem said, before he could stop himself. "Is that all you wanted to talk to me about?"

"Is there anything else?" Tay asked, looking worried. "Did we do something?"

"No, I just thought..." thought you wanted me... thought you were going to ask me out... Tem shook his head. "No, nothing. It's fine. I'm fine. We're all fine."

Nodding to himself, he turned back in the opposite direction, and rushed from the hallway, wanting to get faraway. How could he have been so stupid? Of course they'd want to keep their relationship between the two of them. Why bother increasing the odds of unhappiness by adding a third party?

It wasn't like he wanted to be in a relationship. He loved being single. More opportunities. Plus, he wasn't sure he wanted to let go of his freedom, just yet. He'd been so wrapped up in the possibility that Time and Tay might want him, that he'd forgotten to imagine what that might actually be like.

So yeah, maybe he was glad they didn't want him. Maybe he was fine. Maybe the tears leaking from his eyes had absolutely nothing to do with any of it.