Wingardium Jaywonsa

Sneaky

Niki and Sunoo did their best to be discreet. Following Jay around the castle was harder than expected though.
They had tried using an illusion charm on them, so as to have a little security, but there were no way for them to know to which extent it would work.

Jay seemed as nervous as them. He paced rapidly, his hand firmly grabbing his wand. He kept looking around, as if he was expecting to see something.

Then, out of the sudden, he stopped and entered a classroom on his left.
Sunoo and Niki shared a look, they couldn't enter the room without being seen. But they did see Peeves appearing in front of it.

Niki elbowed Sunoo so hard the latter had to bit his lips not to react loudly.
Niki had wide eyes, but Sunoo shook his head.
Jay talking to Peeves wasn't proof enough, right?

Jay stayed in the classroom for a long time.
The two friends tried to stay alert, because they didn't know which direction Jay would take when he would leave the room.
Potentially, he could head right in their direction. They got ready and hid behind a night's armor.

"I wish I could hear what's going on" whispered Niki, pretty upset.

At that moment, they heard the door opening up. Before stepping outside, Jay turned back.

"Just do as I say" he said. "Keep an eye on them, when the time is right, let me know."

As feared, Jay headed back from where he came, in Niki and Sunoo's direction.
The two friends held their breath, trying to make themselves the smallest they could. Sunoo hadn't even noticed they were holding hands until Jay was gone.

Sunoo was about to get up, but Niki kept him down.

"Peeves" he said.

But it was too late. The poltergeist had heard him.

"Jay!" he called, just loud enough for the prefect to hear.

The Slytherin turned back and saw the poltergeist pointing his transparent finger at the boys.
Weirdly, he didn't shout his usual "student out of bed".

Jay ran towards them, his wand up. As he got closer, he squinted his eyes, not really seeing who was there. Apparently the illusion spell had somehow worked a bit.

"Finite" he whispered, his wand pointed at them.

Niki and Sunoo felt a cold wave go from their heads to their feet as the spell broke down.

"What on earth are you doing here?" asked Jay, trying to keep calm. "You shouldn't be out of your dorms."
"The same goes for you" said Sunoo.
"And don't give us the "I'm a prefect" crap" added Niki.
"Niki!" said Sunoo, shocked at the condescending tone.

Jay took a deep breath.

"What were you doing here?" asked Jay again, angrier than last time.
"Night walk" said Sunoo, looking at Jay in the eye.
"Night walk hidden behind an armor?" asked Jay, not buying it.
"Well, we saw you and we hid, cause we didn't want you to catch us" explained Niki.
"Can't you just give us our detention and let us go?" asked Sunoo. "Not like you can do much more."

Jay looked at them. He seemee upset and lost.

"I won't give you detention" he said. "But I will ask you to stop following me. I have things to do and you're making me loose precious time."

"Niki?" asked Sunoo.
"What?" asked Niki, confused.
"Can we go now?" asked Sunoo.
"Where's Jay?" asked Niki, looking around the empty corridor.
"Well, he left the room and we haven't moved since then" explained Sunoo, frowning.
"But, he.. he found us!" said Niki.

"What? No" replied Sunoo. "Did you fall asleep or something?"
"I.. uh.. I don't know" said Niki.
"Well, we've been hiding for long enough I think" added Sunoo. "Let's go now."

The Hufflepuff stood up, Niki's hand still in his.

Niki was extremely confused.
Had he really dreamed that Jay had turned back?
That hadn't happened at all?

A lot of questions were passing through his mind, but they didn't really seem to matter as much as one little detail. Sunoo's hand in his.
He didn't even remember who had taken the other's hand first, but something in him just didn't want to let go.

They walked silently through the hallways until the staircase that lead to the Hufflepuff underground hallway. Sunoo stopped there.

"I guess we didn't learn a lot tonight" he whispered. "I'll go back to sleep, talk to you tomorrow?"

Niki shook his head. It was still hard to process that their talk with Jay wasn't real.

"Let me walk you to your common room" said Niki.
"Oh, okay" replied Sunoo, surprised.

Truth was, Niki wanted to stay like that a little bit longer. As they were a group of five friends, and Sunoo and him weren't in the same house, they rarely spent time just the two of them.
Niki wanted to enjoy it while he could.

The both of them took the stairs and Niki dreaded the moment they would arrive in front of the portrait and that Sunoo would let his hand go.
Unfortunately, that moment arrived sooner than expected.

"You're very tired Niki" said Sunoo. "Try to get some rest for what's left of the night, okay?"
"Okay, I pro-" started Niki, soon interrupted by a soft kiss on his cheek.

Sunoo smiled and quickly entered his common room, leaving a shocked yet happy Niki there.

It took some seconds for Niki to be able to move again. As soon as he could, he took a deep breath. He had 8 flights of stairs to take.

The walk was long, but thankfully quite quiet. Niki arrived in front of the Pink Lady, who was snoring and had a hard time waking her up. He gave her Gryffindor's password and she agreed to let him pass, but she complained a lot.

Niki did his best to enter his room silently, as his roommates were asleep, but as soon as he got inside, he noticed something weird.

The lights were lit.

Beomgyu jumped on him.

"Niki!" he shouted. "Where were you, where is Jungwon?"
"Jungwon? Isn't he asleep?" asked Niki, in shock.

"You.. you don't think he has disappeared as well, right?" asked Yunho, with a shaky voice.