the amor files: lumos || jaemin na

year four: when in doubt, it's jaemin's fault

if there was anything that jinah had learned over the past four years, it was that when it doubt, it's jaemin's fault. so, when jeno comes bursting into the kitchen next to the hufflepuff common room howling about someone corrupting his baby sister (by twelve minutes!) and her best friend, it surprises no one that jinah's first instinct is to point straight at a certain boy.

jaemin rolls his eyes, shoving his hands into his pockets. "you were the one who came to me for help, might i remind you."

"i thought i told you to keep that to yourself," jinah hissed, leaping off her perch on the kitchen's cozy island next to a fireplace. "you promised!"

"i promised to keep my mouth shut about something else," jaemin says dangerously, his eyes flitting downwards before leaning back with a frustrating smirk. "but go ahead, feel free to reveal it all on your own."

jinah stares him down, trying to decipher truth from falsities as she harrumphs, spinning around quickly so that the ends of her hair flick jaemin in the face (petty? maybe. completely unlike slytherin revenge? perhaps. did it bring a childish sense of satisfaction? 100%) and reaches for the bowl with the cookies.

"if you two are done, mind explaining what you three have been up to?" jeno says with a stern look on his face, his arms crossed over his chest. "i feel like i'm not going to get the truth out of these two so...kannika."

kannika looks up with a shocked expression as she swallows her mouthful of cookie. "why - why - why would you think i would know anything about anything?"

"you're her best friend. she's talking to this guy without trying to hex him into the muggle world. i think. and this boy won't open his mouth," jeno surmises, pointing to kannika, then jinah, and then jaemin. 

kannika sighs, knowing that it was bound to come out at some point anyway. "your little sister came up with a crazy idea last month about donghyuck, right after the wolfsbane conversation."

"the wolfsbane potion not only had ingredients that were far more difficult to procure than previously thought, but it was incredibly difficult. even with the potion, the last shift was considerably horrendous - even if you lot wouldn't say anything about it. renjun and jinah need more time to figure out where it's going wrong or if there's anything that they're missing in the potion - my gut tells me that renjun knows something about the wolfsbane potion that we don't and that's why he's been so hesitant to speak his mind about it."

"secondly, the timing was too good to pass up. following that, we didn't really have to see anyone or do anything extremely important so the month of silence didn't really impact our education or hurt anyone. you guys definitely need some help with the shifts until the potion is figured out and i'm afraid that people are going to talk well before that happens at this rate. so jinah and i did what we had to help you guys - we became animagi."

"it's really not all that complicated," kannika finishes, shrugging a little bit more casually than the severity of her words allowed for. "i really don't know why you're so upset."

jeno lets the words sink into his brain, pacing back and forth in front of the large fireplace, trying to sort out the logic that kannika had placed in front of him. he avoids her gaze carefully, knowing for a fact that anything he said would be dissected by his intelligent sister and his equally socially adept best friend.

"alright, i guess that checks out," jeno says with a sigh, dragging his hand over his face. "i still wish that you guys had talked to us first though. we could've helped you in the process or at least made it easier."

"we weren't alone," kannika says, before her eyes widen and she slaps her hand over her mouth.

"what do you mean you weren't alone?" jeno questions, his eyes narrowing in suspicion.

"we had each other!" jinah explains hurriedly, flashing a look of warning at jaemin. "she means that we weren't alone because we had each other. but anyway. how did you figure out we were keeping something from you?"

jeno rolls his eyes, digging his thumb into jaemin's robes accidentally from proximity. "this guy over here has been flirting with the portraits for years so they tell him everything he wants to know. they told him that you two were up to something and he told me right after."

jaemin's gaze is heady and strong as he watches jinah's face to see how she would react to this fib, pleased to see that even her micro expressions did not change on accident.

"what is this i hear about jaemin flirting with portraits?" donghyuck says, slipping into the kitchen, followed by renjun. "oh. all of you are already here? don't tell me you were discussing me and my impeccable sense of fashion."

"your sense of fashion is just wearing last week's robes inside out and pretending it's 'haute couture' though," jinah says, her nose wrinkling when donghyuck leans over to ruffle her hair. no matter how much she glared at him, she didn't think that donghyuck even felt anything. the fact that donghyuck was unperturbed regardless of her sheer intelligence, her house, or even her inability to connect with people made jinah equal parts confused and concerned.

and maybe even a little happy?

"just because you don't understand high fashion doesn't mean that you should take it out on me," donghyuck says, joining her at her usual spot on the counter next to the fireplace.

even as though they all laugh at donghyuck and jinah's usual bickering, both jaemin and renjun stand in uncomfortable silence, unable to laugh - although for completely different reasons. but before jaemin can dwell on his grim realizations any longer, however, renjun speaks up.

"before you say anything, i have to tell you guys something," he says somewhat hesitantly. the humor in jinah's eyes completely evaporates as she examines renjun. last time they had talked (disregarding the wolfsbane potion preparation - which was mostly done in silence anyway), a feeling that renjun was hiding something behind those cold, wise eyes had washed over her. and for some reason, that feeling returned.

perhaps jinah couldn't understand people for the life of her - and perhaps it would be her fatal flaw - but renjun and jinah were so similar that it had bothered jinah for ages about what exactly it was that made her feel put off when it came to the bright young wizard. and as he opens his mouth to speak, jinah understands exactly where that feeling was coming from.

renjun had the one thing that jinah didn't: an understanding of people.

"let me preface what i'm about to say with the fact that i only did it to protect donghyuck," renjun says, and his voice shakes a little as he speaks. he looks at jinah levelly, and a moment of clarity passes between them. and despite having been so averse to him in the past, she innately understands that whatever information he was about to disclose, it was not only information that he had been sitting upon for much longer than he was letting on, but also information that had the power to shake many.

"i tampered with the wolfsbane potion."

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a/n: dun dun dun! excuse the shorter chapter and the long time in between. my first day back at school was today so the past week has been nothing short of a frantic mess. let me know what you guys think and if you are enjoying so far!