Timeless: Hours of Anguish [ATEEZ Hogwarts AU]

Saturday, November 26th

Book I: Hours of Anguish

Saturday, November 26th. 12:38 PM. Hogwarts, Fifth Floor. Choi San.

"No, no, no. Move it a tad bit more to the left," San directed Yeosang and Jongho as they struggled to properly position the huge banner. They had enchanted it to spell out "Happy Birthday!" in flamboyantly blinking letters. Fastening it to the timber beams that branched out into the ceiling on each side of the large window apparently proved to be a harder task than originally anticipated. "No, too much. Go back. Just a little though." Balancing dangerously on the makeshift wooden ladders, Yeosang and Jongho tried their best to follow San's instructions. "Stop! That's perfect!"

"Finally," groaned Yeosang. Having received San's approval, he and Jongho climbed down their respective ladders and high-fived.

San took a few steps back and admired their work. He couldn't contain his pleased grin. He'd roped in all of Wooyoung's closest friends to arrange the perfect party room, and after all this time they invested in decorating the former Defense Against the Dark Arts classroom, it looked nothing like the dusty chamber they'd started with. It had everything a birthday boy like Wooyoung could have possibly wished for.

Long violet curtains covered the windows and filtered out the daylight, while the lilac fairy lights that floated a few inches above the ground provided a dim mood lighting. The walls held more enchanted banners that flashed birthday wishes or moving pictures of Wooyoung and his friends, and the ceiling sported a big sparkling disco ball that beautifully reflected the magical party glow lights, enchanted to float around the room like fireflies. And, of course, the cherry on top was the huge snack buffet they had constructed in front of the old blackboard - which was also covered in doodles and handwritten birthday messages from everyone, by the way.

San, Mingi, and Jongho had carried the majority of the shabby desks and chairs to one of the neighboring classrooms. The remaining furniture made use for the snack buffet and all-you-can-drink table, stacked with an abundance of Firewhiskey shots, Pumpkin Juice Cocktails (spiked with Firewhiskey), Butterbeer (the alcoholic kind), and a handful of non-alcoholic refreshments. The highlight of the snack buffet was the huge chocolate fountain placed in the middle, surrounded by hundreds of packages of Chocolate Frogs, two large bowls of Bertie Bott's Every Flavor Beans (Mingi had spent hours sorting out only the Cherry and Cinnamon ones), Cauldron Cakes, Exploding Bon-Bons, Fizzing Whizzbees - all of Wooyoung's favorite snacks.

They had even asked Park Seonghwa, an overbearing seventh-year and Ravenclaw prefect for the third year in a row, to enchant the ceiling for them. It now displayed the sky outside, making it look like there was no ceiling at all, simply open on to the heaven. It was barely noon, so it only showed the gray winter sky and the few white clouds that surrounded the castle, but it would hopefully show a stunning starry night sky once they got the party going. Naturally, they hadn't told Seonghwa about the party. Being the killjoy he was, he probably would've found some kind of school regulation that would allow him to shut it down before it even happened.

San's eyes scanned the room, holding out for any unfulfilled tasks. "Mingi, how far are you with the snack buffet?" he asked his fellow Slytherin and best friend. He'd just finished filling up the chocolate fountain.

"Done," Mingi replied with a grin and gave him a thumbs up. He let his wand glide back into the pocket of his denim jeans.

San grinned back, then he turned to Yeosang. "What about Changbin? Is he back from Hogsmeade yet?"

Yeosang added a small box Yeonjun had just brought in to the huge pyramid of presents and checked his wristwatch. "He should be back with the cake any minute now."