the fourth unforgivable curse | hwang hyunjin ✓

13 | expecto patronum

All Hyunjin remembers was passing out in the kitchen, the smell of deep-fried donut doughs pleasuring his sense of smell and the warmth of the room keeping him comfortable. He recalls no such memory of walking back to the common room, especially walking with his arms looped around Kwon Yujin's but he's sure that it's just a rumour.

For all they know, he could've just dreamt this all and he is now facing reality.

Hyunjin shrugs the hazy memory of eating donuts by himself in the kitchen whilst walking out of the Great Hall after breakfast time to head down to the Defence Against the Dark Arts classroom. He juggles a red apple from one hand to the other, biting on his bottom lip as he worries about his paper.

When he woke up that morning, a Fifth Year found his essay still lying on the floor along with his chewing gums. So, whether he liked it or not, he had to finish it at full lightning speed. Now the sheets of parchment are filled with scribbles you could barely understand. It's a good thing the first few pages are neatly written or Hyunjin would probably get into trouble for using bad handwriting.

Let's hope Professor Bloome is magically blessed with the ability to read his messy handwriting.

Seungmin isn't in the class with him as the boy's got Care for Magical Creatures, so surviving this class on his own is a bit more challenging than others. Hyunjin doesn't have many friends, he keeps his inner circle pretty close and small and being in a class where there's hardly anyone he knows of puts him in a slightly uncomfortable position.

Oh but no, his Slytherin side is much too prideful to let his walls fall so he enters the classroom with a careful yet sharp gaze.

"Good morning to you too, Mr Hwang," Professor Bloome speaks and all heads turn to look at him. "Nice of you to join us."

That's right. Hyunjin glances at the clock on the wall of the classroom and finds that he is almost half an hour late to class.

Without saying anything else, he takes his usual seat; next to the left wall on the third last row. After getting his textbook out, he shuffles a bit closer to the wall and leans against it, letting himself drift to sleep and making use of the height of the student in front of him to act like a shield to protect him from Professor Bloome's eagle eyes.

But Eagle-Eyed-Bloome isn't called 'Eagle-Eyed-Bloome' for nothing as the next thing Hyunjin knew, there's a sharp, stinging feeling across the back of his neck and he jolts up from his quick slumber and hisses with pain.

"I believe you're wide awake now?" he says nonchalantly, waving his wand carelessly. Hyunjin groans and yawns a little, stretching his legs under the tables but hunches back in a flinch when Professor Bloome gives him another smack.

"My class time is not sleeping time, Mr Hwang," the professor scolds him, "give me your essay and demonstrate what you wrote about for your essay — which I know you've written very carefully."

Hyunjin curses under his breath, there's no arguing when it comes to Professor Bloome. The bigger the argument, the more he will find the reason to call you selfish in being a student and that you're not considering to understand his feelings.

So with a heavy exhale past his lips, Hyunjin lifts himself off from his seat and tries to shrug off the uncomfortable awkward stares his classmates are giving him as they follow his movements up to the front of the classroom. He repeats the spell over and over again in his head.

Expecto patronum.

Expecto patronum.

He's known the spell all his life. His mother's patronus is of a lioness and his dad's is a lion. Hyunjin's been fascinated by the spell ever since he was exposed to the world of patronuses, seeing the figures of twirling bright lights dancing in the air brings an unexpected queasy feeling in which Hyunjin finds joy.

Hyunjin had never been able to cast a perfect Patronus just like his parents when they would perform little dances for him when he was a small child and instead it's always a wispy cloud. Conjuring a cloud is as hard as it is, and the pressure of being watched by the rest of the class weighs him down.

"Mr Hwang?" Professor Bloome gives him an expectant look.

Still nothing.

"Look here, star seeker can't even demonstrate a simple task in front of the class," he scoffs, walking slowly in the blond boy's direction.

Hyunjin sighs exasperatedly. This is too early for getting worked up, this is too early to be annoyed and definitely too early to have a headache. So instead of fighting back, the Slytherin seeker lifts his wand up into the air.

"Expecto patronum!"

Hyunjin waits for the familiar heavy pull of energy running down the veins of his arms and out through his wand before a wispy strand of light would usually emerge from the tip of the magical stick. But there was no pulling feeling, his arms aren't tingling and instead, his hands start to feel very heavy.

Nothing comes out from his wand. The memory of him shouting the spell echoes in his mind. He realises there's an awkward silence engulfing the room, but the suffocating air deflates when the class bursts into a fit of laughter and giggles.

"Huh," Hyunjin inspects his wand, "that's weird."

"Sir—"

"—keep going Hwang," Professor Bloome interrupts him, "until you manage to get something out of it."

Hyunjin rolls his eyes and goes back to focusing on his energy. There's a small tingly feeling on the tips of his fingers, making him smile a little.

"Expecto patronum!"

But yet again, the feeling disappears and Hyunjin is left with nothing. The class erupts in another fit of laughter and Hyunjin's urge to crawl into a corner, curl up and die grows bigger.

This is humiliating.

"Sir, I think my wand is broken," Hyunjin takes another closer look at his wand.

Unlike before, the professor's facial expression now shows a slight concern as he walks to the front of the class with curious eyes. "Oh really?" he asks, "but it looks fine."

"I don't know, sir."

Sighing, Professor Bloome stretches his hand and tells the boy to give the wand to him.

"There's nothing wrong with it," he concludes and gives the piece of wood back to the student.

Then he falls silent.

"Meet me after classes, before dinner," he says, "I have important matters to speak with you."

+

so, here's an update and to be honest? i think it's not as good as i wanted it to be. jskjs.

anyways, i'm sure some of you have read the message i put up on my board a couple of days ago. if not, then yes, i'm taking a small break from writing. it'll only be as long as 2 weeks to a month so it's not that long (jskskdjd i can't stand not writing for too long so...) but i kind of need it right now. everything, even the smallest of things have been stressing me out lately and i just kind of need to step back a bit and sort out my life a little HAHA coz tbh everything's a bit of a mess right now. i hope you guys understand♡

however i will still be on from time to time but i'm probably going to be more active on twitter but not by much:)
if u wanna hMmM yknow, hmu (i need friends lmao)
my twitter is @/beazibo