Eagle Knocker

Although he had said that he would get a corsage, he had absolutely no idea where he was supposed to buy it from. Therefore, he turned to the only Muggle connoisseur that he knew of, Han Jisung.

“Where can I buy a corsage from?” Felix asked as soon as they had all woken up the next day. He had walked into his dorm room last night and immediately noticed both Seungmin and Jeongin sound asleep on his bed. Feeling giddy with his interaction with Minho, he had found himself to be very kind-hearted last night. Therefore, he hadn’t kicked them off his bed. Instead he had sauntered over to Jeongin's bed and with a quick transfiguration spell, he restored the bed of spikes to its original state before falling asleep on it.

"What the hell's a corsage?" Jisung grumbled sleepily as he shuffled toward the washroom.

Felix groaned in frustration at that response, flopping back onto the pillow. "I have such dumb friends."

"Yah!" Jisung's protest echoed from the washroom.

Felix closed his eyes, pondering his next move, until he felt Jeongin joining him on the bed. Opening his eyes, he saw Jeongin peering down at him with a smirk. "You finally transfigured the bed back, huh?"

"No, I'm clearly enjoying the comfort of a bed of spikes right now," Felix retorted, sarcastically.

"Asshole," Jeongin chuckled, playfully attempting to push Felix off the bed.

Felix feigned offense. "I do you a favor and this is how you repay me? Trying to throw me off the bed?"

"Yep," Jeongin confirmed between laughs, still trying to dislodge Felix. “And what favor? ”

Rolling his eyes, Felix slipped off the bed, skillfully evading Jeongin's attempts to push him off. “The favor of transforming your bed into a bed again.”

Glancing at his own bed across the room, Felix noticed Seungmin still lying there, observing the playful exchange between Felix and Jeongin.

Felix looked at him before saying with as much disgust as he could, “I hope you guys didn’t do anything awful on my bed.”

“We were thinking about it,” Seungmin said before giving him a lope-sided smile. “As revenge.”

“I would have burned off the mattress,” Felix cried. 

“We would have gladly helped you,” Seungmin said. 

"I would have considered hexing every bed you touch to become a bed of spikes permanently," Felix shot back, relishing the horrified expressions on both Seungmin's and Jeongin's faces.

"I swear, you're turning into one of those evil Slytherins day by day," Jisung said upon reentering the room, having just finished brushing his teeth. "I'm telling you, you need to cut back on spending time with Hwang."

"Or maybe there's a bit of Slytherin in me after all," Felix shrugged nonchalantly. "The Sorting Hat certainly didn’t know what house to place me in at first."

Jisung rolled his eyes before asking, “What’s a corsage?”

"It's basically a bracelet made of flowers," Felix explained.

"Oh, okay," Jisung acknowledged. "But why do you need one?"

"I have to give one to Minho," Felix replied.

"Why?" Jisung inquired, prompting Felix to quickly recount what Minho had mentioned the previous night as he headed towards the washroom.

"That's sweet," Jeongin remarked, turning to Seungmin. "Would you like one too?"

"Yeah, sure,” Seungmin agreed. “why not?" 

“He’s wearing emerald green robes to the ball?” Jisung asked, following Felix to the washroom. 

“Yeah,” Felix said. “Which is why he’s getting me a green one, to match with his outfit,”

“The Slytherin colors?” Jisung asked, because of course he would only want to focus on that detail. 

“Yeah, Sungie,” Felix nodded. “I guess I get to be an evil Slytherin for a day. Watch out or I might just hex you when you’re not looking.”

“Shut up,” Jisung barked before narrowing his eyes and stating, “Hwang’s going to be really happy seeing Minho in those robes.”

 “Right?” Felix laughed. “That’s what I said too!”

Jisung nodded but he didn’t retort back, instead he gave a weird expression back to Felix. A few weeks ago, Felix would have never recognized what that expression meant, but now, with his growing feelings for Minho, and the awareness of his own feelings whenever Chan was around Minho—Felix could easily tell that Jisung was jealous. Jealous of the fact that Hyunjin might be fanboying over Minho’s emerald green robes. 

"Don't worry, Hyunjin will more than just love whatever you wear that day," Felix reassured in a whisper.

Rather than retaliating or dismissing Felix's assumptions, Jisung's response was vulnerable as he asked quietly, "you really think so?"

Instead of teasing him for it, Felix sighed softly before replying, "Yes."

Jisung smiled before turning around and leaving the washroom. 

As soon as he was done dressing up, Felix headed straight to the Owlery, telling his friends to get some breakfast for him and that he would meet them in class later. 

Since Jisung didn’t have the answer to his questions, Felix figured he could turn to the only person he knew who would have all the answers to his questions—his Mother. 

Therefore, he wrote a letter to her. It was concise and to the point. 

Dear Mother,

Do you know of any shops where I could purchase a corsage? Or have a catalogue of where I can choose one? I would greatly appreciate receiving a catagloue of it, especially for a navy blue corsage. 

A corsage is a bracelet adorned with a small bouquet of flowers. It’s a Muggle item.

Wishing you a pleasant day, Mother.

Sincerely your one and only son,

Felix Lee

P.S

I think I found the love of my life. His name is Minho Lee.  

He chose an owl at random, strapping the letter in before saying, “wait for a response and then come back.”

The owl blinked in acknowledgment before taking flight. Felix hated it when the owls returned without a reply. It made him wonder for days if his letter had been delivered, if it had been read, or if he should consider sending another letter with the same content in case the first one hadn’t been delivered. He found it better to make the owl wait for a response. It would compel the recipient to provide a reply, no matter what. 

Once the owl disappeared into the distance, Felix turned away from the owlery and headed toward his first class of the day.

The day passed in a blur of classes. Felix caught glimpses of Minho in the hallway in between classes, making his heart flutter each time. They exchanged greetings, asking about each other's days, or simply waving from a distance before heading to their respective classrooms. 

Felix cherished every second spent looking or talking to him, to the point where he considered buying a diary to record every one of those interactions—he wanted to ensure that none of those interactions were forgotten—even those little waves they shot at each other across the hallways. 

The elder Ravenclaw was just so kind and charming—talking and seeing him was beyond lovely. 

As much as he loved all those interactions, Felix found himself wanting more and more.

He wanted to know everything about Minho.

As Felix sat down for dinner, he caught sight of his mother's trusted owl, Jupiter, beelining towards the table. Jupiter was known for her speed, a trait Mrs. Lee greatly appreciated when it came to sending and receiving letters promptly. Noticing that the owl he had sent earlier in the morning with his letter was nowhere in sight, Felix figured his mother must have held onto that owl for later, as that owl would have taken a couple hours more to fly back to Hogwarts than Jupiter. 

Despite Jupiter zooming by, she landed gracefully beside Felix, careful not to disturb any of the utensils on the table. Mrs. Lee took pride in her ability to train such a well-behaved messenger.

Felix smiled at Jupiter before patting her head warmly, she leaned in and chirped. 

“Haven’t seen you in a while,” Felix said as he unwrapped the letter off her leg. 

Felix tore off a portion of his bread and fed it to Jupiter before unfolding the letter. The other four, of course, crowded around to read what the letter said. 

Dear Felix Yongbok Lee,

THE LOVE OF YOUR LIFE?!

AND IT'S A LEE?!

My dear son, you understand as well as I do that our family has suffered from too much inbreeding already. I cannot possibly permit you to marry another Lee. Our future grandchildren may not even resemble humans if you do!

Although, I suppose I shouldn’t be worried about having grandchildren when it comes to you.

I still cannot in good conscience give you my blessings for another Lee!

However, I did look into our family registry to try to find this Minho Lee—as his name sounded very unfamiliar—but I haven't been able to find anyone by that name. Are you certain his surname is Lee?

If he isn't a Lee, then you have my blessings to pursue this man, as long as he is a fine gentleman.

I hope you had a pleasant day too, my child.

Sincerely your one and only Mother,

Helen Lee

P.S

I will be sending the catalogue of corsages via the owl you had sent earlier in the morning. I had to look into Muggle markets to find the shops that sell them, but it seems to be more of an American concept. Whatever is my son doing involving himself in American matters?

P.P.S

Please learn to understand what the main aspect of your letter should have been.The main aspect of your letter should have been that you have found the love of your life ! It should have been the heading, the title, and the subject of your entire letter. Your P.S. could have been about the corsages, not the other way around. I almost choked on my lunch this morning when I read your P.S. son, and you know how extremely unlady-like that is. 

Felix chuckled as he read the letter. In his eagerness to receive a catalogue, he had clearly forgotten to clarify that Minho Lee had no connection to the Lee lineage that Felix's family was associated with.

“Your mom knows that you aren’t straight?” Jisung asked as he read alongside Felix, focusing on the grandchildren part of the letter. 

“Oh please, it’s Felix’s mom we’re talking about,” Hyunjin said. “She must have connected the dots before Felix himself even knew.”

Felix couldn’t help but agree at that. Then he quickly took out a parchment and wrote:

Dear Mother,

Minho Lee is muggle-born. He’s not the Lee that we’re familiar with, so don’t worry. 

He’s an extremely fine gentleman. He’s currently in his seventh year and is also a fellow Ravenclaw. He’s very smart and excels in all of his classes. 

He’s also a cat-whisperer!

I think you would like him. 

I'll be attending the Yule Ball with him next week. He mentioned wanting to get me a corsage, and after learning what it was, I decided to get one for him too.

I know I already mentioned this in the previous letter, but I must emphasize that I need it to be navy blue, so please only send catalogues featuring blue corsages.

Can you also please send me a diary, if possible?

Thank you!

Sincerely your one and only son,

Felix Lee

P.S. I will definitely try my hardest to learn what the main aspect of my letter should be the next time I pen you a letter.

After offering some water to Jupiter, Felix strapped his letter onto her leg and let her fly off, back to the Lee house.

As they watched Jupiter soar away, Felix suddenly felt someone grab the back of his head and forcefully press his face down onto the plate of sandwiches. Contrary to expectations, the bread didn’t feel soft and comfortable against his cheek; instead, it felt scratchy and uncomfortable. He heard some shouts and shuffling around him as Felix tried to get over his shock.

Despite the surprise attack, Felix didn’t feel angry, moreso shocked. He was also immensely uncomfortable as he peeled his face off the sandwich. Fortunately, his cheek hadn’t landed in any of the sauces on the plate—just dry bread.

It almost made him wonder if this was some sort of a sign to just stop eating western food altogether. It was the first western meal he was having in ages and it was all squished up now. 

He looked up and saw that all four of his friends had their wands drawn, pointing furiously at the person behind him. Hyunjin had even gone the extra mile, rising from his seat and climbing up on the table, clattering all the utensils around with one leg kneeling on the table and the other on his previously occupied seat. This stance made him appear taller and closer as he aimed his wand at the person behind Felix.

"Should've known," the person behind Felix sneered. "Little dumb Felix can't be found anywhere without his posse trailing behind, protecting his useless self."

Felix turned slowly, trying to wipe the bread crumbs off his face, only to face the ugly face of Eugene Barrett looming over him. Felix glanced around and noticed several students observing the scene. Out of the corner of his eye, he saw Jeongin cast a cleaning charm on him to clear away the bread crumbs off his face. 

"One more word and I'll blast you out the windows," Hyunjin hissed, his voice laced with venom. “How dare you touch Felix?”

“You better apologize on all fours before we force you to do so ourselves,” Jisung sneered. 

But Barrett continued to focus solely on Felix, prompting Felix to resort to saying the first thing he could think of that he knew would annoy Barrett the most, "Who are you?"

Barrett’s lip curled in disgust at that. 

“What is the meaning of this?” Professor Flitwick’s booming voice could be heard from across the hall as he stormed his way towards them. Yet, Barrett made no attempts to move away. 

"I'm going to catch you alone one of these days," Barrett threatened. "You're going to be shaking in fright when I do."

“You fucker!” Hyunjin exclaimed, sending off a stinging hex onto Barrett, who skillfully dodged that. 

Felix glanced down at himself, inspecting his arms and legs.

"What are you doing?" Barrett snapped, keeping his gaze locked onto Felix despite the four others looming threateningly towards him. 

"Checking to see if my body is shaking in fright," Felix retorted cheekily.

Felix could feel Barrett's barely restrained anger, ready to burst out at any second. 

With his friends poised and wands at the ready, Felix didn't even feel the need to draw his own wand out. So, he continued to smile cheekily at him, showing off how nonchalant he was and not at all affected by his threat. 

Before the situation could escalate any further, Professor Flitwick intervened, snapping, "Back to your seats, now, Mr. Barrett."

Barrett kept his gaze fixed on Felix, but reluctantly sheathed his wand and retreated to the other side of the Ravenclaw table.

"Mr. Hwang, please remove your foot from the table and withdraw your wand," the Professor sighed. "Or I will have to ask you to sit only with the Slytherins for the rest of the term."

"Sorry, sir," Hyunjin replied, complying with the Professor's instructions and settling back into his seat immediately. Flitwick then cast a cleaning charm on the spot on the table where Hyunjin’s foot had been resting. 

“Behave yourselves,” the Professor admonished before walking away. 

Felix glanced at his friends. They were all staring back at him with concern, as if expecting him to break down at any moment. But instead of tears, Felix flashed them a grin. 

"Everyone," Felix addressed them all, his tone light. "I officially have my very first hater."

There was a moment of silence, broken only by Seungmin's scoff.

"Of course you would say that," Jeongin cackled, while Jisung patted Felix's back and laughed.

"Hyunjin, I'm so close to joining your ranks now," Felix said with pride, watching his friend chuckle.

"I guess you are," Hyunjin agreed. "Honestly, this calls for applause and congratulations."

Felix eagerly nodded, laughing as the four of them softly clapped and congratulated him.

Embracing his inner dramatic-self, Felix stood up and bowed, soaking in the applause. With each bow, he graciously thanked each of his friends.

“What’s going on?” Minho asked as Felix continued to bow. 

Felix looked over at him with delight. The elder Ravenclaw student appeared to have rushed to the Great Hall from his class, a hint of confusion on his face but with amusement glinting in his eyes as he observed them. His tie was slightly loosened, his hair a bit disheveled from the long day—he looked absolutely stunning. 

And oh, Chan and Changbin were there along with him too. 

"They're congratulating me for finally having my very first hater," Felix explained.

Chan and Changbin looked extremely confused, asking, "What?"

But Minho remained undeterred as he took his seat next to Felix and asked, "Who is it?"

“Eugene Barrett,” Felix answered as he also sat back down. 

“Was my langlock and you turning him into a chicken not enough to make him stay away?” Minho asked with concern.

“Apparently it wasn’t enough,” Hyunjin responded to Minho’s question, looking more than eager to do more damage to Barrett if he could get the chance to.  

“Some people are just very dumb,” Felix retorted. 

“Can’t believe he was sorted into Ravenclaw,” Jisung scoffed. 

“Couldn’t agree more,” Seungmin nodded. 

“What did he say to you?” Minho asked. 

“Just threatened me,” Felix shrugged. “As if I would ever be scared of him.”

“He shoved Felix’s face onto this sandwich,” Jeongin said as pointed at Felix’s food. 

Chan and Changbin were apparently still standing around because they let out a low whistle at the state of the sad sandwich.  

Minho’s eyes narrowed at that before letting out a soft cuss before asking, “do you want me to take care of him?” 

Felix felt his heart skip a beat, before responding, “he’s my hater. I want to take care of it myself.”

Minho stared at him for a while before nodding, “alright. But if you need any help, do not hesitate to ask me.”

Minho then flipped his own plate upside up. The same sandwiches that Felix was supposed to eat appeared on Minho’s plate. He immediately offered one to Felix. 

Felix smiled shyly before accepting his offerings. He heard Jeongin giggle at that but he ignored him. 

_____________________________________________________________________

It only took a day and a half for his mom to send a catalog of blue corsages along with a diary.

Felix immediately tucked the diary away into a well-warded drawer—which was a necessity when it came to his very nosy friends—before excitedly flopping onto his bed to look through the selection of corsages.

To his utter disappointment, Felix found himself unimpressed with the choices presented to him. It seemed as though Muggles lacked a sense of style when it came to floral arrangements, and Felix couldn't help but feel dismayed.

Knowing her son's picky nature, Helen Lee had sent quite a collection of catalogs for Felix to browse through. Hours passed as Felix meticulously examined each one, yet not a single corsage caught his eye.

The one that did pique his interest turned out to be a light, baby blue shade. And another one that looked quite beautiful turned out to be the cyan shade. Both completely different from the navy blue he wanted to perfectly match his robes with. Frustration gnawed at Felix as he flipped through page after page, encountering random assortments of flowers that lacked cohesion.

Baffled by the lack of thought put into the floral combinations, Felix couldn't help but wonder aloud to Jisung if Muggles assigned meanings to each flower like wizards did or not. Jisung confirmed that they did, yet the random arrangements of the bouquets in the catalogs indicated otherwise. Or maybe they assigned different meanings to the flowers than what Wizards did. 

Felix put the catalogs aside in frustration wondering how he was going to get a corsage now.

He refused to settle for just any random option that failed to meet his standards for Minho. After all, Minho deserved nothing but the best. However, time was slipping away, and Felix realized he needed to make a decision soon. If he wanted the corsage in time for the Yule Ball, which was just five days away, he would have to send his choice to his mother by tomorrow at the latest.

As Felix aimlessly gazed at the bronze candle holder on his bedside table, inspiration suddenly struck him like a bolt of lightning. He shot up and immediately got to work, too afraid to let the brilliant idea slip from his mind. 

With determination, he snatched the candle holder and extinguished the flame on the candle before drawing the curtains around his bed closed, to not let any of his pesky roommates from annoying him while he concentrated on his work. 

He figured that If he couldn't find a suitable corsage anywhere for Minho, why not just create one himself?

Deciding that the corsage didn't necessarily need to feature real flowers, Felix thought it best to simply transfigure the bronze candle holder into a beautiful bracelet that resembled the beautiful vision he had of the corsage that he wanted to present to Minho. He didn’t let the disappointing selection on the catalogs make himself forget the vision that he had in his mind, though.

First, he quickly cut off parts of the candle holder and crafted the band for the bracelet. He used his own wrist as a guide, but made it slightly bigger than his own wrist, and added a clasp for convenience. Satisfied with the result, he proceeded to make a few more bands as backups in case his initial design of the flowers failed or didn't meet his expectations.

The bracelet will turn out to be bronze like the candle holder, so it needed a makeover to match Felix's navy blue vision. He wondered whether to ask Hyunjin's help, knowing he had his paint supplies back in his Slytherin dorms. But Felix hesitated, because he knew his own painting skills weren’t that great. So, should he just give the bracelet to Hyunjin and ask him to paint it navy blue? Or should he try to paint it himself since he created it from scratch anyway and he should just continue doing everything else by himself too?

Maybe they could work on it together, with Hyunjin guiding him through the process.

Before delving deep into the flower design, Felix tore out a parchment and began to sketch out the potential design and arrangements of the flowers. 

He wanted the bracelet to be adorned with multiple flowers, with one standout flower taking the center stage of the bracelet. Despite not liking any of the options on the catalog, Felix drew inspiration from it as he continued to sketch out what he wanted. He wanted to ensure that the bracelet that he made still resembled a corsage as much as possible—a bronze bouquet on a wrist. 

He hoped it turned out to look pretty as he continued sketching and scratching out the sketches he didn’t like. 

He wanted the flower arrangement to give some sort of a message but he wasn’t really a connoisseur of the flower language to even know what type of message to send. All he knew was that he was at least better at determining the significance of the arrangement than most of those Muggles. 

In the middle of his 16th attempt at a sketch, he got another brilliant idea. 

What if he just used Minho’s birth-flowers as the flower design?

That idea sounded great in theory but he had absolutely no clue when Minho’s birthday was. He supposes he could just ask the elder tomorrow when they met for breakfast. 

With that goal in mind, he continued to sketch out some vague floral images, thinking that he could just fill it up properly after he figured out Minho’s birth-flower. 

After coming up with a design that he felt satisfied with, he picked up one of the bands of the bracelet and used the ink of his quill to mark down where he wanted the leaves and the floral arrangement to be at. 

Using the candle holder, he tore out some more parts to transfigure some leaves. The shaping turned out to be the easy part, the hard part was trying to inscribe the detailing inside it. He still managed to transfigure a bunch of leaves, all in different shapes and sizes that could come in handy once he figured out which flower he would have to work with. 

Once he was satisfied with the leaves, he opened the curtains to his bed, wondering why none of his friends had once come to bother him. Only to notice that the room was completely dark and every single one of them were already fast asleep. ‘

He cast the Tempus charm and gasped when he noticed that it was already 4AM. He placed all the things he had transfigured into the drawer of his nightside table before quickly scrambling to fall asleep. He hated having to go through a school day without a good sleep, so he forced himself to get rid of the excitement he felt about the little project he had undertaken and hoped he would still be able to wake up in time for breakfast and ask Minho for his birthday. That is, if Minho doesn’t skip breakfast either. 

___________________________________________________________________

He wasn’t able to wake up for breakfast the next day. 

But according to what his friends told him, neither had Minho. So, Felix found him walking around the hallways and instead of greeting him or anything, he straight up asked Minho for his birthday. 

Confused for only a second, Minho immediately said, “October 25th.”

Felix was so absorbed in his own project, that he forgot to even say a goodbye before rushing off to the library. Skipping a few classes, he buried himself in books about flowers, determined to make the perfect corsage for Minho.

Discovering that Minho's birth-flowers were Marigold and Cosmos, Felix learned that they symbolized harmony, warmth, creativity, and prosperity—qualities he was more than happy to see be associated with Minho. With this knowledge, Felix just needed to figure out if he was skilled enough to make a beautiful arrangement of the two flowers.

He had to use one of the candle holders in the library to continue with his project as his own candle holder was locked away in his drawer. The bracelet bands were locked away in his drawer too but he figured he could just start making the petal designs in the library and put it all together in his room later in the day. 

While Cosmos proved to be straightforward, the Marigold presented a challenge. Felix struggled with transfiguring the petals to his satisfaction, but his end goal was to create the bracelet with a single Marigold surrounded by a bunch of Cosmos.

He had no clue how long he stayed in the library working on it. It wasn’t until he heard a voice that broke his concentration and forced him to look away from his project that he finally took a break. 

Felix looked at the person interrupting him and raised his brow in question. It was Seungmin. 

“What are you doing?” Seungmin asked as he leaned over to check what Felix held in his hand and then looked at the mess on the table where multiple metal pieces were just lying about. 

“Making something,” Felix answered before placing his wand and the petal down and stretching out his fingers to avoid a potential cramp.

“Yeah, I can see that,” Seungmin nodded. “But what are you making that you had to miss dinner for?”

Felix blushed as he felt a little shy revealing what he was exactly up to but told him anyway when he noticed Seungmin place a plate of cheeseburger down on the table, offering it to him. 

“I’m making the corsage for Minho,” Felix said after muttering his thanks. 

Seungmin widened his eyes in surprise before asking, “I thought you were going to buy it?”

“I was. But I didn’t like any of the designs in the catalog,” Felix admitted, reaching for the cheeseburger, though he immediately regretted it as he felt the cheesy grease coating his fingers. He wondered if he should just eat it later.

His stomach grumbled, which was an answer enough. So, he immediately grabbed the burger and quickly began to devour it. 

“So you decided to just… make one?” Seungmin asked incredulously. “After you didn’t like any of it?”

“Yep,” Felix said midbite, throwing his proper table manners aside. He could practically hear his Mother scolding him for that. Seungmin looked grossed out to see the site of masticated food but didn’t comment on it. 

“Lemme see it,” Seungmin said, leaning forward. 

Felix showed off the pieces on the table as he said, “you wouldn’t really get it until it all comes together.”

Seungmin touched one of the petal pieces and hummed in intrigue. “It’s a petal right?”

Felix nodded. 

“It’s so detailed,” Seungmin muttered as he looked at another petal of the Cosmos flower. 

Felix shot him a smile in gratitude. 

“I thought you wanted it to be blue though,” Seungmin pointed out as he continued looking through all the different pieces on the table. Even the ones that Felix had immediately discarded after making a mistake on it. 

“I still do,” Felix said. “I was going to paint it.”

“Are you going to be asking Hyunjin for help?” Seungmin asked. 

Felix nodded. 

"You should make it so that the blue paint moves and swirls around," Seungmin suggested, his voice rising in excitement. "Or you can make it so that the blue paint gets brighter when the person wearing it gets happier!"

"Ooh, that sounds interesting," Felix responded, equally captivated by the idea. "But I wouldn’t want the color to dim just because he’s feeling down. I want it to stay bright all the time."

Seungmin nodded in agreement, pondering other possibilities.

"Maybe you could make it so that it gets brighter whenever he’s near the person he likes?" Seungmin suggested.

"That sounds extremely complicated,” Felix sighed. “I’d have to research a lot about love spells or emotion spells for that.” 

“I guess you can just make it so that it moves and swirls around for now,” Seungmin said. 

“Yeah, Hyunjin can help me out with that,” Felix agreed before quickly casting a water spraying charm on his hands to wash up before immediately going back to working on the rest of the petals. 

Felix looked back at his friend only when he noticed that he still hadn’t left yet. 

“I love it when you’re so concentrated like that on your projects,” Seungmin smiled as he caught him staring at him.  

Felix preened, “thank you.”

“Are you going to be working here the entire time?” Seungmin asked.

“I’m not sure, why?” Felix asked. 

“Minho might enter the library to study anytime soon and he might catch you working on it,” he said. 

Felix quickly looked around, hoping the elder Ravenclaw wasn’t already there. Upon not spotting him anywhere in his vicinity, he sighed in relief. He didn’t want the elder to see or know what he was working on, not until he presented it to him. 

“I guess I should take this all back to the room,” Felix said as he scrambled to grab everything. 

Thankfully, Seungmin cast a spell and helped clear the table before saying, “it's all already in our room now.”

“Thank you!” Felix said, ready to rush out of the library and continue working. 

Seungmin could sense his impatience so he began to walk out with him. 

“Seungmin?” Felix called for him as they walked. It was only once the other student was looking at him when Felix asked, “do you think he will like it?”

“ Like would be an understatement,” Seungmin retorted. “If he doesn’t immediately love it, I might have to punch him.”

“Seungmin!” Felix exclaimed but couldn’t help but let out a laugh.

“Hyunjin might even join me,” he added. “Despite being such a fanboy.”

Felix let out a loud laugh again. 

“It’s funny though,” Seungmin said. “You only just met him and yet, you’re already going all out for him.”

“He’s a nice guy,” Felix said. 

“He is.”

“I like him already.”

“I know.”

“I want to get to know him more.”

“That’s sweet.”

“And so I don’t want to do anything half-heartedly. Not for my first crush.”

“That’s even sweeter.”

“That’s why I want to go all out.”

Seungmin’s steps faltered, making Felix stop too as his friend gazed at him with a fond smile before he said, “let me know if you need any help.”

“I won’t hesitate to ask,” Felix grinned but then immediately frowned as they reached the stupid Eagle Knocker. 

Thankfully, Seungmin was easily able to answer the riddle. Still, that didn’t stop Felix from shooting a couple of middle fingers at the Knocker as they walked into the Towers. 

_____________________________________________________________________

In the dead of night, around 3 AM, Felix found himself in need of another piece of bronze metal to proceed with his work. He had messed up with the design of two bands already, leaving only one of them intact. He really didn’t want to mess up on his third try but he realized pretty quickly that he barely had any metal to work on anymore. He needed more metal to make more leaves and complete the structure of the Marigold flower that he had messed up numerous times already. 

He drew back the curtains surrounding his bed and noticed that all of his friends were already fast asleep. He didn’t want to borrow any of their candle holders without asking, but he was determined to finish his project by the night's end. 

He recalled that there were several similar candle holders in the common room. So, with that in mind, he silently slipped off his bed and made his way downstairs.

As expected, the common room was nearly deserted. Felix could make out a figure seated on a couch near the fireplace, but they were facing the fire so Felix couldn’t tell who it was. Ignoring them, he headed for the center table where a big candle holder sat. Felix sighed in relief when he noticed that it was the same bronze color that he was already working with. 

After extinguishing the flames, he lifted the holder and turned to leave when a sudden stinging sensation on his side caught him off guard. 

He stifled a gasp, nearly dropping the candle holder in surprise. Forcing himself to recover swiftly, he turned around to confront the individual responsible for the stinging hex.

It was none other than Eugene Barrett, seated on the couch facing the fireplace, wand aimed directly at Felix.

Of course it was that idiot, Felix thought with a huff. 

Swearing softly, Felix moved to draw out his own wand, but before he could, Barrett sent out another stinging hex, this time targeting Felix's arm and causing it to momentarily falter from grabbing his wand. 

“Finally got you all alone, huh?” Barrett said and sent out another hex on the same spot on his arm. This time it burned, causing Felix to let out a yelp. 

“What is your fucking problem?” Felix yelled as he massaged that spot. “Obsessed with me or something?”

“Obsessed?” Barrett sneered. “You didn’t think I would have a problem with you after you humiliated me in front of so many people by turning me into a freaking chicken?”

Felix rolled his eyes as he said, “get over it.”

“Get over it?!” He exclaimed. “You think you could get over it when every single person you encounter starts mockingly clucking at you like some fucking chickens?” 

Felix wasn’t scared at all as he saw him wave his wand at him threateningly. Instead, he was trying his best to not laugh out loud at this guy’s admission. Oh how he wished he could have witnessed his fellow classmates just mockingly making chicken sounds at Barrett. He really wanted to just dash upstairs and wake up his friends just so he could let them know about it. 

But his lips must have twitched and a smile must have unknowingly made his way onto his face because now Eugene was seething as he looked at Felix. 

Felix quickly withdrew his wand from his pocket and cast a shield charm around himself and he was glad he was fast enough to do that because suddenly Barrett had screamed, “ confringo. ” 

A burst of flame was hitting Felix’s shield full-on. Felix held on as strongly as he could, quickly thinking of ways he could walk out of this undeterred. 

He really needed to brush up on his defense skills if he was going to start getting more haters. 

Felix was pretty sure that the spell that Barrett had cast his way was a curse, aimed to truly injure his opponent, and well, that unsettled Felix. He had been part of plenty of friendly duels but none where he could seriously end up injured. 

As soon as the flame had lost his fuel, Felix quickly withdrew his shield and cast the curse he was the most familiar with thanks to Kim Seungmin. “ Slugulus Eructo! ”

Barrett clearly wasn’t expecting that and stumbled backwards as the spell hit him full force. He hunched over and clung onto his stomach as he began gagging. 

Felix snickered when Barrett looked up, his face taking on a green complexion.

“W-What did y-you do…?” he asked as a slug came out of his mouth as he made retching noises. 

Felix squirmed because he knew exactly what that felt like. 

“You should probably rush to Madame Pomfrey to get that taken care of,” Felix suggested. 

It took a second but Barrett quickly stood up on shaky legs before casting another stinging hex at Felix as he said, “F-Fucking hate you!”

This time the stinging hex left a mark on Felix’s wrist, burning him. Felix let out a silent curse as he massaged the spot. 

Barrett vomited another slug before rushing out of the towers, presumably to get healed. 

Felix couldn’t help but feel amused at the situation but also felt terribly sympathetic towards him as he had been at the end of that slug vomiting spell multiple times. However, as he looked down at the burning mark on his wrist, he knew he had to thank Seungmin for teaching him that spell. 

With that in mind, he picked up the candle holder that he had dropped onto the floor and rushed up the stairs. Despite what happened he was still more than determined to finish the corsage before the sun rose.