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“Madam Puddifoot’s Tea Shop?” He glanced at Jaehyun who had a smug smile on his lips, but his confusion didn’t waver easily and he reminded Jaehyun, “You hate this place.”
“But you love it,” Jaehyun countered, embarrassingly so because Slytherins didn’t have a reputation for liking pink and cutesy things and it was a secret he had hoped to take to his grave despite it not being much of a secret. “You’ve always wanted to come here with me, what better day than Valentines Day.”
“I hardly believe it is the ideal place to spend your birthday Jae," he commented.
“We won’t be here all day, an hour, tops,” Jaehyun assured but it didn’t feel right to have spend his day like this. “Come on.”
Jaehyun tugged on his arm and he reluctantly followed. They crossed the street and into the shop and he couldn’t help but smile the second he heard the chime of the bell that rang when they opened the door.
Two, he heard Jaehyun say and he looked around, the place was dressed for the occasion, with hearts and tiny cupids all over the place that blended in so well with the other decorations that he could see them being up all year round anyways.
“Do you want to sit by the window?” Jaehyun whispered and he nodded once his eyes landed on the booths. Jaehyun held out his arm telling him to lead the way and he did and he sat in the booth by the corner of the shop, hoping it would hide him in case any of his fellow Slytherins spotted him, although sitting by the window was the surest way to get caught, so he was aware his attempts were in vain.
“Have you been here before?” He asked Jaehyun and Jaehyun scrunched up his nose cutely.
“Once.” Jaehyun shook his head at what he could only assume was the memory. “As a third wheel for Yugyeom, he was too nervous to go on a date with some Hufflepuff, it was the awkwardest thing ever.”
“That would explain why you would grow a distaste for the shop,” he mused.
“I just wasn’t a fan of the confetti.” He tilted his head to the side in confusion and as if on cue, the sound of an explosion went off as heart-shaped papers fell on the table and he almost squealed in surprise as well as excitement.
“That’s so cute,” he gushed as he looked up to see the confetti resting beautifully in Jaehyun hair, although Jaehyun was attempting and failing to shake one out of his eyelash. “How can you hate it?”
“I didn’t say I hated it, I just wasn’t a fan at the time, but seeing how happy it makes you, I might have to reconsider,” Jaehyun replied. He heard him whisper a quick vanishing spell and the confetti on Jaehyun's half disappeared and Jaehyun quirked an eyebrow, asking if wanted him to do it for him too and he shook his head.
“Well you should, because I think I’m going to want to come here every time we come to Hogsmeade,” he declared.
“What happened to your schedule? I thought you said it was important that we stuck to it or else you’d run out of your sparkly parchment.”
“First of all, I don’t buy sparkly parchment, it’s a waste of money when I can do it myself, and better than a mass-produced spell at that, I just needed to buy the parchment. Second of all, I said that because you always want to spend the whole trip in Honeydukes when you barely even eat sweets,” he argued although he knew Jaehyun had just said it to rile him up.
“True, but Johnny had more Chocolate Frog cards than me and I can’t lose to a Gryffindor,” Jaehyun justified and he snorted.
“You’re a Gryffindor,” Doyoung pointed out.
“But my boyfriends a Slytherin and I have to defend my boyfriend’s honor.” Jaehyun looked proud of his statement and he just shook his head at the absurdity of it.
“You’re so stupid, what do Chocolate Frogs have to do with my honor,” he rolled his eyes, but he smiled nonetheless at the younger. “Let’s look at the menu before the waitress comes around.”
Jaehyun nodded and handed him a menu.
---
He ended up ordering a caramel coffee and Jaehyun ordered an iced peach tea.
“I remember it being the only good thing about coming here,” Jaehyun told him. “I even considered coming here and asking for one to go, but it’s always so full and it would be embarrassing to be caught in here alone.”
“I don’t think you’ve ever come to Hogsmeade alone,” he pointed out.
“How would you know that?” Jaehyun laughed and he felt like he had been caught in a trap he didn’t even realize was there. “Unless you were checking up on me.”
“I-I was not,” he stuttered and Jaehyun shook his head with a tiny smile.
“I knew you had always had a crush on me,” Jaehyun teased and he felt his cheeks heat up and he regretted not putting on his makeup in the morning, it would have stopped his blush from resting on his cheeks and it would give less room for Jaehyun to tease him.
“I did not,” he replied indignified. “I just happened to notice- why does it matter anyway, if we’re dating now.”
“Because I must have been quite the catch if I caught such a pretty Slytherin’s eye,” Jaehyun gloated and he rolled his eyes.
It used to bother him, when he was called pretty, back when he believed that for anyone to take him seriously, he had to be masculine, but it was only with time that he realized that being a boy, a man, was what he wanted it to mean and not what others believed it to be.
Now he liked it when Jaehyun called him pretty because he was admittingly so and more importantly he understood that being pretty didn't make him any less of a man.
“Once again we’re dating, of course I think you’re a catch," he told the younger.
“Ah hah, I caught you,” Jaehyun exclaimed and he just shook his head.
“You’re annoying,” Doyoung told him and he took a sip of his coffee, it was good, good enough to come back if Jaehyun was up for it.
---
“I have a gift for you,” Jaehyun told him on the walk back.
“It’s your birthday, I should be the one giving you gifts.”
“You already did, plus it’s valentine's day, what kind of boyfriend would I be if I didn’t give my cute boyfriend a gift," Jaehyun explained.
“Okay.” He sighed, knowing that Jaehyun wouldn't relent and it was easier if he just agreed sooner rather than later.
Jaehyun reached into his coat pocket and handed him a tiny box. Judging by the size and appearance it was probably a ring and his suspicions were confirmed when he slowly opened it and his breath got caught in his throat at the realization of what exactly it was.
“Your family’s ring?” he breathed out, looking at the red gem, a ruby, he believed, with a golden band. He never expected to see it in person, not when Jaehyun’s mum had stopped wearing it when her husband had died in the Battle of Hogwarts and it had never seen the light of day again. Not when Jaehyun was an only child and quite openly gay and his mom didn’t approve of him as a partner for Jaehyun. “I don’t understand. Your mum hates me, she’s always hated my family. Why would she give you her ring?”
"I will admit she isn't quite fond of you, but it's more my fault than yours. But despite that she wants me to be happy. I told her I wanted to buy you a ring and she said there wasn’t a need when we have a perfectly fitting ring just sitting around.” It meant the world for Jaehyuns mum to accept him, for Jaehyun’s mum to not still be stuck on the fact that he wasn’t exactly what she would have wanted for her only son. “I know we’ve only been dating for ten months, but despite all the teasing, I’ve liked you for a lot longer and I know we’re graduating and we plan to do very different things with our lives, but I want you to know that I want to do it all with you, always and forever.
“The ring is a promise to you, that I love you and I want to be with you,” Jaehyun finished.
“Jae…”
“It’s not an engagement ring, I know how you feel about heteronormativity, I just like the idea of a physical representation of our promise. You obviously don’t have to accept, there’s no pressure, we can even forget this happened if you don't feel comfortable wearing it, I don’t want to impose relationship roles or anything like that on you.”
“If you want to promise me something, the unbreakable is always a better option,” he joked and Jaehyun knew him well enough to know it was one. His voice choked up a bit as he let out a laugh and Jaehyun reached forward to wipe a stray tear that rolled down his cheek.
“You’re such a Slytherin,” Jaehyun chucked. “I love that about you... I’d do it for you, you know, the unbreakable.”
“You don’t need to, I believe you.”
“Do you now?” Jaehyun took a step closer and he smiled as he took one too.
“You’re a Gryffindor, loyal to a fault and I don’t need an unbreakable vow to know that you’re being sincere, my love.” He took the chance to hand the box back and before Jaehyun could get sulky he held out his hand and Jaehyun held it delicately as he looked up at him through his eyelashes and slipped the ring onto his finger.
Never in a million years would he have expected Jaehyun to give him a promise ring, and neither did he expect to actually accept such a thing. But it looked good and he found himself admiring how it looked on his hand. Oddly enough, he couldn’t wait to write home to his mum about it.
“You’re not, you know,” he started, once Jaehyun had pulled him in close by the waist and their faces were entirely too close, but he liked it anyway. “Imposing things on to me. You gave me a ring, it doesn’t have to mean that you see me as the woman in the relationship, or whatever cis people like to say.”
It bothered him that Jaehyun still walked on eggshells around the topic, but he couldn’t exactly blame him either. There wasn’t a handbook on how to date trans wizards, but he was sure if there were, Jaehyun would have been the first in line to buy one. He wished that it didn’t have to be a topic of conservation, that he could just be, but he also recognized the fact that he couldn’t expect people to understand all of the facets of it. He much preferred for Jaehyun to be cautious than pretend he knew.
“I don’t by the way,” Jaehyun commented and he nodded at the younger. “Think that about you.”
“You don’t need to clarify that, I know you don’t,” he assured him.
“Then how about we seal our arrangement with a kiss? For good measures, of course.” Jaehyun suggested.
“How about two?” He countered.
“You can have all the kisses you want.”
“I might just have to take you up on that offer.”
---
(“You know if you sent my mum one of your letters on your sparkly stationery, she might realize how harmless you are.”
“Why are you so obsessed with my stationery?” He asked rhetorically.
“Because you’re always so proud of the enchantments, your stationery brings you joy and that brings me joy.”
“You’re such a cornball.”
“Your cornball,” Jaehyun retorted and he rolled his eyes. “Although your sparkly ink could use some work, sometimes is quite patchy when I’m trying to use it to write potions formulas.”
“If you ever say that to me again, you won’t be.”)