I'm so surprised I was able to get this out in 2 and a half weeks. I'm ashamed to say that's a record for me nowadays (I can't believe I used to update twice a week...).
Last chapter wasn't romantic at all and I wanted to try something more lovey dovey kind of writing.
It's much shorter than the previous chapter but I'm not really good at writing fluff as I am writing fights. If anyone wants to give me tips, I'll be forever grateful! [And the ending kinda sucks].
EDIT: I changed some of the bad grammar and stuff so I hope it is better now.
So I got a request to write Alfred as a Hufflepuff! I really love him as a Hufflepuff. And what a better relationship than a Hufflepuff and a Ravenclaw? I really love Arthur as a Ravenclaw because he is pretentious and cocky, which are some of the bad traits associated with Ravenclaw. (Honestly, I think he makes a better Ravenclaw than Slytherin).
If there is any pairing you want to see, feel free to tell me!
America: Hufflepuff fifth year
England: Ravenclaw fifth year
Summary: Arthur is jealous that Alfred can create a patronus charm when he can't. He has to have a secret. There is no way a Hufflepuff could be better than a Ravenclaw at anything.
Enjoy~!
Arthur hated his Defense Against the Dark Arts.
Scratch that. Arthur despised his Defense Against the Dark Arts class.
Of course, he had absolutely nothing against the professor or even the material. No, it certainly wasn't anything academic. It was just that he couldn't understand why he had to take a class he simply wasn't good in. It was a waste of time, in Arthur's opinion, especially after the Second Wizard War. If it were up to Arthur, he would only take classes in divination. The Ravenclaw boy just couldn't wait for next year so he could choose all of his classes. Then he would never take Defense Against the Dark Arts ever again.
The only thing that did get him through Defense Against the Dark Arts was Alfred. Alfred F. Jones was Arthur's best friend at Hogwarts. The two were practically inseparable, despite how different they were. Arthur was a high strung, overachieving Ravenclaw while Alfred was an energetic, loud-mouthed Hufflepuff. But, despite their flaws, they were best friends through and through. Arthur would always help Alfred pass his classes while Alfred would provide emotional support for Arthur.
However, even Alfred couldn't cheer him up after Defense Against the Dark Arts today.
"How did I know you would come find me?" Arthur asked without even turning around. He knew Alfred had found him, curled up in a corner in the room of requirement. He would always come here before exams or whenever he was stressed. It was no wonder that he didn't find him here sooner. Alfred always fretted too much about his friends, especially Arthur.
"Arthur, what's wrong?" Alfred asked sympathetically approaching his friend. Arthur was a rather short boy, but he was strong willed and sharp tongued. However, there was no sign of that boy here. Instead, his blond hair was untidier than usual and his usually fair skin was blotchy and red, obvious signs that he had been crying. He seemed almost weak and helpless. "You weren't at lunch and you're acting all weird."
"Have not!" Arthur protested immaturely. Despite his protests, his voice any real bite and was quite shaky.
Alfred put his hands on his hips and raised one of his eyebrows knowingly.
Arthur let out a long breath of air. "Fine. I'm just upset. Now will you leave me alone?"
"I can't leave until you're happy," Alfred answered stubbornly. It was against his nature to have anyone remain unhappy. He was a Hufflepuff after all, and that's what Hufflepuffs do.
"Well that's the problem, you see."
"What do you mean?" Alfred asked, cocking his head slightly almost clueless of the situation.
Arthur sighed. He knew Alfred was too stubborn to let this go. He surely wouldn't leave Arthur alone until he got an answer, like always. Sometimes, he hated how much Alfred meddled in his life, even if it was for his own good.
"Will you promise not to tell anyone?" Arthur asked in a low voice. He couldn't imagine what would happen if anyone else knew. He could lose his reputation, or worse, his prefect badge
"Scout's honor." To seal the deal, Alfred drew an 'X' over his heart with his index finger.
"Well we were learning patronus charms in class. And, well, everyone else seemed to get the hang of it. And well...I just...I just can't do it!" Arthur shouted, running his fingers through his flaxen hair. He was the best student in his class yet couldn't create what he deemed to be a simple spell. He could make charms twice as powerful - he could even perform wand-less magic - yet could not create a patronus.
"Hey, it's alright," Alfred reminded his friend. He began to wrap his arms around the shorter boy in a hug. He knew his strong hugs always cheered anyone up. "Patronus charms are hard. Not everyone gets it on their first try."
"You did!" Arthur shouted, trying to unlock himself from Alfred's strong grasp. He couldn't believe that Alfred, of all people, could be so dense as to say something like that. "Just tell me your secret."
"Whoa, calm down, dude. No need to get worked up over this," Alfred assured him. His grip around the boy tightened, even if it seemed to only enrage the boy further. He knew as much as Arthur denied that he liked to be hugged or even touched at all, he really needed to be. "If you want to know my secret, well...I just thought of my happiest memories and it just...happened."
"That's a lie," Arthur seethed, scowling at his friend. "You've been practicing or something. There's no way you could have created a patronus so easily! There must be a trick! That can't be it! You said yourself that it's a hard spell! A spell of that's level can't be that easy!"
"Nope. I just listened to the Professor. Happy memories really work," Alfred said with a bright smile, his blue eyes crinkling a bit at the edges. Arthur hated just how happy Alfred always seemed to be. No wonder that a spell that required happiness came easily to the Hufflepuff prefect.
"Then why don't you show me?" Arthur antagonized, crossing his arms over his slender chest. He wanted to see for himself that Alfred's luck with the patronus charm was just that: luck. It was absolutely impossible that Alfred could perform the charm without a cheat or potion. He wasn't exactly the smartest boy in their class.
"Okay. Stand back. I wouldn't want to hurt you."
Arthur cautiously took a few steps back. He knew Alfred wasn't very good at spells (his true talent lied in astronomy and muggle studies) and was, frankly, scared earlier was all a fluke and something would go wrong.
Alfred, however, seemed unfazed by Arthur's attitude and stood at the center of the chamber. He held his wand straight out in front of him and closed his eyes.
"Expecto patronum."
As soon as the words left his lips, a wave of blue energy erupted from the tip of his long wand. In seconds, the blue light transformed into a large eagle which soar around the room. As cliché as it sounded, it truly was magical. However, as quickly as it was conjured, it quickly vanished into a miasma of blue smoke.
Alfred turned around. "Now it's your turn."
Arthur nodded, still in awe over Alfred's display. If Alfred, an average student, could perform a patronus charm, then by Merlin the best damn student in the class could surely perform it.
Arthur stood his ground in the center of the room, holding his wand straight in front of him.
"Expecto patronum!"
Unlike the spectacle that emitted from Alfred's wand, Arthur could not even conjure a single blue spark.
"Why isn't it working?" Arthur asked, quite irritated. The Ravenclaw prefect had never had any difficulties performing spells, even as a first year. So why it that the patronus charm was eluded him so much?
"It's a very hard spell, Arthur. Don't work yourself up over it. Many great wizards can't create the spell."
"Oh shut up, Alfred. You're not helping by bloody showing off!"
"Hey," Alfred defended, holding his hands up in a surrender. "You're the one who asked me."
"I was just making sure that you could actually create the spell. I didn't think you actually would. I thought there must be a secret."
"The secret is that you have the think of a very happy memory!" Alfred insisted. "What are you thinking of?"
"...getting Os on my tests," Arthur blurted, although he wasn't exactly thinking of anything aside from making the spell work. He couldn't let Alfred knew just how utterly jealous (no, not jealous, he was certainly not jealous of Alfred) he was that Alfred could create the spell that he couldn't. Arthur was supposed to help Alfred with spells, not the other way around.
"Artie," the Hufflepuff whined quite childishly. "That isn't happy enough!"
"Then what is, oh master of patronus charms?" Arthur retorted quite bitterly. He couldn't understand how a Hufflepuff could be better than a Ravenclaw at anything other than kindness, let alone patronus charms.
Alfred shrugged. "Well...I always think back to when I learned I was a wizard and went to Hogwarts! Hogwarts is so great! I met such nice people like you, Feliciano, Kiku, Im Yong Soon-"
"Don't you have any other memories?" Arthur interrupted, his eyebrows furrowing. It was a known fact that Arthur barely had any friends aside from Alfred. And to have his only friend basically add salt to the wound didn't make it much better.
"What about performing your first spell? Or opening presents on Christmas? Or flying?"
"Those are hardly good enough memories." Arthur sat on the cold ground and brought his knees up to his chest like before. "I guess I don't have happy memories."
"That can't be true."
"Well it is," Arthur decided stubbornly.
"How about I make happy memories for you?"
"You can do that?" Arthur asked, his green eyes lighting up hopefully. "Is there some sort of potion? I should've thought of that before! I'm so foolish! Is that how you could make the-"
"No, Art, we don't need a potion," he said chuckling a bit at his friend's logical way of thinking. "We can go to Hogsmede and just act like kids, like we did in our third year. We can eat lots of candy and drink all the tea you want! And then we can go wonder around Hogwarts or even-"
Arthur snorted at Alfred's silly idea. "I hardly see how that will work."
"It's worth a shot, Artie. You want to create a patronus, right?" Alfred asked with a smirk. He knew he had Arthur exactly where he wanted. The green-eyes blond was hardly good at hiding his emotions.
"Well yeah..."
"Great! Then I'll see you tomorrow after dinner in the astronomy tower! Don't be late!"
"Come on, Art! You're so slow!" Alfred called over his shoulder rushing up the stairs two at a time to the astronomy tower.
"Alfred, you're going to get us in trouble," Arthur huffed in tow. He would never do the wrong thing - as a Ravenclaw it was against his nature - so running around past curfew felt wrong. Ravenclaws were supposed to follow the rules, not break them.
Alfred smirked, slowing down to Arthur's pace. "But what's the fun without a little risk?"
"I thought eating those stupid every flavor beans was enough risk for you." For some unholy reason, Alfred loved those every flavor beans, and would always make Arthur eat at least one whenever he bought a pack at Hogsmede. Alfred would always jokingly claim that Arthur had a curse since he always got nasty beans. Quite frankly, Arthur found it disgusting.
"Nah, Artie, that was just so I could eat some more candy! Now this will actually be fun!"
"I would hardly call running around Hogwarts trying not to get caught fun. They could take my prefect badge away!"
"They won't. Trust me, I've done this before!"
Arthur shook his head. "You're a horrible prefect, you know. Running around Hogwarts at night? If anything, headmaster should get rid of your badge before mine."
"Don't worry we won't be running for much longer," Alfred assured the shorter boy.
"Where are we going? The roof? This is hardly safe."
"Stop being a worry wart, Art," Alfred joked, stopping before a wooden door. He took out a small pin in which he twiddled the lock with. In seconds, the door opened to a landing on the roof. It was quite a small landing, leaving only a bit of room for Alfred and Arthur to stand without touching each other.
"Are you kidding me?" Arthur asked, regaining his breath. He knew Alfred's idea must be ridiculous - why else would he invite him to the astronomy tower after hours - but this was surely on another level of ridiculous.
"Nope! It'll totally lighten you up!" Alfred exclaimed, his breath fogging up a bit. The night was already quite cold, even if the sun had just set a mere hour ago.
Arthur raised a thick eyebrow and buried himself further into his blue scarf. "Flying at night? We could get caught, among other things!"
"Come on, it's super fun! We're just going to the top of the roof. No one checks up there anyways. And it'll totally be a happy memory."
"That is if I make it alive," Arthur muttered under his breath. He watched as Alfred mounted his broom and held out a hand to Arthur. Against all of his instincts telling him to go back inside, forget all of this nonsense, and maybe brew a potion, Arthur took Alfred's hand and mounted the broom.
"I won't hurt you! I've done this tons of times! It's only a short broom ride to the top!"
"This is hardly-"
"That's the spirit!" Alfred exclaimed with a cheeky smile. "Hang on to me!"
Without much more of a warning, Alfred kicked off from the ground. Instinctively, Arthur grabbed onto the back of Alfred's robes tightly. He never did like flying, but knowing that Alfred was there with him was a bit more comforting.
"Come on, you can't tell me you're not happy."
"I'd be happier if I was back in my dorm reading a book," Arthur sneered although it was a blatant lie. The view truly was amazing. He had never seen the grounds of Hogwarts look so peaceful. Arthur never really liked heights to begin with - it would always give him a headache - but that could change if he had views like this.
"Here we are," Alfred exclaimed, landing the broom at another small landing on the top of the tower.
"It really is a beautiful view," Arthur admitted, softening up from his original stance on this nonsense.
"More beautiful with you."
Arthur slapped him playfully but his cheeks turned a bright shade of pink nonetheless. "Don't say such things." He paused before adding hastily, "I'm hardly beautiful."
"I mean it." Alfred stated. He looked down at the grounds below, smiling to himself. "You know, I never did tell you my secret to making a patronus."
Arthur's face lit up. He knew Alfred, of all people, had to have a secret. There had to be some sort of potion - Arthur assumed it was the wit enhancing potion; - he must have taken before class. There was no way someone as oblivious as Alfred could understand how to make a patrons before the smartest student in Ravenclaw could even make a spark. "I knew you had a secret! Pray tell."
"Well...this might sound stupid...and don't get mad at me because I'm being honest here and you want honesty, but I think of you."
Arthur's mouth went dry. That wasn't what he expected at all. "Alfred..."
"Yeah, well, you really do make me happy," Alfred explained, scratching the back of his head nervously.
Arthur blinked twice, unable to respond. How could he?
"I don't know what it is about you, but you just have this effect on me. With your cute little smile and the way your eyebrows crumple up when you're really focused or reading something good. And your accent that you swear is northern English from Manchester, not "British" because you would never want to be associated with Scotland and-well what I mean to say is that you're what makes me happier than anything. I just want you to be as happy as you make me. When I saw you upset about the patronus charm, I knew I could actually help you with something. So I wanted to create the perfect moment for you. I've known about this place for a long time and I knew that you'd love it. I know that you hate flying so I kept trying to think of things that made you happy. I wanted it to be perfect so then I kept thinking the library-"
"Alfred, this is perfect. You're perfect." Arthur averted his gaze to his long fingers which were nervously playing with his black robe. Very softly, he added "you don't deserve someone who can't make a patronus."
"Are you kidding? I don't care about that!" Instinctively, Arthur smiled at Alfred's comment. "If anyone's perfect it's you and your O average."
"Um...thanks, I guess. So..." he said awkwardly drawing out the 'O'. "Does this mean we're, you know, dating?"
"I've just assumed we were dating," Alfred said tangling his fingers into Arthur's. "I mean it's no secret that you like me."
Arthur playfully pushed him. "Oh sod off."
The Hufflepuff boy laughed. "I don't know what that means but I have another secret for you."
"Oh really?"
"Well to make this the happiest memory ever, I have to give you a kiss. Is that okay? I mean, can I kiss you? Is that appropriate? We've kind of been on dates before and-"
"Of course, love."
Alfred leaned in and pressed his lips against Arthur's for a brief second. His pink lips were thin and soft, albeit slightly chapped.
"For some reason, I can't help but wonder if you've been trying to get into my pants this whole time," Arthur breathed out as the two broke away.
"Don't tell me an all mighty Ravenclaw couldn't figure it out," Alfred said wiggling his eyebrows.
"Mm, don't ruin the moment," Arthur hummed. "This is supposed to be a happy memory."
"See! I knew I could make you happy memories!"
Arthur supposed he was right. They were sure to make more happy memories in the future; no potion, cheat, or secret needed.
To be continued...?