"no. absolutely not. nope, no." brendon said as he stood up, looking slightly annoyed. pete frowned.

"why not?"

"why not? are you serious?" he chuckled humorlessly.

a week had passed since gryffindor and slytherin's match.

tyler and josh had just been assigned to write a huge essay on gillyweed, and that meant they were spending a lot of their time alone in the library.

although josh didn't want to admit, he was starting to fall in love with tyler. the brunette, however, hadn't shown the slightest bit of interest in him ever since that night before the quidditch match.

josh was starting to think that tyler was starting to move away from his friendship, and he couldn't help but think that it was all happening because of his sexuality. that thought alone was killing him.

"brendon, we just have to plan it better this time." pete insisted. "trust me, i know what i'm doing."

"no, you don't." he said. "we can't keep lying to him, pete."

"he's fucking miserable! don't you see? we have the means to help... just this once. we'll make it right this time."

brendon gritted his teeth. he was about to answer as someone entered the nearly empty common room.

jenna shot them an irritated look as she climbed up the stairs right away. she was wearing tyler's scarf, as it had a captain badge pinned to it.

"fuck it. tyler's a good guy, this witch doesn't deserve him. josh does." brendon sat down again. "let's do it."

"you do know she's actually a witch right? it's not an insult." pete laughed.

"i have got to stop using muggle slang." brendon exhaled.

the taller boy leaned forward as pete started to thoroughly explain his new plan.

...

"can i ask you a question?" tyler stood up, gathering his things as josh put back the books in the shelf. the library was empty, except for madam pince who was cleaning the stands.

"yeah. sure." he smiled. tyler had a puzzled expression in his face.

"about your... sexuality..."

josh's blood froze in his veins. "oh my god. it's never a good thing when they start it like that. this isn't good."

"y-yes?" josh spoke, realizing he looked a bit strange just standing there.

"was- was it hard?" tyler looked uncertain. "was it hard... c-coming out?"

josh sighed with relief. he didn't know why he was always thinking so little of tyler. he was a good friend and he wouldn't make josh feel bad on purpose.

"well, yes. mainly to my family... but they were very cool about it. my friends too. i guess i'm just lucky enough to have supportive people in my life." josh smiled.

tyler hummed in agreement, looking down.

"yeah, i guess so."

and when he looked up, his eyes were the darkest they've ever been.

josh had never seen such a painful look on his face, not even when that giant plant had attacked him.

then tyler blinked, and it was gone. his eyes were normal again, and he even smiled a bit.

"let's go. we don't wanna be late for potions." he said, starting to walk away. josh followed him, trying to continue their conversation.

"what about you and jenna? how did you two meet?"

"uhh, i don't remember. my grandparents are friends with hers. we've known each other ever since i moved into their house after my mom..."

josh bit his lip. he knew tyler didn't like talking about it.

"so you've been boyfriend and girlfriend ever since?" he swallowed. "that's... cute."

tyler laughed.

"no, not really. we didn't talk a lot back then... in fact we just started dating a year ago." he said as they started walking into the dungeons towards the classroom.

"do you love her?" josh blurted out and he slapped himself mentally for asking that question.

tyler didn't meet his eyes as he answered.

"yeah. sure."

||-//

heyy i bet you thought i had forgotten about this fic.

well you ain't wrong, i sort of did. but i missed writing it so i came back skjdf so sorry i've been gone for so long. i really wanna finish this so i'll try and be more productive this month.