Pairing: Minho & Felix

Genre: Harry Potter AU/Soulmate AU

!!TW!! : age difference, teacher/student relationship, just plain fluff 'cause I didn't feel like writing angst for this one

(requested by @deepslumber)

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Felix met his soulmate when he was twelve years old, but he didn't know it at the time, since soulmate marks only appeared when you turned fifteen. As such, he had no idea that his soulmate was actually at Hogwarts too.

Minho, however, knew exactly who he was.

Minho was only twenty-two at the time. He was the youngest teacher at Hogwarts, and also the 2nd potion teacher – meaning he handled first to fourth year students. He was focused on becoming the best teacher he could be, and on ultimately succeeding the older potion master in the school as Slytherin's Head of the House after a few years, and so he didn't care much for soulmates at the time.

As such, when first year Hufflepuff Lee Felix showed up in his class on the second day of school, the last thing he expected was for the mark on his forearm to start glowing and throbbing. Thankfully, none of the students had noticed, as he'd been able to hide it with a quick glamour spell but, as soon as he was alone again, he had to come to an understanding: he'd found his soulmate, and it was one of his students.

That left Minho in a bit of an awkward position. Felix was still just a child, and Minho was not only ten years older than him, but also his teacher – someone in a position of authority, and with a lot of influence within the halls of the school.

At a loss as to what to do, Minho went to Chan, the Head of Gryffindor, the Transfiguration teacher, and also the Deputy Headmaster of Hogwarts – though considering how he tended to most of the actual Headmaster's duties, everyone on the staff agreed to say he was better suited for the higher position.

It wasn't too hard to explain the situation, but it was hard to find a solution. In the end, they both agreed that keeping it a secret from the other staff members would only bring about unnecessary drama and, as such, an official meeting with all of the teachers and staff members was held to discuss the situation.

Soulmates were a tricky thing. Soul marks, which appeared on every single witch and wizard upon their fifteenth birthday, were a result of a ritual that had taken place many decades ago, shortly after the Wizarding War. They had lost many to Voldemort's cruelty and, with the wizarding population dwindling a little more each year because of inbreeding issues, the entire wizarding world had agreed on using this ancient ritual.

The chances of the ritual working had been almost zero but, by some miracle, the mighty wizards who'd gathered from all around the world managed to pull it off and, thanks to it, the wizarding population had slowly started growing again.

Soulmates weren't necessarily expected to marry. Sometimes, some soulmates were more platonic than romantic, and that was okay – however, there was no denying that the statistics showed that soulmates usually tended to be a lot more romantically involved than not, which would definitely be a problem for Minho and Felix, considering their current positions.

The most important issue was that, as soon as Felix got his soul mark, he'd bond with Minho – and, be it romantic or platonic, the pair would need to nurture that bond in order to stay healthy. Ignoring the bond physically hurt people, and outright rejecting it sometimes killed them – an unfortunate side-effect of the ritual, but all magic had a price, after all.

After lengthy discussions, it was agreed that they would wait until Felix got his mark to tell him anything. They'd simply put some measures in place once the time came to ensure the situation didn't get out of hand, be it with eventual accusations of abuse of power, the risk of favoritism, or any other potential issue that a relationship between a student and a teacher would bring up.

Until then, however, Minho had to wear a glamour charm every day to ensure no one noticed how his mark reacted whenever Felix was in the vicinity. It was a bit annoying, even more so because his soul yearned to get closer to the Hufflepuff even though Minho kept trying to keep his distances, which ultimately led him to suffer from terrible migraines.

Though, there was no denying seeing Felix's smiles, even from afar, always made the pain lessen a little.

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Felix turned fifteen at the beginning of his fourth year.

During those four years, Minho had done a mighty good job of keeping their interactions to the minimum. He treated Felix like any other of his students, and the fact they weren't in the same House definitely helped Minho with keeping his distances with him.

Still, he found himself looking forward to each of their classes together, and the mere sight of the freckled boy brought him a ridiculous amount of joy. Unable to really help it, he found himself watching over the boy from the shadows. He'd keep an eye on his grades, check-up on him through the other teachers, and they sometimes made small talk at the beginning of class – because, for some reason, Felix always showed up about fifteen minutes in advance to each potion class.

In those four years, even though he tried to keep his distances, Minho found himself learning a lot about Felix.

Felix was a muggleborn. His best friends were Han Jisung, a Gryffindor, Seungmin, a Ravenclaw, and Jeongin, a Slytherin. His best subjects were Herbology and Potions, and his worst subjects were Divination and History of Magic. He played on the quidditch team as a Seeker, he loved anything sweet, and he also had a pet sparrow named Jack (an obscure reference to a muggleborn movie, or so Felix had explained once).

They greeted each other in the hallways, smiled whenever their eyes met. They chatted about potions and herbs during those fifteen minutes he and Felix were alone before class began. They sometimes crossed paths in the library, or even in the greenhouses, when Minho went to fetch ingredients and found the boy helping out Rowoon, the Herbology teacher.

Those little moments suited Minho just fine, even if he instinctively yearned for more. The thought of having a soulmate so young had scared him but, little by little, he had found himself warming up to the idea – if it was Felix, then he would probably accept anything.

So, by the time Felix started his fourth year, Minho's closest friends would describe him as "positively enamored with the boy", no matter how much he'd tried to deny it. They were almost more eager than him for Felix to finally get his soul mark, if only so Minho would stop ranting about how "his freckles are so cute" and "oh Merlin, if he's a cat animagus I will DIE".

However, none of the teachers or staff members exactly expected for Felix's soul mark to be revealed smack in the middle of the Grand Hall.

He and Minho accidentally bumped into each other as the boy hastily got up from his table without noticing the teacher heading out, and then Felix's mark had started glowing so brightly it actually blinded the closest students, and Minho's mark reacted so strongly the glamor dropped instantly.

Minho had quickly escorted a shocked Felix outside, with Chan and a few other teachers hot on their heels, while the rest did some damage control – because almost the entire student body had just witnessed the formation of a soul bond between a teacher and a student, and the aftermath was bound to get messy.

("You knew? All this time?"

"I'm sorry, Felix.")

It took a few weeks for Felix to come to terms with the fact that his soulmate was his Potion teacher. Minho had been pleasantly surprised when he'd found the boy waiting in his office, having expected him to take much longer to come around but, as it turned out, Felix had apparently had a crush on him for the last two years, so that admittedly helped things move along much more smoothly.

("Wait, that's why you're always in advance to my class?"

"I thought it was obvious! You're so dense!"

"Yah! I'm still your senior, brat!"

"Right, sorry – you're so dense, professor!")

So, Felix's fourth year was spent in a weird in-between. Now that he was aware of his bond with Minho, he couldn't possibly ignore it, but the situation was still a little difficult to deal with, even more because of all of the rumors going around.

The pair ultimately decided to take things slow, and to wait until Felix's seventeenth birthday before making any kind of decision regarding a potential future together. The situation was already quite problematic, Minho didn't want even more drama added to it just because Felix wasn't legal yet, and Felix had hastily agreed, not ready to involve himself in a romantic relationship anyway.

Until then, they agreed to simply nurture their bond as friends, and see where things would eventually lead them. They began sharing breakfast together in his office and, every two weekends, Felix would spend his day hanging out with Minho instead of going to Hogsmeade with his friends. Their brief greetings in the hallways turned to full conversations, their smiles in passing turned to full-blown grins, sparkling eyes, and cheerful waves of the hand, and they even started meeting regularly in the greenhouses, where Minho began teaching him about the plants he grew for his potions.

Rumors had died down, eventually. Not wanting the parents to get the wrong impression because of whatever the students would write them, Chan – newly-appointed Headmaster – had sent a letter to all students' families to inform them of the situation, and what was being done to handle it properly.

(Needless to say, they were quite thankful that none of the parents brought a complaint to the Ministry, because the last thing they wanted was to have to fire Minho because of something neither him nor Felix could control.)

Barely a few months after the grand reveal, however, pretty much all of the student body and all of the staff members could agree on one thing: Minho and Felix were painfully adorable together.

(Jeongin had been more than happy to open the "MinLix Club" and make a fair amount of money by selling badges, stickers, and even sneakily taken pictures of the pair.

Felix had been mortified upon finding out, while Minho had simply laughed because that was such a Slytherin thing to do.)

All in all, it was quite a peculiar year at Hogwarts, but a pleasant one, nonetheless.

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Felix had to split his summer break between his family and Hogwarts, since he couldn't stay away from Minho for too long when their bond was still so freshly formed. It was a bit hard to explain the situation without giving away the details because, even though Felix's parents were quite open-minded, they were still muggleborns – they didn't quite grasp the soulmate concept, and they certainly wouldn't approve of a teacher courting their son.

(It was a very hard summer for Felix. Not only did he have to lie to his parents, but he also couldn't spend as much time as he wanted with them, and Minho had internally promised himself to never put the boy through this again, no matter what he had to do to make it happen.)

Felix's fifth year went by in a fashion similar to the previous one, except that they started introducing skinship to their budding relationship. Felix was a cuddle bug by nature, and Minho was a weak man who couldn't bring himself to deny him anything.

So, Felix began spending most of his evenings with Minho, usually starting with doing his homework, and ending up cuddling with the older on the couch. They began hugging each other in passing. At some point, Jisung grew tired of their fingers brushing without them ever holding hands, and he casted a gluing spell that kept their hands stuck together for an entire day.

(Minho had thoroughly enjoyed it, even if he'd deny it if anyone ever asked.

Felix had been a bit annoyed, very embarrassed, somewhat pleased, and mostly impressed that Jisung managed to cast such a long-lasting spell in the first place.)

With them growing physically closer, Minho had admittedly a bit of a harder time controlling himself. Felix was just so beautiful in every aspect, and he wanted nothing more than to worship him as he ought to be – but Felix still wasn't a legal adult, and they weren't even officially dating or anything, so he held himself back as best as he could.

Minho managed to control himself up until the last month of Felix's fifth year. During one of their evenings together, Felix had admitted that he was looking into becoming a Herbology teacher at Hogwarts, shyly implying he'd thought of their future together, and that was the last straw.

Minho had kissed him, and Felix had eagerly kissed him back.

That night, they had a very serious conversation about what they wanted, and what they expected from each other. They'd confessed to each other, and ultimately decided to officially start dating each other, knowing they'd never find comparable happiness with anyone else.

With that being decided, however, Minho now needed to meet Felix's parents, because there was no way he was going to force his boyfriend to lie to his family again just for his sake.

That conversation... went as well as it could have, all things considered.

("You're... dating Felix...? Aren't you ten years older than him? And a teacher? Look, this is ridiculous. Soulmates or not, it's still wrong—"

"My feelings for Felix have nothing to do with our soul bond. It brought us together, but my love for him is genuine and wasn't magically forced in any way, as you seem to wrongly believe."

"This is... this is a lot to take in. Please, give us some time.")

This time around, Felix didn't split his time between his family and Hogwarts. Instead, Minho rented a room in a hotel not too far from where Felix lived, and they met up every day to hang out in the muggle side of the city, where Felix took great joy in showing the pureblood the world he'd grown up in.

After a few weeks of Felix constantly arguing with his parents, they eventually came to terms with the situation – Minho wasn't going anywhere, so either they accepted him, either their lost their precious son, because they quickly realized that Felix was going to pick Minho over them if they forced him into an ultimatum.

It took pretty much all summer but, by the time the couple returned to Hogwarts, Minho was fairly confident that Felix's parents at least tolerated him now, which was already better than nothing.

And so, Felix's sixth year began.

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With Felix now of legal age, no one batted an eye when he unofficially moved into Minho's teacher quarters. He started spending his nights there and, though his friends teased him a lot, pretty much everyone was just glad the pair had stopped dancing around their feelings for each other.

Which led them... to where they were now.

"I told you the roots weren't ready—"

"They were green—"

"They were lime—"

"That's the same thing—!"

"—not when it comes to potions and you know that, Mr. Professor—"

"The roots were fine, it's the petals that weren't crushed properly—"

"Oh, so now it's my fault?"

"I never said that—"

"Okay stop, stop, stop." Felix pinched the bridge of his nose, heaving out a sigh as he closed his eyes. "I just... I can't argue seriously when you look like this."

"Because you think you look any better?" snorted Minho.

They stared at each other for a moment... then burst out laughing, the tension that had been steadily growing previously now completely gone. It hadn't been that serious to begin with, though – in the end, they both knew Felix was right, but Minho never liked admitting to his mistakes, even more so when they were quite dumb.

They'd been working on a potion together, one that would allow someone to grow their hair out... but, as it turned out, the roots weren't fresh enough yet and had set off a small explosion. And, once the smoke had cleared, it was only to reveal with Felix's hair now brushing the floor, and Minho with a beard of matching length.

It took them a little while to calm down but, once they did, Minho took it upon himself to clean everything up, as a silent apology for being so stubborn. Once he'd cleared out the rest of the potion, he used a quick shaving charm to get rid of his impromptu beard, then glanced at Felix.

"Can I cut your hair?"

"Sure? It'd be faster to use magic, though..."

"Maybe, but I like the old-fashioned way better."

Well, Felix wasn't going to oppose any longer – he loved when Minho messed with his hair. His boyfriend had teased him a lot about it, saying it was like petting a cat, and Felix couldn't really deny that. He sat on the couch and let Minho do as he pleased. The man did use his magic to chop off everything under his shoulders, but then he started using the scissors to even things out, and Felix bit back a smile.

"You just want to see me with a mullet, don't you?"

"Maybe." Felix's breath stuttered the slightest bit as he felt Minho's hand weaving itself in the longer strands, just enough to put the littlest of pressure as the man leaned down and brushed his lips against his ear. "I also happen to know how much you like it when I pull on it, kitten."

Felix blushed ten shades of ran and promptly smacked him on the arm. Minho simply laughed, releasing his hold and pressing a kiss to his temple before getting back to work.

By the time he was done, Felix had to admit that he quite liked the end result. He'd been keeping his hair short since he started studying at Hogwarts, but longer hair suited him well, after all.

"You like it?"

"Hmm, I love it." Felix suddenly spun around on the couch, latching his arms around Minho's neck, and pulling a little so the man would bend over the backrest. "Now, what was it you said earlier about pulling it...?"

Minho grinned, quickly leaning down to catch Felix's lips in a searing kiss. Felix giggled as Minho pulled him off the couch, wrapping his legs around the older's waist to steady himself as he deepened the kiss. The freckled bot let out a shaky moan as, as told, Minho pulled on his hair and started mouthing at his neck—

"Aish, you two! Get a room already!"

"Absolutely shameless!"

"What? No, it was just getting good!"

Felix groaned as he let his forehead rest against Minho's shoulder. "Remind why we haven't gotten rid of the magic paintings yet?"

"Because they're kind of sentient beings with personalities of their own," replied Minho, letting out a small huff, displeased they'd been so rudely interrupted. "Also, they're basically superglued to the walls."

Felix snorted at that, hugging Minho a little tighter as the man carried him back to his bedroom – well, their bedroom, now. Felix let out a sigh as he was carefully lowered on the bed, his soulmate now caging him in against the mattress.

"I love you," murmured Minho, pressing their foreheads together.

Felix simply smiled, content in simply basking in the other's presence and love. "I love you too."