Hey guys! Before I start, I want to say how much your comments mean to me. Your recent ones have been especially sweet, and every single one makes my day better. To say thank you, this chapter is twice the length of a normal one, so I hope you enjoy!

"Hey lets, uh, sit over here today" Mumbo suggested, gesturing to a table near the back.

Stress crinkled her eyebrows.

"Mumbo what's wrong? You always want to sit in the front"

"Don't look a gift horse in the mouth" Scar argued, elbowing her gently. "Any chance to sit further away from Snape is a blessing"

Stress giggled and shrugged.

"Fair enough"

Yes! Mumbo cheered in his head.

He situated himself so he was at the end of the table closer to the windows and pulled his potions book out of his bag. Mumbo scanned through the pages without really reading anything.

He was waiting.

As expected, Grian ran through the door just seconds before the class started, taking the empty seat at the table next to him.

"Cutting it especially close today I see" the Slytherin boy next to Grian commented with a smirk.

"Oh shut up Cub. I was busy"

"Mmm hmm, mmm hmmm" Cub nodded sarcastically. "You fell asleep after lunch didn't you"

"..."

Cub laughed and Grian joined in a second later, swatting his friends arm.

The door at the back of the class slammed shut, and all conversation ceased immediately as Snape strode down the isle.

He waved his wand at the blackboard and the chalk immediately took to the air, scrolling out large cursive letters.

He turned back to the class.

"You have two hours"

The class was immediately filled with noise as everyone scrambled to find the right page in their books and begin as quickly as possible.

Mumbo felt his smile dim as he glanced at the instructions.

"This looks... difficult"

"I know" Scar whined, wrinkling his nose as he looked over the recipe. "The last thing I want to do right now is juice a flobberworm"

Mumbo glanced out of the corner of his eye to see that Grian had already collected his ingredients and was humming under his breath as though he were going for a walk in the park.

"Come on we better get started" Stress said, a worry line forming on her forehead as she reread the page.

~~~

Half an hour later, Mumbo had accidentally cut himself, Stress's hair was frizzing above her head, and Scar had started over entirely.

"Stop moving around!" Mumbo grumbled under his breath at the flobberworm which was twisting up and down his cutting board.

He tried to stab at it, only narrowly missing his own hand as the worm slipped through his finger for the fifth time.

"Mumbo"

He glanced up to see Grian sitting in his chair, leaning his cheek on his hand as he watched Mumbo struggle with step 4.

"Why... why aren't you working?"

"It says leave to brew for 40 minutes"

Mumbo gaped.

"You're already there?!"

He nodded, badly stifling a giggle as Mumbo's flobberworm began crawling up his sleeve.

"Ugch!" Mumbo shook his arm wildly.

"Do you want some help?" Grian offered.

Mumbo glanced over at Snape who was busy threatening a Hufflepuff girl on the other side of the room.

"Please!"

Grian scooted his chair so he could sit next to Mumbo, and took the knife from him.

"You've been trying to grab it with your fingers, and that's not going to work. They secrete slime specifically so they can get away from situations like that"

He picked up the two latches used to keep the top on the cauldron and snatched the flobberworm in his fist so that the head was just barely peaking out between his fingers.

"Now screw the latch on its head"

"That's... but we aren't supposed to use those in this potion"

"Yeah we aren't supposed to use them for the cover" Grian retorted with an eye roll. "Doesn't mean we can't use them in other ways. Now hurry up these things are disgusting"

Careful not to touch Grian's hand, Mumbo squeezed the end of the flobberworm in the latch and locked it in place.

"Good" Grian turned his fist over. "Now the other side"

Mumbo repeated his movements.

"There you go"

Grian let the worm go and it flopped back on the table, thrashing madly as it failed to escape.

"Now pull these taut" he moved the latches until the worm was straightened out. "And cut"

"Th-thank you" Mumbo stuttered, a bit embarrassed that he hadn't thought of such a reasonable solution. He moved to slice the worm down the center, but Grian grabbed his wrist to before he could.

"No don't just cut it wherever! You want to get the most out of it that you can, so slice the head off, and when it goes limp, you can squeeze the mucus out like a tube of toothpaste"

"Uh huh"

Mumbo wasn't really listening. He was staring at where Grian was holding his wrist because it now felt like electricity was radiating up his arm.

"Mumbo?"

"Uh huh"

"Did you hear what I said?"

Mumbo blinked. Grian had removed his hand and Mumbo was now just holding up the knife as though he had been frozen in place.

"Yeah! Yeah, um, s-sorry, you said... something about toothpaste?"

Grian giggled and rolled his eyes.

"Move over dummy, I'll show you"

Mumbo watched Grian's hands fly through the motions of preparing the ingredients, falling into a steady rhythm as he continued to unconsciously hum under his breath.
It was cute the way he rocked forwards and backwards on his feet to the music playing in his head, and Mumbo clasped his hands behind his back to resist the rising urge to rest his hands on the shorter boy's shoulders.

"Mr. Wilks..."

Grian and Mumbo both whirled around to see Snape looming over them like and overgrown bat.

"Good afternoon Professor" Grian greeted politely.

"Did I interrupt something" Snape growled, raising an eyebrow at their close proximity.

Grian crinkled his forehead in confusion, while Mumbo side stepped away, trying and failing to quell the rush of blood to his face.

"P-Professor Grian was just-"

"I do not believe I was speaking to you Mr. Jumbo" Snape interrupted, not taking his eyes from his favorite student. "Mr. Wilks, please allow your fellow students to succeed, or more likely, fail on their own"

"Yes sir" Grian responded meekly, bowing his head a bit.

"I'm so sorry" Mumbo whispered as Snape walked away. "I didn't mean to get you in trouble"

"Eh don't worry about it" Grian said, waving his hand and flashing Mumbo a dazzling smile. "I did most of the prep work so you can probably take it from here?"

Mumbo nodded as Grian returned to his station, immediately missing the close proximity of the tiny Slytherin.

~~~

"It looks... um... well interesting for sure" Stress said with a kind smile as she gazed into Scar's cauldron.

"Why does it smell like that?" Mumbo asked, fanning the air wafting from the smoking liquid.

"Oh shut up" Scar groaned, putting his head in his hands. "I'm doomed"

"Scar!"

The three Hufflepuffs turned to see Grian slinking over from his table, keeping an eye on Snape the whole time.

"Grian help me please!" Scar begged latching onto the smaller boy's arm, making Mumbo stiffen.

Grian chuckled lightly.

"Calm down ok? You over-boiled it... like a lot... but here"

He handed Scar a vile of purple liquid and some sort of mashed up substance in a bowl.

"This-" he pointed at the vile "-will make it at least within the realm of the correct color, and this-"he pointed to the bowl "-will make it smell less like a dead rat"

"You're a lifesaver" Scar said squeezing Grian around the middle.

"Yeah yeah, I know" Grian laughed, returning the hug much to Mumbo's chagrin. "Just don't let anyone drink it"

"Time's up" Snape's voice echoed across the room.

Grian scurried back to his seat, plastering an innocent smile on his face.

Snape walked back and forth across the room taking a brief glimpse into each cauldron and giving some sort of snide remark or backhanded compliment to each student. Grian seemed to be the only one not unconsciously chewing their nails with nerves.

Snape glanced into Grian's cauldron and gave him a slight nod.

"Satisfactory"

Grian beamed.

"Thank you professor"

"Mn"

Mumbo felt his stomach knot up as Snape neared their table.

"Why did he have to look at Grian's before ours?" Stress whispered.

"Shh"

Snape glided over, his black robes billowing behind him in a menacing manner. He scrutinized Mumbo's potion, taking his time before raising his eyes that bore holes through the nervous Hufflepuff.

"I would be impressed if I didn't know that you were helped"

Mumbo's eyes darted to Grian who smiled weakly.

Stress's potion got a raised eyebrow and nothing more before Snape stopped in front of Scar.

He analyzed the thick bubbling liquid for a long time before narrowing his black eyes at Scar.

"I suppose I should be fortunate that you didn't burn your eyebrows off. Again"

Scar lowered his eyes as some of the Slytherins snickered.

"But as I can look into the cauldron without worrying for my life, I suppose you have made progress"

Scar grinned as Snape walked away.

"Did you hear that?!"

"Yeah. It was rude" Mumbo glowered.

"But it's technically a compliment" Scar said happily.

He leaned over and gave Grian the thumbs up which was mirrored back to him.

Once the class ended, Mumbo hurried to throw his things in his bag and join Grian.

"Hey, uh, thanks for the help today"

"No problem" Grian replied, crumpling two scrolls of paper in his  effort to leave quickly.

"M-Maybe to pay you back you could, um, join me in the library later to study transfiguration?"

"Yeah that'd be great!" Grian chirped, blinding Mumbo with his smile. "Quidditch practice ends at 6, so maybe after dinner?"

"It's a date"

Mumbo's eyes widened and his face flooded with color when he realized what he had said.

"I-I mean not a date! Like-like a study date! Session. Meeting. Gathering. For -for books and-and friends... chums... pals... amigos... synonyms..."

Grian looked like he might bust a gut from the silent laughter that had him doubled over his desk.

"Mumbo you're fine" Grian choked out, gasping for air. "I-I'll see you later"

He left the classroom, still giggling and leaning on Cub for support.

Mumbo sighed and rubbed his temples, trying to knead out the headache beginning to throb against his skull.

Nice. Real nice.

~~~

It's fine. It's going to be fine. Why are you nervous? Don't be nervous. It's just studying. This is what you're best at! Just don't get distracted. You never get distracted. Only recently...

"Ah!"

The self dispelling ink quill Mumbo had been chewing on cracked, spilling ink down his front and into his mouth.

"Uh, Mumbo?"

Oh god.

Grian smiled down at the sputtering Hufflepuff, hair still wild from flying around for the last hour, and badly stifling a smirk at Mumbo's predicament.

"Grian! I-I... I don't know what happened"

Grian laughed and sat down. He clutched the sleeve of his robes over his hand and began to dab at Mumbo's face and neck, making a shiver go down the tall boy's spine.

"I don't think I know the right spell for this" Grian said, crinkling his eyebrows at his now ink stained hands.

"It-it's fine" Mumbo stuttered, scooting away, happy that the ink coating his skin was covering the blush steadily creeping up his neck.

He pulled his wand from within his robes, pointed it at his own shirt and muttered tergeo.

The ink lifted from his clothes and skin, evaporating into thin air.

"Wow your wand is beautiful!" Grian remarked, admiring the black and gold magical tool in Mumbo's hand.

"Oh thank you" Mumbo smiled.

He had always really liked his wand, 13 inches with black fir wood and a phoenix feather core. The gold looping design on the outside always glinted beautifully in any light.

"Have you ever read any books on wand woods?" Grian asked, digging around in his bag. "They're really interesting"

"Oh, uh, no I haven't" Mumbo replied. "I didn't know it held much value"

"Well it does" Grian said, pulling a brown leather backed book onto the table. "What is your wand's wood type?"

"Fir"

Grian flipped through the pages until he reached the middle out the book, and shifted so Mumbo could see the page as well.

"Fir wands are known as the survivors wand because there have been multiple owners to pass through mortal peril and come out completely unscathed. The people with a fir wand are some of the most resilient and true of heart, and do not do well with the easily changed or unsettled. They are particularly well suited for transfiguration, and favor owners of focused, strong minded, and when necessary, intimidating demeanor"

Grian laughed and elbowed Mumbo's arm.

"Intimidating? You? I would pay good money to see that"

Mumbo rolled his eyes and grinned.

Suited for transfiguration and focused. Huh. Makes sense.

"What about yours?"

Grian smiled and pulled a wavy green and silver wand from his robes. He twirled it between his fingers before placing it in front of Mumbo.

"11 3/4 inch dogwood with a dragon heartstring core. Pretty right?"

"Yeah"

It really was. The silver handle shone brightly compared to the green dyed wood. It sloped at a strange angle, but that only added to the charm of it all. The chaos mixed with the beauty of it matched Grian's personality perfectly.

Mumbo flipped to the page for dogwood and read the paragraph aloud.

"Dogwood owners are quirky and mischievous. They have a playful nature and insist upon partners who can provide them with breadth for excitement and fun. When called upon, dogwood wands have been known to perform outstanding spells under extremely stressful conditions, and can perform dazzling enchantments when paired with a suitably clever witch or wizard"

Grian beamed at Mumbo.

"Interesting right?"

"Yeah" Mumbo said with a laugh. "Yours certainly makes sense. Playful, mischievous, and clever"

"Aww! Mumbo Jumbo how sweet of you to say" Grian cooed with a wink that made Mumbo's heart skip a beat.

He coughed violently into his elbow until the red in his ears subsided.

"Maybe we should, uh, get started studying?"

"You're such a buzzkill" Grian groaned with a long dramatic sigh, flopping sideways so he was basically laying across Mumbo's lap.

Oh my god... I'm going to have heart palpitations if he doesn't stop

Mumbo looked up at the ceiling and took several deep breaths. His brain was screaming his mother's rules in his ears, and the butterflies in his stomach were beginning to make him feel queasy. Yet he couldn't find it in him to ask Grian to move away.

"Mumbo?"

Iskall approached the table, a concerned expression on his face. He glanced at Grian who was still giggling and leaning against the taller boy.

"Are you ok? Do you need some help?"

"I-I'm fine! Why would you think I'm not?"

Iskall crossed his arms.

"Your face looks like a tomato. I know you're uncomfortable being touched, so maybe your associates should be more sensitive to your preferences"

Grian sat up and looked at Mumbo with an anxious expression.

"Mumbo you don't like being touched?"

"Um, well, I... I usually..."

"Why didn't you tell me I was making you uncomfortable?!" Grian exclaimed. "I grew up with so many siblings I'm just used to it, but I didn't realize... I'm really sorry. I promise I won't touch you anymore"

No...

"Grian I-"

"A real friend would have known that" Iskall muttered staring directly into Grian's eyes, making the smaller boy shrink back a bit in his seat.

"Iskall! What's your problem" Mumbo hissed across the table. "Stop being rude!"

"No, no, Mumbo it's fine" Grian said softly. "I, um, I should probably go anyways"

Mumbo felt a strange mix of emotions stir in his stomach as he watched Grian pack up, offering him a strained smile and a wave before hurrying away.

Iskall was grinning from ear to ear.

"So, what's up Mumbo?"

Mumbo glared at him.

"What is your problem?!"

"What?! You had a little green leech hanging off your arm"

Mumbo felt anger rise in his chest as he stared back at Iskall's smug expression.

"You know what, just because Grian is a better flier than you, doesn't mean you have to take your insecurities out on him"

Iskall's mouth fell open as Mumbo threw his things back in his bag with more force than necessary.

"Mumbo I-"

"Save it"

Mumbo pulled his bag on his shoulder and stood up.

"Don't talk to me again unless you're ready to apologize to him"

He stocked out of the library, not bothering to look back at the guilty expression that creased Iskall's face.

I hope you enjoyed this longer chapter! If you did, please consider leaving a like and a comment to let me know what you think!