Sherlock Holmes – 5th Year

John Watson – 6th Yeah

Greg Lestrade – 7th Year

John sat on an armchair in the common room, legs curled up underneath him, a library book open on his lap. A warm early autumn breeze blew in from the nearby open window, ruffling his hair.

A paper aeroplane flew in front of him and onto his open book. He looked around the common room but everyone else was reading as he was, studying, or talking with friends. Puzzled, he turned back to the airplane and unfolded the parchment. Once glance at it and it became clear. Lately Sherlock had been experimenting with charmed aeroplanes, similar to the ones used at the ministry. Apparently he had been able to make it work.

John,

Come at once to the lab, if convenient.

SH

By the time he had finished reading the note, another charmed paper aeroplane flew through the open window to his lap. He opened it up and looked inside.

John,

If inconvenient, come anyway.

Please.

SH

John looked at his watch. Half past nine. One part of his mind was saying that there was only half an hour until curfew, but the other half said that this was Sherlock he was talking out. They'd been friends for years and now... He sighed half-heartedly, shut his book, and put it away with his things in his room.

He grabbed his robes from his bed and made his way to the portrait hole to meet up with Sherlock at his lab. The year before, Sherlock had found the hidden room on the seventh floor, already supplied with different potion materials and books on different subjects, as if it had read his mind. Ever since, he had been using it for different experiments, John often there with him.

"It's almost curfew, you know!" the Fat Lady called after him as he left the common room, but John didn't pay attention. He quickly walked down the hallway, pulling his robes on. By the time he got to Sherlock's lab, he only had twenty minutes left before curfew. Shaking his head thinking of the things he did for Sherlock, he looked down each end of the hallway to make sure no one was coming, then he paced back and forth in front of the blank wall three times to make the door to Sherlock's lab appear. He opened the door and let himself in.

Sherlock was standing at a large worktable, stooped over a cauldron with some bubbling potion that he was working on at the moment. "Good to know my messages arrived to you well," he said with a small smile, looking up for a second and then going back to his work. "One of the only good things that has come of Mycroft working at the ministry."

John walked over to the worktable and sat down at a spare stool.

"So," John said, "did you actually need me for anything?"

"No," and before John could open his mouth to protest, Sherlock went on. "I know that all you were doing in your common room was reading a library book on some subject or another, and you are of much better use when you are here with me."

John sighed and shook his head, a small smile on his lips. Sherlock was undoubtedly a strange person, often hard to get along with, but there was no denying that Sherlock was right. They both got energy from each other and it worked.

He stood up off the stool and walked over to the book shelves that lined one of the walls. As he was looking over the books that the room had chosen, Sherlock called "While you are over there, could you bring the book on antidotes, it's by Carina." John scanned the shelves and found the book Sherlock wanted, and found a book for himself as well. He sat back down on the stool and handed the book to Sherlock, who opened it up in front of him and started reading.

After they had been there for almost a couple hours, Sherlock working on his potion, skimming through the book, occasionally jotting down a note in the margins, and John reading his own book, barely reacting to whatever mutterings Sherlock produced, John looked down at his watch. They would have to leave soon. They made sure to leave before Greg Lestrade's patrol shift was up. If they were to be found by any prefect, Greg would be the ideal one, because he reluctantly put up with their late night wanderings. Sherlock didn't actually care about house points, but if he were found one too many times by the wrong person, word would definitely go to Sherlock's parents and Mycroft. Sherlock preferred to keep Mycroft out of his life if he could, save for the times when Sherlock could learn something useful from him.

"Sherlock, we should be going, it's almost half past eleven."

"Yes, you're right," Sherlock said, grabbing John's wrist to look at his watch. Sherlock finished his notes, packed up his books and some of his supplies into his bag, and they made their way to the front of the room.

Sherlock opened the door, stuck his head out of the doorway and looked around. "This hallway was patrolled less than half an hour ago, they won't be back for a while." He walked out and John followed close behind. They had a route that they stuck to for times like these, so they wouldn't come across anyone other than Greg.

They walked down the hall by their planned route, looking around carefully as they did until they got to the section of the school that was patrolled by Greg. At this time of night, the hallways were dimly lit by torches on the walls, and John and Sherlock stuck to the shadows in case anyone came upon them unexpectedly.

As they paused at a corner, Sherlock pulled John's wrist to him to look at his watch. "Come on, John, we have to hurry to keep up with Lestrade's patrol section before his shift ends."

Sherlock ran around the corner and down the hall toward the stairs, long blue and black robes flying out behind him. He easily leaped over the trick step in the staircase, as he had done many times before, John followed closely behind, a smile on his face. They ran down a hallway until they neared a corner and Sherlock suddenly stopped and John bumped into him with an 'oomph'.

"Sherlock, what's wrong?" John asked in a low whisper.

Sherlock grabbed John by the sleeve and pulled him into a dark alcove nearby. They sat there and after a few seconds, John could hear footsteps over the beating of his heart and his heavy breathing.

"Lestrade," he could hear Sherlock say, just barely audible.

They listened for Greg's footsteps and heard them coming closer to them. By the time the glow from Greg's wand could be seen over the torch light, Sherlock relaxed with resignation. Better Greg than anyone else, John thought. Greg came down the hallway and sighed when he saw them.

"Sherlock," he said tiredly. Greg's gaze shifted to their hands and both John and Sherlock realized they had been holding hands the whole time they were hiding in the alcove. Sherlock rolled his eyes and stood up, pulling John up with him. Sherlock kept his hand on John's as they stood in front of Greg.

"Sherlock, John, you can't keep sneaking out and running around the castle at night like this."

"Yes I know, Lestrade," Sherlock said impatiently. "Just deduct our points and let us be on our way."

After a moment of silence and pursed lips and crossed arms from Greg, he said "Fine. Twenty points from each of you."

John knew that they probably should have gotten more taken away, given that he and Sherlock had been found by Greg on more than a couple occasions already, but Greg knew that Sherlock didn't care about the points and that John would likely be with Sherlock no matter what, so he was more lenient.

"Thank you," Sherlock said flatly, and started walking away, still holding John's hand.

"See you, Greg," John said quickly before Sherlock dragged him down the hall. "It's a wonder he puts up with us," John said to Sherlock as they walked down the hallway.

"Hmm," he hummed in agreement. "At least we can use it to our advantage."

"Sherlock!"

"It is true, though," he said, but he was smiling, and then so was John.

They kept on walking through the hallway until they got to Sherlock's common room, and stood at the bottom of the stairs. Sherlock looked at their hands and hesitated for a moment, not pulling away, looking like he was about to do something. John could sense what Sherlock was thinking and took matters into his own hands, brought the hand not being held by Sherlock's up to Sherlock's cheek, stood up on his toes and kissed him. Sherlock leaned down so John could stand on his feet and moved his hand to John's neck.

"I should go back to my common room," John said quietly when they came apart, John's hand slowly coming off of Sherlock's cheek.

"Yes, you're right," he said softly. "I'll see you tomorrow."

As John walked away from Sherlock and toward his own common room, he realized that they'd made the right decision. This was new for both of them, but it would work. Everyone said that they were best together, and it was true. He and Sherlock, Sherlock and him, Sherlock Holmes and John Watson.

I do have plans to extend this oneshot in the coming months to include all of their time at Hogwarts, so watch out for that if it's something you'd be interested in. :)