Veiled Hearts ~ HP Fanfiction (Harry Potter X OC)

Chapter 10: Accidental encounter

Celestia Malfoy hated her best friend's owl for always delivering his letter at night. He goes to Beauxbatons but wasn't selected for visiting Hogwarts as he is young.

After delivering her response and setting his owl off from the owlery, Celestia was returning to the Slytherin common room.

Her mind was racing through various possibilities of getting caught as it was already past curfew, but that had never stopped her from exploring the castle at night, and in her opinion, Hogwarts is most beautiful at midnight.

Celestia walked down the stairs as quietly as possible, the faces in some of the portraits still turned curiously at the squeak of a floorboard, some asking her to put the light out. She crept along the corridor below, pushed aside a tapestry about halfway along, and proceeded down a narrower staircase, a shortcut that would take her down two floors.

Suddenly her heart skipped as she could hear footsteps, but no one was there. She stopped in her tracks and muttered "Nox"; it was pitch black in the corridor, and then there was a loud crack - followed by a bang as loud as a bass drum on every step - and then a horrible wailing noise rang through the staircases, coming from the corridor down below.

Celestia tried to make out the surroundings through the moonlight coming from the windows and walked down the stairs. There was a hole on the stairs, the trick step that Longbottom always trips on, and a piece of parchment lying a few steps below it. She went and picked it up; it was the same parchment she had seen Potter with.

"Potter?" she said, feeling stupid. She had to stop thinking about him.

"Please, close the egg," Potter said out of nowhere, his voice coming from right beside her, but there was no one there.

"Am I hallucinating?" Celestia wondered out loud but obliged. "Lumos," she said, dropping the parchment as she ran down the staircase. In the corridor, there was a golden egg, opened, and the sound was coming from the egg. That was the champion's egg. Of course, it was Potter.

"PEEVES!"

It was the unmistakable hunting cry of Filch the caretaker. Celestia could hear his rapid, shuffling footsteps coming nearer. She picked up the egg in her arms, closed it by twisting it, and the sound immediately stopped.

Now, it was pin-drop silence.

With her heartbeat ringing in her ears, Celestia quickly ran up the staircase, past the trick step, opened a portrait that her father had found in his Hogwarts days, revealing a secret tunnel that led to nowhere but a great place to hide. She hurried in and closed the portrait behind her, leaving it open just enough to see the squib approaching, his wheezy voice raised in fury.

Celestia, not wanting to be caught, closed the portrait entirely and was surprised when it got silent. She couldn't hear anything from outside, as if the small tunnel was soundproof. She waited for what felt like hours, clutching the golden egg that felt slippery. Was it laced with soap?

And then, the portrait was pushed open. Celestia braced herself for the punishment, but it was Potter, standing alone with an unreadable expression. He looked at her, clutching the egg between her bare legs, and she could just make out the blush rising on his cheeks.

As Celestia was dressed in an oversized t-shirt that Theodore had brought her for Christmas and shorts, she knew her outfit was scandalous.

"You can get out now; Moody, Snape and Filch are gone," he said, looking away. "I need the egg back," he clarified when Celestia stared at him.

"Moody and Snape?"

"Yeah, they came by hearing the commotion" Harry shrugged.

"Okay," she said, handing him the egg first. She half expected him to leave immediately, but she was surprised when he gave her his hand to help her get down the tunnel.