Harry Potter One Shots (Vol. I)

Kiss Me (Adrian Pucey)

Do I have work to do? Yes. 

Did I decide to write and publish this anyway? Yep!

So I've been really busy with uni for a while now but the holidays are coming up so I should have time to write. Keep in mind that I've also got to revise for upcoming exams. Anyway, I hope this makes up for the long wait. Thanks, GoldenHare for requesting this!

Also, random useless fact about me; when I was at school I used to be part of a house system. Our house colours were yellow and black - half the school used to call us bees and the other half dubbed us Hufflepuff Badgers which was kind of fitting, considering the way we tackled all of the house events ~ 

Most people associated returning to school with some happy event, usually a celebration or some sort of reunion. It was supposed to be like coming home, especially when that school had been home for 7 years. You weren't supposed to return to your home to answer it's call for help. Home was there, always standing, somewhere you could continue to return to no matter how far you strayed. It wasn't supposed to need you to protect it and yet here I was, answering the call for help as soon as I'd received it. Dozens of ex-students had done the same, running to defend the one place we were always be welcome.

Helga, Hogwarts was supposed to be impenetrable and, on some level, I had thought that we'd been brought in as a precaution to help secure its perimeters. Never had I thought that the death eaters had managed to get into the school, let alone begin to tear it apart. Merlin, just the sight of the crumbled walls had me halting on my feet. But I couldn't hesitate for long. Not when a temporary respite had been called. We had no idea how long this little reprieve would last, but we needed to work quickly. Now was not the time to be catching up with old friends that I hadn't seen in the two years since my graduation – we'd get to that later. If we all made it out alive.

"What are we supposed to be doing?" I called out to Johnson, the ex-Gryffindor rushing past me as McGonagall called out orders from the front of the hall.

"We need to get some of the remaining students out of the castle," she called out quickly from over her shoulder and we shared a nod before turning to promptly run in opposite directions.

My eyes instantly landed on the remaining students dressed in yellow and black, and the surge of protectiveness that rushed through me wasn't unfamiliar. I'd been in my fifth year when supposed serial killer Sirius Black had broken into the school and had been one of the students assigned to looking over the younger students. Merlin, no matter how horrendous that night had been for me, I would choose to live it over and over instead of facing this.

Dismissing the thought with a quick shake of my head, I started to usher the Hufflepuff students out of the hall where they were being smuggled out by ex-students who remained on guard for any death eaters who sought to break the ceasefire. It wouldn't be beneath them.

Leading the group of badgers to the doors, I split them up into smaller groups, so they would be easier to defend should anything happen. Each of graduated students that arrived to collect the next group of students that they needed to guide out, faltered slightly under the burden of becoming responsible for the lives of the underage kids. But it was our duty, our burden to bear.

The last trio of students staggered towards me at a sudden crash from the hallway and I struggled to wrap my arm around them all, while my wand pointed out into the empty corridor. Taking a moment to calm my racing heart, I smiled reassuringly down at them when they looked cautiously towards me.

"It's nothing," I assured them, and they were so very desperate for some sort of comfort that they took it with open arms – even if it was from someone as weak as I was. "They said they were cleaning up the corridor remember? It's probably just some rubble. You'll be out of here in a few minutes anyway."