The Art of New Beginnings

Chapter Six: Never Insult a Hippogriff

"Erica," a voice coming from somewhere above her called, everything a little hazy in her half-asleep state. "Erica!"

"What?" She whined, batting at the blurry face above her as she blinked heavily, trying to clear the sleep from her eyes whilst wanting to just drift back off. "Hmm, get off of me."

"Get up then," the voice gave an irritated huff, and it was then that she realised it was Adrian, immediately sitting straight up and swinging her legs out of the bed, flinching when her feet hit his legs and pain sprang up in her toes.

"Why're you here?" She grumbled, rubbing at her eyes as she fumbled around for her dressing gown. "S'late."

"Don't I know it," he sounded equally irritated, helping her fit her arms in her sleeves when she had trouble before taking her arm to guide her down the stairs to the common room, barely pausing long enough for her to slide her slippers onto her feet. "Your... thing has been trying to guess our password for over an hour and I was nominated by the stupid prefects to go and sort it out."

"My thing," she repeated, too tired to try and figure out what he meant by that as he led her to the doorway of the dungeons and shoved her through unceremoniously. "Wha- Fred!" She stopped halfway through her question as the wall melted shut behind her and she was met with the sight of her boyfriend lounging against the opposite wall, arms crossed over his chest lazily.

She tried to sort out her hair, which was tied back in messy plaits, but it was only making his smirk widen so she let her arms drop back to her sides with a pout, still too tired to deal with this.

"Hey," he tilted his head back, looking down at her in a way that should have been frustrating but was instead only kind of hot, and she was only more aware at how dishevelled she was. "So, Slytherins aren't the nicest people at four in the morning."

"It's four in the morning," she repeated deadpan, glaring up at him as she mirrored his pose, leaning back against the wall and crossing her own arms across her chest. "I could kill you right now and not even feel regret until much later."

"At least you would feel regret," the smirk dampened a little bit into a proper smile, dimples in his cheeks and everything. Erica felt herself giving just a little, but she was still irritated. "Do you know how many passwords it takes until the prefects of said house are alerted by the wards?"

"How many?" She decided just to humour him. He'd get to the point some time soon, and it was nice to see him again, if only it was at a decent time instead of four in the morning. Okay, definitely still irritated.

"Three hundred and thirteen," he grinned at her, dropping out of the slouch and approaching her slowly, reaching one hand up to squeeze her arm before curling his fingers around her elbow and guiding her arms down. "It was worth it though. I missed you."

It took three seconds before she relented, wrapping her arms around his shoulders and linking her fingers behind his neck as she buried her face into his shoulder and murmured, "I missed you, too," around the cotton of his jumper. He was just as warm as she remembered, and as his own arms wrapped around her waist, she held on tighter.

"How about you get changed and then we can walk for a little bit before breakfast," he grinned down at her, smoothing back her fringe and pressing his lips quickly against her forehead before he had the chance to jerk away, laughing a little when she pouted up at him for that move.

"If you're gone by the time I get back, I'm going to kill you," she mock-glared at him, before realising her dilemma. "And you can't hear our password."

"Why not?" He raised an eyebrow, pressing a kiss to her cheek this time and chuckling again as she grew more flustered, hitting him in the arm until he released her.