★ kee speaks another hogwarts au, but not in the same timeline/universe as study session. no warnings, this is just fluff (?)

I sighed, cracking my aching knuckles for the third time this hour. OWLs were coming up, and fifth year was coming to an end. At night I'd fall asleep within 5 minutes of lying down and have a dreamless sleep for the next 4 hours. My brain would refuse to take in information during classes and only took in the lessons after class. I wonder if 12 year old Y/N L/N ever thought it would be this hard.

I shut my potions textbook and shoved the rest of my things into my bag. Maybe it was time to take a rest. I'd continue later.

My footsteps echoed against the empty classroom's floor. I tied my hair back and fixed my HH/C robes. My hands felt too tired to hold my bag, so I put it on my shoulder instead. Suddenly a grinning face popped out from the floor.

"Ooh, what's Miss L/N doing? Hopefully not cheating on her OWLs! The headmistress wouldn't like it if—"

"Shut it, Peeves," I croaked, slamming the door behind me. I was in terrible need of a drink, and rest. I cursed, remembering I had to pick up some books from the library.

A familiar light blond head approached. "Hey, Y/N! Where're you off to?" Scorpius asked.

I returned the high five he held up. "Hi there, Scorp. I'm going to the library."

"Oh, then I suggest taking the other way."

"Why?"

Scorpius opened his mouth but stopped. "That's why."

A group of first years stood in one of the hallways to my right, but I heard them exclaim in surprise. "Excuse me," Someone was saying.

"It's Mr. Fernsbey!" Someone else yelled from the first years. That couldn't be good. Mr. Filch's old cat, Mrs. Norris had died recently and he had gotten a new cat named Mr. Fernsbey, who was remarkably fast.

Travis Stoll knocked over a few first years, looking back over his shoulder with a wide smile. "Wait up!" Someone yelled. This time, the kids knew to step aside. I don't know if that helped or not, because Travis's brother was able to sprint through easily, but the cat was too.

"Oh no. Oh no!" Connor nearly tripped over his robes running up the stairs and past the first years. I rubbed my eyes, sighing amusedly. "Hi, Y/N!" He waved at me, grinning. I waved back, making my way towards the library. He probably only saw me look back at him before his blur of green robes disappeared down another flight of stairs. Mr. Fernsbey hissed and screeched, chasing after Connor.

"Idiot," I muttered to myself, shaking my head.

"Cute idiot, you mean," Piper corrected, joining me on the stairs and bumping my shoulder. "It's taking all my effort and human power not to tell him when he mentions you. Like, the air in our common room is thick with sexual tension."

"Fine, then. Cute idiot."

"Is that why you're not talking to him?"

"What? Of course I talk to him! Just not when you or Travis is there..."

She turned to me. "Okay. I understand. Well, good luck on your OWLs!"

I squinted at her. "You've planned something, haven't you, Pipes?"

Her multicolored eyes went from playful to sincere. "I haven't! Honest. I know now how it feels to be Leo and how it feels when you're third-wheeling, but since everyone's going insane with studies, I'll give you a break."

"Oh. Well, thanks, I guess? Good luck to you too." We parted ways.

"Y/N. This is for you." One of my classmates whispered my name just as I was about to sleep and handed me a note. It was a small piece of parchment, seemingly ripped off of one of the last blank pages of a textbook.

"What's this?" I asked, sitting up on my bed.

She shrugged. "Dunno. It just has your initials on the front."

They were. I didn't have the energy to process if there was anyone in H/H who had the same initials as me, so I unfolded the note. The moonlight was too weak so I pulled out my wand. "Lumos," I mumbled.

"Huh," I said, intrigued. "What time is it?"

"Nearly midnight."

"Okay. See you."

"What?"

I threw my robes on over my pajamas and headed out of the H/H dorms, quietly running towards the second floor. I had to avoid people twice before catching my breath and running into the bathroom.

I was pulled back out though, away from the brightly lit bathroom and back into the dim hallway. I turned around to face Connor Stoll.

"Shh. I put something in there to scare her," He whispered. Inside I could hear Myrtle singing to herself, probably floating around like she always did.

"I can't see you," I complained, and pulled him out into the light. He looked me up and down, grinning as usual, and his brown hair was a little more unkempt than usual. "So what are we doing here?"

"I wanted to bring you to the astronomy tower. I've seen other people do it. I got bored waiting for you too so I set up a prank for Myrtle."

"Nice."

"...That's all?" He asked, smile fading.

I lightly hit him. "Of course not. I like the astronomy tower."

"Cool. Um, do you want to go now, or...?"

"Do you hear that?" I asked. I heard someone's footsteps down the hall.

"Hear what?"

Mr. Fernsbey meowed and we took off, holding back laughter.

Connor took out his wand. "Muffliato."

"Where'd you learn that spell?" I asked as we ran up some stairs.

"James Potter. They won't be able to hear us."

"You sure?"

"Yes!"

We were panting and out of breath once we reached the stairs to the astronomy tower. He tugged on my sleeve. "We're here. There's no one having classes too, I checked."

I nodded and stood up. "You coming?"

He went a step ahead of me and held out his hand. "Only if you are."

"That's what I'm here for, Stoll." A shock seemed to pass through both of us when I placed my hand in his. Suddenly I didn't feel so tired.

"...Is this a date?"

He laughed nervously. To bad I couldn't see his smile in the weak light of the stairwell. "Yeah. If you want it to be."

"I'm already holding your hand," I said, swinging my arm a bit. "And I guess we do need distractions once in a while."

"What do you mean?"

"OWLs."

"Oh. Yes, it's...exhausting. When will we even need all of that stuff?"

"It probably depends on what career you choose, but at least it's more useful than...I don't know, English."

"My mom told me we learn English for sentence building. But imagine growing up to be a quidditch coach and all you can remember is the parts and function of a microscope from Muggle school."

I laughed. "Yeah. Or—hey, someone left their telescope!"

I let go of his hand and ran up ahead to check out the telescope someone had left. It was bigger than any telescope I had ever used, and it was aimed right at the stars. I looked through the eyepiece and saw many blinking specks of light.

"Astronomy is more fun when you don't pay attention to the lessons much," I whispered, adjusting the pieces and eyeing the stars with great interest.

"Y/N."

"Yeah, Connor?"

"You're pretty like that."

Okay, so I might have knocked over the telescope and the only thing that stopped it from making a full on crash was both me and Connor.

"You...You just kicked a large, real bronze telescope," He said.

"I didn't know—I didn't know what to say!...Um, thank you."

He laughed lightly, nudging one of the telescope's legs with his foot so it could stand again. "You're welcome. So what do you want to do?"

"The skies are clear, right?"

"Yep." He sat on the edge of the tower, putting his arms through the railings. I did the same, but kept myself cross-legged, because I didn't want to risk losing a shoe. Also, I didn't really like the feeling of my legs hanging off from this high.

I felt a pair of eyes on me as I took my gaze off of the sky. "What?" I asked.

"I didn't think you could be that much of a star lover or something."

I leaned back, propping my arms up behind me. "I'm not really. I asked if the skies were clear because we could have gotten rained on." I breathed in the cold night air. "What were you doing before this anyway?"

"Studying. As usual." He glanced at me. "I used to sneak out all the time until OWLs came and I began to study a lot more."

"You're a distraction," I stated flatly, "But I guess that's a good thing."

"Huh?"

"I've been the same as you, studying and all that. And I kind of miss your pranks."

"Aww, you do?" He asked playfully.

"I do," I said in the same tone, half-mocking him. He laughed and nudged my elbow and I almost fell back.

"Ow. But anyway, I'm not complaining, even if I was about to sleep. We should have fun once in a while, right?"

"Right. Uh, distractions. You said that, right? What does it mean to you?" I thought about that question for a moment. "Wait, is it too deep or—"

I chuckled. "Oh, no it's just fine. Distractions are things that...that stop you from doing a task because it catches your attention. Is that it?"

He nodded. "So it's a good thing?"

"Sometimes, yeah."

Connor leaned forward and rested his chin on his arms. "They make you stop and take a deep breath for a while. They let you breathe."

I hummed in agreement. "You do that. You...you let me breathe when things are too much."

"I let you breathe?"

"You let me breathe."

"What if I choke you?"

I thought I had a good comeback, but no. "Oh. Okay," I said instead. Then I laughed. "Your humor's a little weird, Con."

"Is it?"

I nodded. After a while of enjoying each other's presence and listening to the wind, I asked, "So what about you? How have you been...?"

"Fine. You already know, Y/N, since we do talk a lot, but the lighting in our dorm and common room is just horrible and I get headaches. Lumos doesn't help, either."

I perked up. "You're not the only one with a nice hideout. There's an abandoned attic with a nice seat by the window and I've cleaned it so the grime isn't there anymore. We can study there, if you want."

"Really?"

"Yeah, as long as we don't distract each other too much."

He smirked. "I thought you said distractions were good?"

"I said not too much," I mumbled.

"Is it the one with the initials N.S. carved into one of the chairs?"

"Yes, why?"

"I've hidden there before," He grinned.

"There's L.L. on the underside of the stairs, too."

We would have discussed a little more if the Bloody Baron didn't swoop down and start groaning. Connor glanced at him with distaste and told me it was time to go.

"Well, that's it," He said, still holding my hand as we stood in front of the entrance to my common room.

"Yeah," I said breathlessly. "I'm uh...I enjoyed it."

"I'm glad you did, princess. Goodnight."

"Night."