The sun glistened on the flakes, lighting up the sides of the castle like a spot light, making everything a lot brighter and quite happy. John's spirits were at their high, there was only one thing that could possibly make him happier and that thing was walking next to him. Sherlock had stuffed his hand back in his pocket now, snuggling down into his Ravenclaw cloak to try to preserve body heat, looking like a little marshmallow or something. John really wanted to just go for it, stand on his tiptoes and give him the smallest of kisses, just to warm them both up and improve this already brilliant day. They were all alone, knowing that they'd be free of Mycroft and Greg for a little while, and Umbridge was probably hibernating in her swamp by now. Sherlock just looked so kissable in the stolen glances he took. The snow flecking his raven curls, the Gryffindor hat perched on his head, his pale cheeks rosy against the snow, why did he have to be so awkward?

"It's quite nice out here, I guess." Sherlock decided with a sigh, breaking the silence and John's thoughts.

"It's nice a bright, I like that." John agreed.

"It's all just reflections though; winter is a relatively dark season when you think about it." Sherlock debated.

"Yes, thank you Sherlock." John sighed; Sherlock obviously didn't consider that logic crushes everyone's bright thoughts. But John wasn't complaining, it was actually quite adorable.

"Just saying." Sherlock shrugged.

"What do you think Mycroft and Greg are up to now?" John asked.

"I don't want to think about that please." Sherlock decided. John nodded, agreeing that it was a bit disturbing. There was some silence and they were now walking across the side of the castle, near the Astronomy Tower.

"So, how is your life going then?" John asked with a sigh, already run out of conversational topics so he went for the usual.

"Oh the usual." Sherlock shrugged. Thanks Sherlock, I'm just the usual.

"Is that good or bad?"

"A little bit of both I suppose." Sherlock decided. "How is your life going?"

"Good, very good actually." John decided. Sherlock nodded, both of them feeling the awkwardness level begin to rise slowly. But that was good; it meant they were getting closer and closer to actually reaching the final step, after all of these months.

"So what Muggle school are you from?" John asked.

"I'm pure blood John, I was homeschooled." Sherlock pointed out.

"I wouldn't guess you were pureblooded." John decided, studying his face as an excuse to notice the snowflake in his right eyelashes. Totally unfair, totally. No one person was supposed to be that attractive and so bloody tempting.

"Blood status doesn't matter; surely you know that by now." Sherlock decided.

"I guess so, but I'm a muggleborn."

"And you're still just as brilliant as some of the purebloods. I would say you were like me but I'd be lying."

"Once again you have boosted my self-esteem." John sighed.

"Your self-esteem should have nowhere left to boost." Sherlock defended with a small frown.

"Surprise I guess." John shrugged.

"Oh stop it! The castle's best seeker is saying that he's not good enough, that's absolute rubbish!" Sherlock defended.

"Says the boy with the highest grades in the school." John pointed out, feeling his cheeks glow a little bit.

"Below Mycroft of course, second best." Sherlock debated.

"I must be at least one hundred."

"And I can't fly a broom without getting, somehow, both of us killed."

"You need flying lessons." John debated.

"And you need to do your homework right after you get it." Sherlock pointed out. John sighed, knowing he was right but was much too lazy to actually sit down and complete the homework. John looked up at Sherlock, seeing that he was looking right back down at him, their eyes locking for a second before Sherlock quickly looked away. John was mentally pleading with Sherlock to not be scared of him; John wanted no more than what he did. It was as if Sherlock was taking Dumbledore's advice, deciding that he was too dangerous to have human connections.

"Sherlock, you're scared aren't you?" John asked, not being able to control the now mortifying words that had just come out of his mouth. Sherlock pretty much stopped, the snow melting between both their feet into a puddle of cold water.

"What do you mean?" Sherlock asked quickly. Between the both of them blushing they might be able to melt all the snow on the grounds. John looked quickly at the ground, not knowing what to say if he was lost in the alternate universe that was his startling green eyes.

"Of, us, this thing we have, I don't even know what to call it... just us." John decided.

"I'm not scared; I just don't know how to really process the whole thing I guess." Sherlock shrugged.

"There's nothing to be scared of Sherlock, I..." John's sentence was cut off with a snowball hitting Sherlock in the side of the face, making his step backward in shock. John hadn't realized it until then, but they had been inching closer and closer to each other.

"Oh well what is this?" Moriarty's cruel laugh echoed off of the stone buildings. He and Sebastian Moran were walking through the snow towards the two, except they weren't smart enough to put charms on their shoes. Moriarty, who wasn't that tall to begin with, was almost shin deep. Sherlock just scowled, rubbing the snowball off of his face.

"Oh just leave us alone." John sighed, not in the mood for a fight now. He felt like he and Sherlock were really having a moment there, a moment that could've ended very well for both of them.

"I mean I knew something was going on but I wasn't expecting so much personal affection in public." Moriarty sighed, as if disappointed.

"And may I ask where you and Mr. Moran are coming from?" Sherlock asked.

"Obviously from where you and Mr. Watson couldn't dream of going." Moriarty decided. Sherlock looked at the ground again, dropping his tough guy defensive look and going back to being a shy punching bag. John also felt himself blushing but neither Moran nor Moriarty showed any signs of dropping their smiles.

"Oh what are you going to do, blow me up like you did your dear brother?" Moriarty threatened. Sherlock's gaze instantly snapped back up, his fist clenching his wand. John wanted to do something to calm his down, pat his arm, tell him to relax, but that would only vanquish Moriarty's doubts. Jim clicked his tongue at the two of them, making Moran crack and evil smile.

"Just leave us alone, we don't want a fight." John decided.

"Oh but I do Mr. Watson, and Sherlock is the best fun there is around here." Jim assured.

"Well sorry, if you want to get to Sherlock you've got to get through me." John decided, stepping defensively in front of Sherlock.

"Oh, I don't like to get my hands dirty, that's Seb's job." Moriarty decided, letting Sebastian take the stand for once. John had to admit that Sebastian was much taller and stronger than John was, but in the wizarding world you didn't need strength as much as you needed speed.

"Now I'll let you pick, do you want to defend your little boyfriend or do you want to be crushed by mine?" Jim decided.

"I'll take the crushing I guess." John decided.

"No, John, you don't have to fight him." Sherlock insisted, but John decided that yes, he did have to. Sebastian and Jim were messing with Sherlock, and they should know never to do that again. Sebastian smiled wickedly, obviously happy that John had taken the pressure and was willing to stand up for Sherlock.

"Just go away!" Sherlock yelled, flicking his wand so that a snow ball appeared out of the grounds and shot straight into the side of Jim's face. If Moriarty was expecting anything it wasn't that. Now it was less taunting, it had gotten personal.

"Seb, crush them!" Jim called, getting out his own wand for back up. Sebastian moved so fast that John barely had time to react. He wasn't going for magic, but just hand to hand combat. John sidestepped his first charge the best he could, dragging Sherlock with him. But Moran just swiveled around, bringing a hard punch to Sherlock's face, knocking him off his feet and slamming into the wall. Now it was officially insulting, personal on both sides. John didn't care if Sebastian had punched, kicked, and jinxed him four times each, but touch one hair on Sherlock's precious head John would get absolutely monstrous. When Sebastian was moving in for the kill, John jumped onto his back, wrapping his hands as tight as he could around his neck and the Slytherin punched and clawed to try to get him off.

"Go Seb, get him!" Moriarty yelled. Now it was John's turn to be on the offensive, punching Moran's head and face anyway he could and as hard as he could. Now Moran was backing up, obviously going to try to squish John against a wall. If he could jump off at the perfect moment then maybe Moran would just run himself into it. John was still pulling at his hair and trying to get him as angry as possible, ignoring the fights Moran put up.

"John are you okay?" Sherlock asked, his wand held at the ready.

"Fine!" John assured. Now Moran was backpedaling through the snow, way too fast for someone short, like John, to ever imagine. They were close to the wall, closer, John jumped with all the strength he had, landing in a sort of belly flop in the snow and watching as Moran ran back first into the wall. John had to admit that he knew Sebastian would get hurt, what he hadn't anticipated was how much. Moran's head cracked off of the bricks, making the Slytherin crumble unconscious. Sherlock and John shared both worried and amazed looks, but Moriarty's angry scream told them they were far from being victorious.

"How dare you knock out Seb!" he yelled, flicking his wand so that a bright blue light flew at John. Thankfully he had been expecting something like that, so he put up a shield, reflecting the light to hit somewhere in the snow to the left of them. Moriarty looked absolutely insane with rage, which was sort of unfair because he had been the one to start the fight. Now he was shooting spells by the dozens at each one of them, moving closer and closer. Finally, when he was very close to Sherlock, John shot a stunning spell into his back, making the second Slytherin crumple like the first. John ran up to Sherlock, who was still on the ground with a small trickle of blood coming from his nose.

"Oh god, are you okay?" John asked quickly.

"I'm fine, really." Sherlock assured, using John's outstretched hand to pull himself to his feet.

"You don't look fine." John pointed out. The Gryffindor hat was lying near Sebastian, looking much too innocent to be next to an unconscious boy. But John didn't have time to worry about that, who knows when they'd wake up; they had to get out of there quickly. Just as they were about to leave, however, there was an angry throat cleared behind them. John wheeled around, seeing Professor McGonagall standing with her arms crossed in the now melted snow.

"You look cold." Was the first thing that came out of John's mouth.  

"Thank you for your observation Mr. Watson, but I had no intentions of going outside until I heard commotion." She pointed out. Sherlock backed away once more, creeping behind John as if hoping she wouldn't see him.

"I swear this was all pretty much luck, they attacked us first, punched Sherlock in the face, and then Jim kept shooting spells, honestly we didn't want this." John pointed out. McGonagall looked over at the two Slytherins and frowned.

"Come with me you two." she decided.

"They're unconscious." John pointed out.

"I meant you and Mr. Holmes. I'll deal with these two later." She decided, flicker her wand to levitate the two kids alongside her as she walked. John groaned, not really in the mood to get lectured right about now. Sherlock, if possible, looked just as nervous. John picked up the hat and lead Sherlock in her path, walking guiltily to the castle entrance.  

"You did good Sherlock, don't worry." John assured.

"I guess I didn't blow anything up." Sherlock agreed.

"I'm almost eighty and I can walk faster than you lot!" McGonagall called with annoyance. They picked up their pace to get to the castle, Sherlock's nose still bleeding at a steady rate. He was trying to contain it on his sleeve, which was a bit disgusting to be honest.

"Use snow." John suggested, but they stepped into the entrance hall before that was possible. They followed McGonagall to the hospital wing where she set down Jim and Moran in two beds and walked sternly off to her office.

"Come on then!" she called. Sherlock and John scrambled to keep up, eventually walking into McGonagall's small office and sitting in two chairs while she closed the door. John's stomach twisted nervously as she peered at them through her glasses. They couldn't get expelled for this could they? It was only self-defense after all.

"Now you're lucky I'm not getting Umbridge over this." She decided, sitting in her own chair behind her old, wooden desk.

"I know you wouldn't dream of it." Sherlock pointed out, and McGonagall just smiled guiltily.

"I suppose I wouldn't, but that doesn't get you out of trouble." She pointed out.

"I told you it was self-defense, look at Sherlock; he's got a nose bleed!" John insisted, pointing at Sherlock as if she hadn't already seen it. McGonagall just slid a box of tissues towards him, not really what they were hoping for.

"And Mr. Moran and Mr. Moriarty are both unconscious." She pointed out.

"They attacked us, we had to!" John defended.

"Just tell me exactly what happened?" McGonagall suggested.

"We were just walking around the castle when a snowball hit me in the face. And then they taunted us a bit and then Moran punched me in the nose and John managed to knock them both out." Sherlock pointed out, the first word he's said for a while.

"You're quite lucky I believe you." She decided. "What exactly were they taunting you about?"

"Just the usual stupid stuff." John shrugged. McGonagall nodded, still looking stern but John could sense they were in the home stretch.

"Very well, I will ask the two when they wake."

"They'll lie, sorry, but they will. Our story is true, we didn't start anything." Sherlock pointed out.

"I will listen to both sides, you two can go for now." McGonagall decided after a little while.

"Thank you Professor." John decided, grabbing Sherlock's arm and pulling him as quickly as possible out the door before she could call them back and possibly yell at them.