This one-shot was written for:

Harry Potter Fanfiction Challenges: UnicornsAndRainbows20089's Hogwarts School Of Witchcraft and Wizardry Challenge/Competition

1. Potions

Mandatory Prompt: Write about a near death experience. Alternatively, write about someone's first time.

Optional Prompts: suicide, mistake, Someone must use CPR on someone, The pleasures of love are always in proportion to our fears. -Stendhal, Next Generation, 2019, Angst, Romance, I don't know *name* I just don't think I can do it!

2. Exam

Angst, 2024, Forbidden Forest, Caught, Heart Attack by Demi Lovato, "Heart beats fast Colors and promises How to be brave How can I love when I'm afraid To fall But watching you stand alone All of my doubt Suddenly goes away somehow" A thousand years, Christina Perri, Frightened.

I used these characters: Annabelle "Anna" Murata (AnnaRavenheart); Chris Brown (Black Boxed);

Wordcount: 2434 words

Disclaimer: I don't own the Harry Potter series, all rights go to J.K. Rowling.

Defenceless

You make me glow, but I cover up

Won't let it show, so I'm

Puttin' my defences up

'Cause I don't wanna fall in love

If I ever did that

I think I'd have a heart attack.

Heart Attack by Demi Lovato

Darkness.

Her light steps echoed through the forest. Traitor tears ran across her pale face. Her heart beat faster than normal, her breathing was dashed. Her hand ran through her thick red hair which in the darkness seemed ruby instead of flaming red. Her light blue eyes which were ghost like in the wan light of the moon were fixed on her feet. Her robe was soaking wet from the tears she has already shed, but she didn't care, with an easy spell she could have dried it, but the wet clothes felt cold against her feverishly hot body. She had no idea where she was going, just forward she told herself whenever she doubted her decision, and she didn't look back.

Noise.

She stopped dead when she heard the echoing of the steps, but it wasn't hers. She turned around with her wand in her hand. She didn't dare to light her wand; she didn't know what creature could be around. She looked up when someone or something stepped on a piece of branch and it snapped and broke. She was frightened even though she knew well that being out there is dangerous, the possibility of dying out in the Forbidden Forest of no one ever getting to know seemed much higher.

The noise of the steps got closer but she didn't move. She has already given up, if something wanted to kill her than let it be. Death couldn't be so much worse than life, could it? Would giving up and not fighting count as suicide or would they just assume that she was at wrong place at the wrong time? Her thoughts were hazy; she was confused, frightened and desperate.

Figure.

She saw the figure of a human or a humanlike creature right next to a tree not far from her. She leaned against the tree closest to her and closed her eyes waiting for her death which didn't seem to come quick enough. As the steps became louder and louder she felt herself tired, exhausted. She didn't care about anything anymore. She pressed her lips together and as the steps became unbearably loud in the silence of the forest she was ready to scream. However, the noise stopped and death didn't seem to come. She didn't feel anything only a fragrance of chocolate, freshly cut grass and lavender.

Closeness.

She was pressed against the tree and someone seemed to put his hands around her. The creature has caught her. Was this humanlike creature trying to kill her? That seemed the only logical explanation.

"Molly, open your eyes, look at me please." She heard a voice and she was sure she was dreaming. Was she so close to death that she was hallucinating? Was she only crazy and did she hear non-existing voices?

"It's me, Lysander. Molly, you frighten me," he pleaded, but she didn't open her eyes. "Molly Audrey Weasley, look at me." She was sure that she was hallucinating or at least dreaming, but that didn't mean that she shouldn't check what was going on so she opened her eyes.

Sympathy.

Dark blue eyes filled up with emotions.

Light blonde hair which in the pale light of the moon seemed silvery.

Lysander.

"It's me, Moll, please, say something," he asked softly, but she was just staring at her. He was never that close to her before. She felt his warm breath on her and she shivered.

"31st December," she muttered and Lysander brushed his hand against her freckled, but ghostly pale cheeks.

"I'm here with you, M, you know it," he said, but she didn't react. "Why here, M? It's dangerous. If I haven't followed you... I don't know what could have happened. This is too much, M. You mother wouldn't like this," he told her softly and for the first time she seemed to react. She pushed him away and started laughing humourlessly.

"My Mom wouldn't like this, Lys? She is dead, she died; do you understand that?" she asked somewhat sarcastically. He looked at her with pity and sympathy in his eyes.

"But you didn't die there four years ago. 31st December 2019 wasn't the day of your death," he said fiercely and she started to laugh again, her frantic voice echoed through the silent woods.

"I died there, Lys and you know that as well," she said softly and closed her eyes.

She felt it as she always did when she talked about that day. Her heart beat faster and she couldn't breathe. She relived that day as she always did at the night of New Year's Eve.

Memories.

She was thirteen years old only. Lucy was a crying baby as always and eventually she achieved to spend the night with her best friend, Annabelle Murata, a kind girl in the same year with Lucy in Gryffindor. Molly wanted to spend it with her best friend from Hogwarts as well, with Chris Brown, but she wasn't the type to plead, to fake tears until she got what she wanted. She was the silent, good little girl every parent would want. So, she ended up at home, but her father as always was working even at six o'clock on the last day of the year when everyone else was partying.

Her mother was very angry of course as her father promised her that he was going to be at home in time. He wasn't and her mother felt lonely even with Molly around. So she sat in her old beat-up muggle car which Molly hated to use. However, her mother was a muggle, she wasn't able to Apparate, let alone Side-Along-Apparate with her far-from-off-age daughter.

The idea was that her mother would take her to her muggle grandparents. The two of them sat in the car and her mother with a determined expression started the motor. She wasn't worried; her parents did that a lot of times already. Her father loved to work, while her mother was very independent, the type who didn't like when things didn't go in the way she wanted it.

They weren't talking during the ride, she was angry with Lucy for letting her down, she was angry with herself for not being strong enough to say 'no' to her parents and she was angry with her father who made sure she spent New Year's Eve with her grandparents whom she loved but were too old muggles who wanted to sleep at ten o'clock and she was a teenager who wanted something more than that.

Crash.

Her mother was a fairly good driver; she usually used the car as she was prideful and didn't like to ask for magical help. It wasn't her mistake, but the driver of the lorry. He was a man around fifty who had a wife who left her ten years ago and a grown-up son who felt ashamed that the driver was his father. He was alone and he was miserable, he started the drinking far before midnight. He was drunk.

She still remembered perfectly as she was sitting right next to her mother. She crossed her arms and frowned. She stared at the lovely face of her mother whose expression matched her daughter's.

The road was nearly empty, they were living far from London where her grandparents were and they were driving on a small bypass road. The lorry wasn't even supposed to be there, but it was. The man was so drunk that he wasn't able to keep the lorry at the lane.

They have both seen it coming, her expression was frightened and she wanted to scream, but she wasn't able, she was frozen. Her mother was in a better shape, she tried to get out of the way of the lorry, but it wasn't possible. The last thing she remembered was the look on her mother's face before she felt the pain, she heard the unbearably loud noises and the next time when she opened her eyes she was in a muggle hospital.

Her doctors told her that it was a miracle that she survived and she only broke a bone or two and a minor head injury, but she knew better than that. It was her magic that let her survive, but her mother who was a muggle wasn't as lucky as she was. She knew that the doctors did everything they could to save her, they did CPR on her, they gave her every existing bloody medicine probably, but she was dead before they could even put her in the ambulance.

Life.

"Moll, you are alive." His voice seemed remote, but it was enough for bringing her back to the real life, to the reality.

"I don't know Lys I just don't think I can do it! I can't go back living like nothing has happened," she said stronger than she expected she was able to. Lysander fixed his dark blue eyes on her with concern evident in them.

"You can't or you just don't want to?" he asked flatly and she turned away from him.

"You should go back to the common room, it's almost New Year," she muttered, but it wasn't enough for him.

"I'm not going to anywhere without you, M. Don't try to push me away from you, you know as well as I do that I'm in love with you. I know that you love me too, you are just afraid to admit it," he said calmly and pleadingly at the beginning but it ended up as a rather angry monologue. How could she love him when she was afraid to fall? How could she love him when there was a possibility that she lose him too?

She didn't want to fall in love; she didn't want him to be in love with her. She wanted to live her own miserable life without anyone around. She didn't want to make others as miserable as she was.

Defence.

Lysander was the only person who made her ever feel alive ever since the accident. However, she wasn't ready to admit that she might like him, no; she would rather have a heart attack than fall in love with anyone, especially with Lysander who was there for her always.

"Why don't you let me love you? You are broken, but I can help to fix you," he muttered and took a step closer to her. She looked at him with a frightened expression.

"I-I... Leave me alone, Lys. It's the best for both of us. You could have any girls from Hogwarts why do you want the worst?" she asked softly and he chuckled. He stepped even closer to her and put his hands around her waist. She wanted to push him away, but he didn't let her. He fixed his eyes on her and studied her pale face and her lifeless blue eyes.

"Why would I want any other girl? You are my best friend, hell we have been friends ever seen we were babies. You are beautiful, passionate; you care about other more than you care about yourself. I love you, M and I can't believe you don't understand it," he said and he cupped her face.

"I-I don't want you to love me... I don't want anyone to love me. I'm broken, Lys and you can't fix me up, and even you can't. Even if you don't believe it I've died four years ago in that car with my mom and as my dad I can't be fixed either," she stated and didn't meet his eyes.

"The pleasures of love are always in proportion to our fears. That's what my mom always says and she is right you know you are only afraid to love me. You know as well that what we have is a very strong bond, stronger than you can bear. You are afraid to love again; you don't want to have your heart in million pieces once more. I understand that, Moll, I do, but you need to move on. You need me just as I need you," he stated calmly, but his tone was passionate.

Love.

Her heart was beating even faster and she was sure she was about to have a heart attack. She looked in his unbelievably blue eyes and she was lost in them. She was afraid to love again, but there he was, standing right in front of her and even by looking in his eyes, her doubts seemed to go away.

"I want you M, only you and I promise I will fix you," he said and she nodded softly.

"Lys?" she asked uncertainly.

"Yes, Moll?" he asked and she hesitated, but when he caught her eyes she was lost for good.

"I-I... love you too," she muttered and he grinned.

"What have you just said?" he asked as he hasn't heard her. She closed her eyes for a moment and sighed.

"I love you, Lys. I've always had," she said and before she could even think about what she has just told him his soft lips were on hers. His lips were soft and sweet, they tasted like chocolate and she couldn't help, she kissed him back with just as much passion. She leaned against the tree for support and his hands were around her waist once again, while her left hand was around his neck and her right hand in his silvery blonde hair.

Time.

She wasn't sure how much time has passed, but after the kiss they stayed there in the same position, so close to each other that they were pressed against the tree. In the little light there was, he looked at his watch in surprise.

"Happy New Year, M. It's already 2024. It's not 31st December anymore," he stated and she nodded with a small smile on her lips, but her eyes were still a bit dull, there was a gleaming in them which wasn't there before but he knew that this was only the beginning. She was still far from being fixed, but he made a promise and he won't break it.

"1st January," she muttered. It was over.

"The beginning of something new," he confirmed her and he flashed her beautiful smile.

"Thank you, Lys," she said and she leaned against his muscled chest.

"I love you, M. I'm here with you," he said as he stroke her soft red hair.