Thanks for all the reads last chapter! Bit of a darker oneshot for you today, followed by a slightly lighter one. Enjoy!

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[Headcanon: Post-Battle of Hogwarts, a lot of kids have trouble sleeping with the stuff they saw and did. Sometimes all they need is a kind voice and hand in the dark.]

Nia sat in front of the fire, knees to her chest, staring at the flames blankly. She rocked back and forth again and again, dead quiet, otherwise motionless.

It was late; she didn't know the time, didn't care to know the time. All she knew was that she couldn't sleep, wouldn't be able to sleep, for hours at least. Probably all night, if she was really honest with herself.

A house elf was quietly tidying up the common room as she sat there, slowly rocking to a halt. It didn't bother her, instead keeping its movements to a minimum. She ignored it.

"Nia?" a very soft voice asked.

Nia jolted, spun around to face the voice, cowering away from the speaker. "I'm sorry, I'll go to bed, just don't report me to anyone!" she said quickly, shying away.

"Whoa, whoa, whoa, calm down," the speaker said. Cloth rustled; Nia looked through her fingers to see the 6th year female prefect, Avery. "I'm not going to report you. Couldn't sleep?"

Nia slowly took her hands away from her face. "Yeah," she said softly, shoulders dropping.

"You were a first year last year, right?"

She only nodded.

Avery sighed and sat down. One hand gently rested on Nia's leg. Now that she was seated, Nia could see she was dressed in her dressing gown, a book in one hand. She didn't apologize, though. She only sat there in companionable silence.

"Y'know, I had some friends in Dumbledore's Army," Avery said after a minute.

Nia looked up at her. The older girl stared into the fire, eyes unfathomable.

"They fought the regime with guerilla warfare. They got caught, too, lots of times. I patched a few of them up on some nights, after their detentions."

Nia shivered, head to toe.

"It was a rough year, last year," Avery said simply. "And a lot of us are still trying to recover from it. You and I included."

Nia nodded.

Short speech finished, they lapsed back into silence. Then Nia spoke up.

"One of the older boys," she whispered, voice soft and rusty. "I was up studying late one night for a test the next morning. He stumbled in after a…" She shivered. "-detention."

Avery gently stroked her knee with one thumb.

"He was bleeding everywhere, barely awake. I was one of the only people there. I couldn't help." She slowly began shaking her head. "I was a first year. I didn't know anything. I couldn't help him. I was frozen. One of the others went and fetched the seventh year prefect to heal him." She shivered again, harder. "I couldn't help."

"It's not your fault," Avery whispered. "You were a first year, starting in a new school. Are you a Muggleborn?"

Nia nodded. "But my dad's sister was a witch, so we passed me off as a Half-Blood for my safety. My aunt protected my parents."

Avery nodded silently.

After a few more minutes of solidarity, Avery gently patted her leg. "Why don't you come up and sleep on my bed while I read," she said, rising elegantly. "No one will bother you. I'll be right there."

"You'd do that?" Nia asked hesitantly.

"Of course." Avery shrugged and reached out a hand to Nia. "It's part of my job as a prefect to look out for the younger years. Now, come on. You need to get some sleep. I'll wake you in the morning."

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[Headcanon: Lady Helena Ravenclaw doesn't think highly of boys who don't take no for an answer.]

"For the last time, Jacobson, I'm not interested," Lydia called loudly over her shoulder. She flounced away at a quick pace, trying not to run, as Jacobson followed her.

"Aw, come on, sweetheart, what's one date gonna do? Nothing. So just be reasonable and try dating me," he said, voice cajoling and sickeningly sweet. Lydia shivered and walked even faster.

"No, I'm not interested. Leave me alone!" she almost yelled as she finally made it to the safety of the Great Hall and almost ran to her table. She slid in among her friends, who closed around her instantly.

"I can't believe this," she muttered to Yelena, who was seated beside her. "He just won't leave me alone!"

"I know," Yelena said softly, patting her back gently. "But there's not much you can do. Our Head of House has already had a chat with him about this and he didn't exactly listen…"

"I know," Lydia said wearily, shoulders slumping. "I just wish that he would stop it…"

A soft wolf-whistle from down the table caught her attention, but she didn't look up, refused to, really. Yelena shouted something down to them, something furious and in Yiddish, from what Lydia could tell. When she sat back down, Lydia gave her a small, sad smile.

"Thanks, but it won't work," she said hopelessly, resigned. "We've tried everything. Outside of physically hurting him? I can't think of anything to do."

"Well, we're not going to leave you alone to deal with him," Yelena said firmly. "Are we, girls?"

Her small posse of young women nodded around the table. "We'll help protect you," one of them said, a girl in 5th year named Emily.

"Thanks," Lydia said gratefully. She resumed her lunch without further incident.

A few days later, Lydia was starting to get nervous. Jacobson hadn't approached her at all in the past few days; whenever he'd seen her in the halls, he'd refused to look at her. He even went out of his way to avoid her, taking alternative routes to the classes they shared and whatnot. She was thoroughly confused, and very antsy.

"Yo," Yelena said one evening as she dropped onto the bench beside Lydia. "So turns out that something happened and Jacobson is purposefully avoiding you now."

"What?" Lydia asked in confusion, roll falling onto her plate from fingers that suddenly couldn't grasp anything. "Why?"

"No idea. One of his partners in crime said that he went to do something one day and came back sheet white. One of them asked him what had happened- he just shook his head. No explanation that he's given them." She shrugged and dug into her own plate. "I'm just gonna tell you to not look a gift horse in the mouth."

"Agreed," Lydia said slowly, and resumed eating her food.

A few feet away, Helena Ravenclaw, the Gray Lady, smiled secretively to herself and resumed her vigil over the younger students.