The Houses Competition: Practice round

House: Gryffindor

Class: DADA

Category: Standard

Prompts chosen: Choose ANY fandom to crossover with (Buffy the Vampire Slayer) [Weather] Heat wave [Weather] Thunderstorm

Word Count: 2030

Summary: The golden trio along with Buffy, Willow and Xander tries to keep themselves busy while a raging storm is taking over Hogwarts.

Title: Kiss, Merry, Kill

It wasn't a well-known fact that summer weather often provides the perfect conditions for storms to develop. The warm temperatures allow the atmosphere to hold more humidity, and that humidity is a prerequisite for building clouds—specifically, the tall, menacing cumulonimbus clouds that produce thunder and lighting. So it was no wonder that the heat wave that Hogwarts was experiencing was bringing one hell of a thunderstorm with it. Each burst of thunder seemed to shake the thousand-year-old castle. Bright, flashing lightning lit up the night sky like fireworks, banging, crashing thunder roaring furiously. It was the worst storm they had in forty years. It had everyone worried to the point where Headmaster Dumbledore put the school on lockdown; no one was allowed to leave their dorms for any reason.

It has been days since anyone left their dorms. House-Elves brought breakfast, lunch, and dinner along with snacks during the day, and they could be called at any time in case anyone needed anything. Their Heads of House made sure to give them their work, but only so much could be done without actually teaching. Students were mostly waiting for the storm to end so they could go back to their day-to-day routine. Everyone was starting to get restless, especially Wood, who seemed to be going crazy without Quidditch. The Gryffindors had placed bets on when Wood would snap.

The golden trio known as Harry, Ron and Hermione sat in the common room along with Buffy, Willow, and Xander. Hermione was trying to keep herself cool, shorts and a tanktop covered in a thin layer of sweat as she fanned herself off with a fan that she made out of some pieces of old parchment paper. Willow was doing her own thing to keep everyone cool, crushing up fresh mint leaves, lemon juice, sea salt, basil, and snakeskin in a small bowl before adding a couple of drops of lavender-infused water and waving her wand over it. "Aqua benedicta. Aqua, mulce me. Haec aqua incommoda aestus expellat. Aestatis aestus asperum aqua depelle. Ita fiat festucam," Willow repeated several times until a gust of cold air filled the small area they were occupying.

"Oh, thank Merlin!" Xander cried out as he suddenly felt himself start to cool down. "You are truly amazing," Xander praised as he sat up from where he had been lying on the floor for the past hour. He never thought he would wish so hard to be in the dungeons with the Slytherins; he bet they were enjoying the heat wave down there. The coldness of the dungeon would be heavenly. Xander closed his eyes and tried to imagine the cold stone floors on his bare skin.

"It's just a simple spell with simple ingredients. It should last us a couple of hours before it starts to wear off," Willow explained, unable to stop the slight blush that appeared on her cheeks from Xander's compliment. It was no secret that Willow had somewhat of a crush on Xander a couple of years ago, but now she was dating a Hufflepuff named Oz, who was in a band that played at the Three Broomsticks twice a week.

Hermione let out a small hum as she sat up a little, setting down her fan as she tilted her head up a little so the cold air could get to her neck. "Smells nice," Hermione commented as she took in a deep breath of the mintiness in the air.

"That's the mint leaves," Willow explained. "We get to be cool and smell nice." Willow said it in that cutesy way of hers.

"Ya, for a couple of hours until the spell wears off," Ron grumbled. "Then what? We're back to sweating our asses off for however long."

"It's better than nothing," Buffy said as she fiddled with the cross that always hung off her chain necklace, a gift from her boyfriend, who was much older than her.

"I guess," Ron replied, sitting up a little and leaning against the couch as he continued to sort through his Chocolate Frog cards. "I believe it's my turn," Ron said, earning himself a loud moan from everybody. "It's not like we can do anything else." Ron raised his voice a little as a blast of thunder ran through the sky, followed by lightning that lit up the Gryffindor common room for a couple of seconds before disappearing, leaving the candle light as the only source of light since no one wanted to use the fireplace - for good reason. They were already cooking; they didn't need to add fire to the mix.

"You guys want to go back to truth and dare?" Ron asked. They all been playing earlier in order to pass the time but agreed to stop once Xander admitted to using Ron's toothbrush when he couldn't find his own. Truth and dare was too much of a dangerous game to be playing.

"No!" Harry yelled from the couch, not wanting to be a part of another fight that would eventually break out once someone admitted to something that they shouldn't. Secrets were there for a reason. "Just ask your question."

"That's what I thought," Ron mumbled before turning to Hermione. He pressed his lips together in thought before saying. "Alright, Hermione. Professor Giles, Professor Lupin, Professor Flitwick," Ron named off with a smile, thinking that he got Hermione beat with this one.

Hemrione let out a small sigh as she did the calculations in her head: "I kiss Professor Lupin, marry Professor Flitwick, which means I will have to kill Professor Giles." Hermione answered. "But I wouldn't mind kissing Flitwick and marrying Lupin, but I would still have to kill Professor Giles," Hermione explained.

"Really? You kill Giles?" Willow asked, unable to stop the slight blushing of her cheeks.

"Just because you have a thing for the man..." Xander started before being cut off by Willow.

"What!… I…I don't have a thing for him." Willow stuttered as she turned her head to the side so no one would see her cheeks get even redder.

"Oh please. You spend more time in the library than Hermione," Xander said with a slight smile as he reached to his side and into the box of Bertie Bott's Every Flavour Beans that they had sitting out for everyone to share. "You have a crush on the librarian. Aren't you supposed to be dating that Hufflepuff... Oz?" Xander asked, gaining everyone's attention since only a few knew about Willow and Oz. It was Oz's idea to keep his and Willow's relationship a secret due to his condition. He didn't want her getting hurt because of what he is, even though Willow reassured him that she was more than willing to take the risk.

Willow brushed a piece of her hair behind her ear as she let out a bit of nervous laughter. "I wouldn't say we are going out. It's… It's kind of complicated." Willow explained, struggling to find the right words that would describe what she and Oz had. She wouldn't say that they were boyfriend and girlfriend, but she also wouldn't say that they were just friends. They were somewhat in the middle. "And what about you?" Willow asked, "You've been dating Cordelia for a couple of months now." Willow explained as a loud blast of thunder ripped through the sky, as if the name Cordelia offended the universe.

Cordelia was a pure-blood Slythrein who had more money than Merlin himself. No one had any idea how Xander managed to get Cordelia to go out with him. Xander was a good guy, but definitely not Cordelia's type. He was a Gryffindor to start with, and dirt poor. Not like there was anything wrong with having limited money, but to Cordelia, it was a sin. All the other boyfriends that Crodelia had in the past had money and were able to buy her all the expensive things that she wanted.

Cordelia was also very vain. In her mind, everything revolves around her and only her. The moment the conversation moved to someone else, she would either make a nasty comment or completely zone out until the conversation came back around to her.

"How can you go out with her?" Ron asked, his nose scutching up at the thought of a Gryffindor dating a Slytherin. The two houses were mortal enemies. If anyone found out that the two of them were going out, all hell would break loose between the two houses.

"She's not that bad," Xander defended. "There's a side to her; behind all that Slytherin pure-blood persona, she's a good person. She just needs someone to help her see that," Xander explained.

"And you're going to be this person?" Buffy asked as she continued to fiddle with her cross, running it up the chain before bringing it back down to the front.

"...I want to be," Xander admitted. He truly liked Cordelia, and he hoped that he could show her that she doesn't have to be the person that she pretends to be. She was kind and gentle, and he hoped she would allow others to see that one day.

Before anyone else could say another word, a loud blast of thunder sounded, followed closely by the lightning. A first-year Gryffinor let out a scream as the lightning struck the window, causing a large crack to run across the glass. Harry, along with everyone else turned around just in time to see the window start to fix itself. A light glow surrounded the crack as it sealed itself shut.

"This storm is starting to get scary," Hermione muttered as she wrapped her arms around her legs and brought her knees up to her chest. "How much longer do you think it's going to last for?" Hermione asked as she looked out the window. Even though it was dark, she was still able to see the rain slam against the window like bullets. She was never one to be afraid of thunderstorms, not even when she was young, but this felt different. The hairs on the back of her neck would stand up with every loud crack of thunder.

"You don't think... You don't think it's him, do you? He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named?" Ron couldn't help but to stutter.

Everyone went silent, which only made the storm seem more powerful as it continued to rage down on the castile. A castle that they all thought was safe, but now, with Voldermort back, who knew what was truly safe?

"The heart waves, the storms, the floods—it's all omens. When there's powerful black magic, the universe doesn't like it, and it creates... well, this," Willow explained as she looked towards the window.

"So the universe is having a temper tantrum?" Xander asked as he raised his eyebrows a little.

Willow couldn't help but let out a small sigh with an eye roll. "Put simply, yes. The universe is having a tantrum because of all the dark magic being put out there." Willow agreed. Xander always seemed to find the simplest way of saying things. "And He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named coming back from the dead was extremely dark magic." Willow explained. "You don't mess with the universe like that."

Everyone was silent once again as the threat of the Dark Lord hung over them. They were just children and yet they were expected to fight in a war, a war that could take all of their lives.

"I've been thinking about something that Dumbledore said," Harry spoke. It was the most he had spoken since they came back from the Ministry and it kind of took everyone by surprise. Harry had only spoken a couple of words here and there in conversation.

"What's that?" Hermione asked as she, along with everyone else,turned to look at Harry.

"That even though we have a fight ahead of us, we got one thing that Voldemort doesn't have…" Harry explained, stopping as if he was in thought.

"Yeah?" Ron asked, nudging Harry to continue.

"Something worth fighting for." Harry continued, forcing out a small smile "We're gonna win in the end, we all will," Harry explained, confident that they would make it out alive in the end.