"What happened? Why did you stop here?" Dean asked in a bewildered whisper as he hurriedly ran out of the portrait hole, with the Fat lady snoring in it, only to find all four boys standing there outside the Gryffindor common room whispering to each other with confused looks on their faces.
All four of them awkwardly looked at each other before Harry cleared his throat, "Dean, you wouldn't happen to know where the Hufflepuff common room is, would you?" he asked with a small hopeful smile.
"No," Dean replied slowly, "Of course, not. Why would I?—Wait! Is that why you're still here? You don't even know where the dorms are?" he asked with a weird expression as if not knowing whether to laugh or cry, "You really are idiots..." he said shaking his head, "but I guess that means this plan is a bust..." he had a small amount of relief in his voice, "I am sorry Neville,"
The oddly determined expression on Neville's face crumbled into a sad one as Seamus bemoaned in annoyance at losing the chance to have a fun trip.
"No, Wait!" Ron abruptly spoke up with an enlightened expression on his face, "There is still something I can do," he let out as he began backing away towards the common room, "Harry! Is the, um, MM still in that bag I gave you?"
"Huh? O-Oh! Yes! It's still there right on my bed." Harry nodded with excitement as he belatedly understood what Ron was getting at.
"Perfect! You guys just wait here, I will be right back." he shot back as he dashed into the portrait hole.
"...It's not like we can go anywhere," Seamus murmured while scratching his head before turning towards Harry and asking curiously, "So what was Weasley talking about? What is MM?"
"Oh! That... um... I think, uh, it's the..."
"Wait, was he talking about MnM?" Dean asked with a confused expression on his face, "The muggle toffee's?"
"Yes!" Harry exclaimed immediately latching on to that opportunity, "It is surely that one..."
"But why? How is a Toffee going to help us with—"
"I'm back!" Thankfully a huffing and puffing Ron came out of the portrait hole at that exact moment so Harry didn't have to work his half-drunk hazy mind to come up with any more excuses.
"You have it?"
"Yes, I found it," Ron answered Harry while patting his pocket with a wink, "Now, Let's go, boys. I'll lead the way," he commanded the others before moving down the hallway with Neville and Harry following after him immediately.
"Wait! What did you get? How did you find out where the room was?"
"Don't worry about it. I just asked some old friends..." Ron whispered back with a mysterious smile on his face, "Now come on. You just need to trust in me and follow..."
"But—"
"Come on, you heard the man," Seamus said while excitedly slapping Dean's back, "Let's go!"
"Fine." Dean sighed helplessly but followed after them nonetheless.
And just like that the five drunk boys sauntered down the deserted hallways of Hogwarts to go on a noble quest of love for their friend.
All of them were moving in a straight line looking left and right sneakily with Ron leading from the very front.
Every now and then the red-haired boy would look down at something, that the other boys couldn't see, and take random five-minute stops before continuing. It confused the three not in the know but they were too nervous to talk in these empty hallways where even their steps echoed loudly.
"We're close now, boys," came a happy whisper from Ron about 15 minutes later after they climbed down some stairs into a deserted hallway, "The Hufflepuff common room is just about two hallways away now,"
"But isn't that where the kitchen is?" Dean asked confusedly, "Harry took us there to get the snacks just before the feast."
"You're not wrong about that." Ron replied distractedly, "But apparently, the Puff's common room is just beside the—Oh! Shit! Prefects!" he abruptly cried in a shocked tone while halting mid-step, his eyes once again down at his hands.
"What from where?" Harry asked hurriedly, looking left and right.
"From both sides," Ron answered looking panicked for the first time.
"But how do you know—"
"There isn't time for that, Dean. We need to—" Harry cut off impatiently as his eyes suddenly caught sight of a broom closet a few steps down the corridor, "There! Inside that! Go! Go! Go!" he hissed leading them towards the big closet, "Hurry get in here," he urged after being the first one in.
None of them hesitated too much as one after the other the boys piled up inside the big but not-so-big closet, stuffing themselves against brooms, buckets and each other's bodies as Ron, the last one in, closed the door behind him shrouding them in the darkness.
"Ugh! Neville you're crushing my toes!"
"Oh! Sorry—"
"Damn! I so didn't think that my first time in a closet would be with a bunch of guys," Seamus lamented in a tragic voice.
"Shh! Keep quiet!" Ron hissed shutting the boy's whining, "They are almost here."
And he was right as at that exact moment footsteps sounded from both sides of the hallways leading to the broom closet, and there weren't just one or two but at least four people out there making the boys sweat even more, as the four people, two from either side, came to meet in the middle.
"Why are you here, Montague." a boyish asked from the left side, "Aren't you a bit far from your dungeon."
"The same reason you're here, Davis." a sneering male voice replied from the right, "We too felt the proximity ward trip around here so we came to check if there weren't any ickle puffs roaming around that we can... punish," he said the last words in such a greasy voice that it immediately sent shivers down the boy's spine.
"You—"
"No, Don't!" cautioned a girl's voice from beside the first boy on the left, "He is just trying to bait you. And you two! Even if there is someone breaking the rules here they would be handled by us as this area comes under our purview, so you better leave unless you want me to call the professors."
"Are you threatening me—"
"Ugh! Don't be such a brute, Montague," a new girl interrupted the Slytherin prefect coolly, "I don't want to waste my time arguing with these idiots. Let's go, besides it was probably that damn cat again..." the voice was already moving away before she even finished speaking.
"Humph! Fine." Montague snorted before following after his fellow Slytherin prefect, relieving most of the tension from the boys.
"Let's go," the girl from Hufflepuff said as the other two also went away from there down the opposite hallway of Hufflepuff dorms, and things finally went silent for a few seconds.
"Should we—Mmph!" Harry's hands covered Seamus's mouth before he could blurt out more than a few words, all the while nervously craning his ears to hear if any of the prefects were coming back.
Only after a full five minutes passed did Harry and Ron, the two most experienced with these kinds of excursions, breathe a sigh of relief, "I think we're safe now," Ron nodded into the darkness towards where he thought Harry was before slowly opening the door. He peeked down at either end of the hallways a few times as added measures before finally the last of the tension left his shoulders and he exited, "You can all come out now,"
"Argh!" One after the other the boys stumbled out of the broom closet, their faces red and they were taking deep heavy breaths and sweating as if they had just run a marathon.
"That was close, wasn't it?" Seamus mumbled while wiping his sweat, "Can you imagine what would have happened if they managed to find us in that closet, " he snorted with a grin, "Just thinking about explaining to them what five young boys were doing inside that closet...ugh..."
"It's not a laughing matter you idiot," Dean hissed with a fearful expression on his face, "We were almost caught, so maybe we should—"
"The path is clear," Ron abruptly interrupted while placing something in his pocket, "Let's hurry before they come back," he said and then immediately took off towards the hallway leading towards the Hufflepuff dorms.
"Let's go," Seamus said while patting Dean's shoulder before following after the other three. Dean groaned in frustration but had to follow after the boys nonetheless as he knew that it was too late to turn back now.
They took a left at the next intersection and then a right at the end of that corridor leading them straight into a wide hallway.
This corridor was somehow warmer than the other ones and had long lines of brightly lit torches set into iron brackets along the walls.
They passed by the inconspicuous portrait of the bowl of fruits on the left wall that also served as the entrance to the kitchen before finally reaching a stack of large wooden barrels touching the ceiling.
"Here, this is the entrance to the Hufflepuff common room," Ron announced waving grandly towards the barrels.
"Are you sure?" Harry asked sceptically while searching but not finding any hint of a door or a knob anywhere.
"I am. This is it."
"Perfect. Then, what's next..." Dean asked looking behind them nervously, "Do you also have the password with you or do we need to guess or answer some stupid questions..."
"Ah! But that's the best part." Ron replied with a triumphant grin while taking out his wand, "There is no such thing as a password here..." Ron smirked before he went to the barrel two from the bottom and middle of the second row and tapped in the rhythm of 'Huffle-Puff'.
Almost immediately the barrels started rearranging themselves as if they were puzzle pieces and a few seconds later a deep cave-like entrance appeared in front of them leading straight to the Hufflepuff common room.
"That... is so stupid," Dean murmured with a bewildered expression on his face, "Wouldn't anyone be able to access their common rooms then?"
"Maybe that was the point. Helga Hufflepuff was quite well known to be welcoming towards every one..." Ron shrugged. He had also been a bit sceptical after reading the method to enter the common room written in the Marauder's Map, but thankfully it had worked or he would have made quite a fool of himself.
"Eh! It's the puffs. What else can you expect..." Seamus snickered.
"Alright, stop dilly-dallying people." Ron clapped his hands softly, "We are at the final step so let's enter before something goes wrong," he said leading the way into the cave of barrels, and after about a dozen steps it opened up into a common room that screamed... warm, homely and cosy.
The room was decorated in cheerful, bee-like colours of yellow and black, which were further emphasised by the highly polished, honey-coloured tables made of wood. And there were two round holes in the wall with stairs leading to the boys' and girls' dormitories.
"This is good," Harry murmured while looking at a portrait of Helga Hufflepuff, toasting her students with a golden cup, over the fireplace.
"Hmm, but I like ours better," Seamus shrugged.
"Well of course, no one can compare with Gryffindor," Harry replied as the boys shared a smirk at their house pride.
"Can you stop admiring the room and get to work, or did you already forget why we are here?" Dean said while rolling his eyes at seeing the boys scattered around admiring the room as if they were a bunch of tourists.
"Hehe, Sorry."
They mumbled their apologies as they gathered to stand in front of the stairs with Neville standing at the very front looking at the staircase leading into the girl's dormitory with a resolute gaze.
"I guess this is it," Neville nodded his head and then immediately tried running for the stairs only to be held by his collar at the last moment by Dean's hand.
"Are you stupid, Neville? Don't you know that there is a charm on the stairs to prevent boys from entering," Dean said while pulling the boy back.
"Oh, I forgot..." Neville replied with a frown, "But I should at least give it a try, what if..."
"No, Dean's right. You shouldn't," Harry interrupted while shaking his head, "There could be an alarm on the stairs that alerts everyone that there are intruders here and then... we will be doomed..."
"So how do we do this then?" Seamus asked aloud as all of them unconsciously turned towards Ron.
"Hey, don't look at me. How should I know?" Ron replied with a shrug, "I can't have all the answers."
"Hmm, maybe we just need a way to somehow get a message to Hannah," Dean murmured after a few seconds, "I am sure she'll come down... out of curiosity, if nothing else."
"Maybe if we had Hedwig, she could..."
"Yeah, right." Harry rolled his eyes at Ron's suggestion, "And how am I supposed to call for her? By sending her a letter? Besides I don't think she'll be of much help when there is probably a door barring the way into her room..."
"How about we just call her name loudly? I am sure that'll get her down," Seamus suggested with a tipsy smile on his face.
"Yeah sure, why don't you try that." Ron snorted with a shrug.
"If you say so. HAN—Mph!"
"Are you out of your fucking mind?" Dean hissed his hands on Seamus's mouth muffling the idiot from waking the whole Hufflepuff house and he wasn't the only one, all of their eyes were wide with panic and were looking at Seamus with horror-filled eyes.
"You bloody idiot! I was just joking," Ron said, sweating at the close shave.
"Oh, Sorry, then." Seamus grinned sheepishly while scratching his head.
"Ugh! So what are we going to—No, Wait! I know! The Patronus Charm!" Ron suddenly exclaimed with a wide grin on his face, "Harry! Do the Patronus Charm."
"What? How is that going to help us?"
"Don't you know that you can send messages with them," Ron replied with an excited look on his face.
"Really?"
"Yes. Just conjure it and give it a try."
"Fine." Harry had a sceptical look on his face but he still took out his wand. He closed his eyes and tried to bring up his happiest memory... which surprisingly turned out to be a very easy thing because of his intoxicated state, "Expecto Patronum!"
A silvery stag immediately jumped out of his wand and ran around the room bathing the room in its silvery glow trying to find an enemy before it finally came to stand before its caster, "Now, what?"
"Hmm, Maybe just tell it to send a message to Hannah..." Ron said with an unsure tone.
"Er, Hello, Prongs, um, can you send Hannah the message, 'Can you come down, Hannah? Neville wants to speak to you.' " he finished feeling like a fool talking to an apparition but miraculously it actually worked as the bright stag nodded its head and ran up the stairs of the girl's dormitory.
"Wicked," Seamus breathed in an amazed tone.
"I know." Ron nodded his head with a grin before turning towards the protagonist of the night, "Are you ready, mate?"
"I am," Neville replied after taking a deep breath while looking towards the stairs as if he was about to go to a battlefield.
"So what are you going to tell her?" Seamus asked curiously while waiting for the girl to hopefully come down, "Are you going to say 'I Love you,'" he sniggered in a teasing voice.
"Of course, he is not," Ron shot down immediately with a look of aversion on his face, "That would be far too soon, and he'll come down as stupid and desperate. Believe me, man, you just need to say that you like her and ask her out on a date. That's all, sweet and simple."
"I don't know... Isn't that too lame," Dean retorted with a raised eyebrow, "After coming all the way here in the middle of the night... just to say he likes her,"
"Maybe he should just ask to marry her and be done with it—"
"Guys, you're freaking him out," Harry said cutting the discussion short, "Don't listen to them, Neville. You just need to tell her how you feel when you see her... I am sure your heart will tell you the answer you need."
"Yes. Thank—"
"Wait! I hear footsteps! Shit, we need to go!" Ron said hurriedly pushing Neville towards the stairs, "Neville you go get her. Everyone else. Hide!" he ordered before bouncing behind a big cushy chair along with Harry.
"But why—"
"Just go." Dean hissed shoving a reluctant Seamus behind the other chair beside the Fireplace.
A few seconds of silence went by as the boys peeked from behind the chairs when suddenly they heard whispering girl voices from the stairs.
"Are you sure?"
"Yes, I remember seeing it in the DA meetings. That was definitely Harry's patronus."
"But why would he..."
"I don't know. So you stay here and let me check in case it's dangerous."
"But—"
"Don't worry, I'll be careful." they heard Susan say before the boys saw the red-haired girl slowly come down the stairs.
"Neville?! You're really—What are you doing here?" Susan asked in a stunned voice while lowering her wand as she saw the Gryffindor boy standing in the centre of the common room. She was wearing loose red silky night robes that made her body and hair stand out even more.
"I wanted to talk to Hannah," Neville asked while looking at her imploringly, "Can you call her down?"
"Er, Sure." Susan replied in an unsure tone a bit taken aback by the calm tone of the usually shy boy, "Hannah! Neville wants to talk to you." she shot back up the stairs.
"What? He is really here?" came the shocked voice of Hannah as she raced down the stairs, "Neville?!" she breathed in a dazed voice, "W-What happened? Why are you here? Is everything alright?" she asked in a concerned tone while rushing to stand before him.
"Yes, everything's fine," Neville said in a cool confident tone, "I just had something I wanted to tell you and I couldn't wait."
"Eh? What is it?" Hannah asked curiously, tilting her head to look into the unusually intense eyes of the cute boy.
"I don't know if you know this but I... have had a massive crush on you since our third year," Neville said clearly, his voice filled with passion.
"W-What?!" Hannah stuttered out as her eyes widened and her face turned bright red at the sudden confession.
"Oh, my!" Susan let out with an amazed look on her face.
"Yes. Ever since the day that you complimented me during that one herbology class about my talent with plants, I can't seem to forget about you. Every single day I crave the chance to have a conversation with you. Every single night my dreams are filled with your face, your laugh, your eyes... your body."—"EEP!"—" I just can't seem to get out of my head Hannah." Neville finished in a single breath his eyes filled with love and adoration.
"Mm!" Susan slammed her hands on her mouth as she silently screamed in excitement while looking at the confession scene with sparkling eyes. On the other hand, all four boys looked at the scene with horror in their eyes, their spines tingling with cringe from the pure sweetness radiating from the scene. They could never imagine that the usually silent boy could come up with such cheesy lines...
"I-I-I..." The poor girl looked like a deer in headlights, her brain was fried and it seemed as if steam would start coming out her ear any second now.
"The point is... I like you," Neville continued without hesitation, "So today I came here to ask you what I have wanted to do since that Herbology class. Tell me, Hannah Abbott, will you be my girlfriend?"
There was silence for a few seconds after that as the girl just kept staring at him with a dazed look on her face as if she hadn't heard him.
"Answer him, you idiot!" hissed Susan, coming with a much-needed assist finally bringing Hannah back to the earth.
"I-I-I—" Hannah stammered and blushed violently, unable to answer no matter how many times she tried so she finally looked down, away from those intense eyes of his and answered in a very tiny whisper, "I will..."
"YES!" Susan squeaked immediately as she jumped up and down in happiness and she wasn't the only one as the four Gryffindors also jumped out from behind the chairs as they cheered and hollered in their excitement, "YOHOO!"
"You—W-Why are you all here?" Susan asked in a stunned voice. She had assumed Harry was here because of the Patronus but she didn't expect to find half the boys from her class hiding in her common room.
The sudden intrusion of more people embarrassed Hannah even further as the girl ducked her head in shyness to hide from the new audience that had apparently been there all along.
"Um, w-we are here as moral support," Harry chuckled nervously as he got caught up in the atmosphere and jumped out with the others without thinking things through, "Here to cheer Neville on...Yay!"
"You're absolutely right, we are!" Seamus yelled in excitement, "Neville, my boy, I can't tell you how proud of you I am,"
"Pipe down, You idiot—" Dean hissed as he tried to silence the boy drunk out of his mind.
"I am sorry about them," Neville said while looking down at Hannah with an apologetic smile.
"I-It's fine," Hannah said looking up at him with a sweet smile on her face, and just like that both of them became lost in each other's eyes once again.
"Don't just look at her, you idiot," Ron abruptly whispered out of the corner of his mouth "You need to seal the deal with a kiss!"
Neville's lips quirked up in a smile at that but he didn't waste a single moment in asking his new girlfriend, "Can I kiss you, Hannah,"
Hannah's eyes went comically wide once again but before her mind could even process the question her body followed her heart and she nodded her head unconsciously.
Neville, to his credit, didn't disappoint and without letting the chance go he immediately leaned in as their lips touched for his, for their, first kiss.
"WOHOO!" The boys as well as the one girl cheered at the top of their lungs absolutely letting go in their excitement, with Dean surprisingly being the loudest this time.
"This is the best night ever! HaHa—"
"I wouldn't be so sure of that, Mr. Finnigan." a low irritated voice abruptly cut through the festive atmosphere dousing the common room in stillness as all five boys shivered simultaneously at the voice straight out of their worst nightmare.
In the sudden pin-drop silence Ron gulped and noticed for the first time that the ruckus they had created in their drunken excitement had gathered quite an audience.
No one knew when they had appeared but at that moment standing atop the stairs to both the dormitories were quite a few Hufflepuff boys and girls looking down at the group of Gryffindor with amused expressions on their faces.
But the worst and most scary part for the boys was that at the entrance of the room stood the Hufflepuff prefects they had escaped from just half an hour ago and behind them stood a confused Pamona Sprout, the Herbology professor, and a very irate Professor McGonagall glaring at the boys murderously.
"Um, w-we just got lost, Professor," Ron tried with an ugly nervous smile as a last ditch effort, "S-Sorry but we will just be on our way now—"
"I think not, Mr Weasley. I think when I am done with you, you five will never be lost in your life... ever again." she finished with an ominous glint in her eyes.
/
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