Celestia Malfoy hated her best friend's owl for always delivering his letter at night. He goes to Beauxbatons but wasn't selected for visiting Hogwarts as he is young.
After delivering her response and setting his owl off from the owlery, Celestia was returning to the Slytherin common room.
Her mind was racing through various possibilities of getting caught as it was already past curfew, but that had never stopped her from exploring the castle at night, and in her opinion, Hogwarts is most beautiful at midnight.
Celestia walked down the stairs as quietly as possible, the faces in some of the portraits still turned curiously at the squeak of a floorboard, some asking her to put the light out. She crept along the corridor below, pushed aside a tapestry about halfway along, and proceeded down a narrower staircase, a shortcut that would take her down two floors.
Suddenly her heart skipped as she could hear footsteps, but no one was there. She stopped in her tracks and muttered "Nox"; it was pitch black in the corridor, and then there was a loud crack - followed by a bang as loud as a bass drum on every step - and then a horrible wailing noise rang through the staircases, coming from the corridor down below.
Celestia tried to make out the surroundings through the moonlight coming from the windows and walked down the stairs. There was a hole on the stairs, the trick step that Longbottom always trips on, and a piece of parchment lying a few steps below it. She went and picked it up; it was the same parchment she had seen Potter with.
"Potter?" she said, feeling stupid. She had to stop thinking about him.
"Please, close the egg," Potter said out of nowhere, his voice coming from right beside her, but there was no one there.
"Am I hallucinating?" Celestia wondered out loud but obliged. "Lumos," she said, dropping the parchment as she ran down the staircase. In the corridor, there was a golden egg, opened, and the sound was coming from the egg. That was the champion's egg. Of course, it was Potter.
"PEEVES!"
It was the unmistakable hunting cry of Filch the caretaker. Celestia could hear his rapid, shuffling footsteps coming nearer. She picked up the egg in her arms, closed it by twisting it, and the sound immediately stopped.
Now, it was pin-drop silence.
With her heartbeat ringing in her ears, Celestia quickly ran up the staircase, past the trick step, opened a portrait that her father had found in his Hogwarts days, revealing a secret tunnel that led to nowhere but a great place to hide. She hurried in and closed the portrait behind her, leaving it open just enough to see the squib approaching, his wheezy voice raised in fury.
Celestia, not wanting to be caught, closed the portrait entirely and was surprised when it got silent. She couldn't hear anything from outside, as if the small tunnel was soundproof. She waited for what felt like hours, clutching the golden egg that felt slippery. Was it laced with soap?
And then, the portrait was pushed open. Celestia braced herself for the punishment, but it was Potter, standing alone with an unreadable expression. He looked at her, clutching the egg between her bare legs, and she could just make out the blush rising on his cheeks.
As Celestia was dressed in an oversized t-shirt that Theodore had brought her for Christmas and shorts, she knew her outfit was scandalous.
"You can get out now; Moody, Snape and Filch are gone," he said, looking away. "I need the egg back," he clarified when Celestia stared at him.
"Moody and Snape?"
"Yeah, they came by hearing the commotion" Harry shrugged.
"Okay," she said, handing him the egg first. She half expected him to leave immediately, but she was surprised when he gave her his hand to help her get down the tunnel.
"Where were you anyways, i heard your voice, couldn't see you" Celestia asked, "wait -is it true you have an invisibility cloak? Snape once let it slip in our common room but I thought he was joking"
Harry showed her a shimmering cloak in his hand.
Celestia tried not to look impressed.
"I never knew there was a passageway in there. Where does it lead to? On the map, it doesn't show the exit," Potter said as soon as she got down on her feet.
"It leads nowhere. Draco and I tried walking in, but we kept walking for hours and then we came back to the same portrait," Celestia explained. "There is no exit; my dad found it in his Hogwarts days."
"Oh," Potter said, staring at her neck. "Thanks, I guess," he continued, for hiding the egg. "Although you could have taken the map too."
"The parchment?" Celestia asked. "It's a map?"
Harry looked away, as if he wasn't supposed to disclose that. "Yeah," he confirmed. "I'll appreciate it if you kept it a secret; that map was created by my dad and his friends," he explained, somewhat proudly.
"Okay," Celestia said awkwardly. "Can you show me the map?"
"Can't," said Potter shortly, staring at the closed portrait of a sleeping cat. "Moody took it."
Celestia frowned. "Why? What are you doing here at this time anyway? It isn't the way to the Gryffindor tower; this staircase leads to dungeons."
Harry now was looking at her, staring into her eyes. Celestia could have sworn her heart skipped a bit. "I saw someone who is not supposed to be in the school - on the map - I wanted to check it out," he explained, hesitation evident in his voice.
"What! You saw someone on the map? It shows people?"
"Yeah?"
"And you gave it away to a professor? Who happens to be lurking around in the same place? Are you stupid or what?" Celestia exclaimed in a whisper. "That's stupidity."
Celestia had expected him to argue, but he didn't say anything. He just shrugged. "Moody saved me from Filch, helped a lot with the first task; he's a good person."
Celestia understood that Harry Potter was too trusting, too naive. She nodded her head in farewell, turned the other way to leave.
"Wait-" he called.
Celestia froze in midstep.
"Are you avoiding me?" Potter asked, embarrassed. When Celestia didn't answer, he continued, "I couldn't help but notice you always avoid me in classes, and I never see you in corridors like before."
"Why do you want to see me?" Celestia challenged.
"Well... After what happened, I thought - nevermind, goodnight," Potter said, turning around. When Celestia grabbed his arm suddenly to stop him, she grabbed him by the back of his neck gently and brought her lips to his.
As Celestia's lips met Potter's, a rush of heat enveloped them, sending shivers down their spines. The air around them seemed to crackle with electricity as they lingered in the embrace, Celestia's hand sliding from his neck to tangle in his hair, pulling him closer. The soft glow of the staircase's sconces cast a warm, romantic hue over the scene, accentuating their intertwined figures against the shadowy backdrop of the hallway.
Potter's initial surprise melted away, replaced by a deepening hunger as he responded to Celestia's kiss with equal fervor, his arms wrapping around her waist, pulling her tightly against him. Their bodies pressed together, igniting a fiery passion that seemed to consume them both.
Breaking the kiss only momentarily, Celestia whispered huskily, "I couldn't let you go without doing this." Her breath was warm against his skin, sending a shiver of anticipation down his spine.
Potter's response was a low, guttural growl as he reclaimed her lips hungrily, his hands roaming over her back, tracing the curves of her body with a desperate need. Their kisses grew deeper, more urgent, each touch fueling the flames of desire burning between them.
Lost in the moment, they moved together as if in a dance, their bodies pressed tightly against each other as they sought to satisfy the craving that had ignited between them. Time seemed to stand still as they surrendered to the passion that consumed them, their kisses growing more fervent with each passing moment.
Finally, breathless and flushed with desire, they pulled apart, their eyes meeting in silent understanding. With a shared glance, they knew that this was only the beginning of a forbidden romance that would consume them both. And as they stood there on the staircase, bathed in the soft glow of the sconces, they knew that they would risk everything to be together.