A little thought I had, inspired by a post I saw on Pinterest. I also like the idea of continuing this as a collection of loosely connected oneshots. No promises on regular updates or lengths, just the occasional anecdotal about John Watson and Sherlock Holmes at Hogwarts.

For anyone who reads The Sorting of Sherlock Holmes, I apologize for the lack of chapters, Sherlock hasn't been cooperating lately. Shocker.

Anyway, onwards.

"Well, well, well, look who we have here."

This was not what John wanted to hear at the moment. He had been up for far too long last night at the encouragement of his dorm mates, celebrating his acceptance onto the Quidditch Team as the Keeper, overslept, had to skip breakfast the next day, and still got points taken off for being late to Transfiguration. Not a happy day.

Coupled with the fact he had patrol that night with the Gryffindor prefects and Molly Hopper so he couldn't even go to bed early this night, and you got one tired Hufflepuff. So you could understand that when he reached the second floor on his round before curfew, he wasn't in the best state of mind for springing into action.

He had just reached the bottom of the staircase from the Divination Tower and was about to round the corner when he heard the voice. Cautiously, he peeked his head out to observe the scene.

The speaker was a tall student with broad shoulders, a buzz cut, and Gryffindor red accents on his robes. His wand was held out, and although all John could see of the teenager was his back, he would have bet good money that he was also sporting a nasty smile.

He wasn't alone either. With him were two very familiar figures that John hadn't seen since their first meeting.

"God, could you get anymore cliché? If you're going to threaten us, at least put some effort into it." Sherlock bemoaned, his own wand held up as well. Luna stood with him, her wand at the ready, but Sherlock had placed himself half a step in front of her in a vaguely protective stance.

Other than a slight tensing of his shoulder muscles, the Gryffindor gave no sign of hearing Sherlock's remark. "The weirdos of Hogwarts; Loony and Sher-freak."

Sherlock scoffed, his eyes rolling. "Sher-freak? Five years and that's the best you can come up with? I'm in awe, Moran, truly I am."

Even from his poor vantage point, John could see the white knuckles that indicated Moran's death grip on his wand. Suddenly, John couldn't help but feel a bit irritated at Sherlock. Could he not antagonize the boy further? It certainly wasn't helping his situation.

"Are you done with the petty insults? Personally, I find them dreadfully dull. So let's cut to the chase, shall we? This isn't Jim's style. A rough beat down in the middle of an empty corridor? Nah, this is too . . . obvious. And you and me both know how much Jim hates being obvious."

"Think you're so clever, don't ya, Freak?" Moran growled.

"Of course I do." Sherlock didn't miss a beat. "Have I struck a nerve? I'm right, aren't I? This isn't Jim at all. This is all you. Trying to redeem yourself from your little screw-up last year, I'd bet. Showing Moriarty that you can be his favorite boot-licking dog. And you decided the best way to do that was to beat up Sherlock Holmes and his little girlfriend."

"You have a girlfriend, Sherlock?" Luna asked pleasantly.

"No, but I assume that's what Moran thinks you are to me."

"Ah, I see. The Wrackspurts have gotten into his head, haven't they?" Luna frowned sympathetically at the Gryffindor.

"I'm afraid so, Luna." Sherlock pouted condescendingly at Moran. "It's only a matter of time before they completely cloud his mind so thoroughly that he won't ever think right again. Not much time at all, really, since he had such little brainpower to begin with."

Apparently, this was all Moran would take from them, because it was at this moment he let out an enraged snarl and screamed, "Stupefy!"

"Protego!" Luna said firmly, the red light from Moran dissipating harmlessly against a blue tinted shield.

Sherlock wasted no time following up the attack. "Anaticula!" He swished his wand, but nothing appeared to happen.

Moran laughed cruelly at Sherlock's lack of success. "Flippendo!" He shouted.

The Knock-Back Jinx. It should have sent Sherlock or Luna flying end over end, no matter what kind of shield they tried to throw up. But instead . . . .

"Quack!"

A yellow ball of fluff and feathers sat in between the two forces. For a moment, neither side made a move.

"Flippendo!" Moran cried again. "Flippendo! Flippendo!"

Duck. Duck. Another duck.

Luna kneeled to the ground and waved her wand, conjuring bread crumbs onto the floor in front of her and cooing softly to the four ducklings. They waddled over to her and bombarded the food. Luna delicately rubbed the downy little heads.

"Sherlock! Can we keep them?" The girl smiled.

Moran seemed to have a different opinion. "You freak! What did you do to my wand?!"

"The Anaticula Jinx. Every spell preformed will simply conjure up a duck. You could toss a Killing Curse my way and the best you could hope for is that one of the ducks would bit me. Oh don't worry." Sherlock waved a hand. "It should wear off in about 24 hours or so. No counter-jinx, most likely because no one thought a prank spell was worth the effort to counter."

The Gryffindor growled and shoved his now useless wand into his robes. "Then I'll rip you freaks apart with my bare hands!" Moran roared, charging down the corridor.

Sherlock lifted his wand once more and opened his mouth to fire out another spell, but –

"Offendimus!" John shouted, a lightning fast stream of clear light wrapping itself around Moran's ankles and sending him falling across the rough cobblestone floor.

Sherlock wasted no time. "Petrificus Totalus!" Moran froze in place, hands halfway through the act of pushing himself up.

John walked over to him, sidestepping the ducklings that had lost interest in Luna, his wand still held loosely in his hand.

"I had him." Sherlock said simply.

"I know. I thought I should stop before you did something that got you in trouble. Not a huge fan of people getting in trouble for self-defense."

"Oh." Sherlock blinked. "Then – that was good."

"Thank you, John." Luna said, a duckling cradled in her arms, pecking at loose threads on her shirt.

"You're welcome." John stared at the duck. It didn't go unnoticed by Sherlock.

"They'll vanish in an hour or so. They're transfigured from molecules in the air, so they don't hold very stable forms." Sherlock brushed away the worry John had had that he would have to go duck hunting for the ones that had already escaped down the stairs behind him.

"I've never heard of that spell before." John said.

"Found it in a book back home. Thought it would come in handy one day."

"Right. Well, you guys should head back to your dorms. I'm going to call Professor McGonagall, and I'd rather you weren't here. I can say he was bullying a couple of younger students I didn't know and that they ran when I dealt with him." John glanced down at the immobile form of Moran, the only part of him moving his brown eyes, filled with hate.

"Good suggestion. Come along, Luna." Sherlock began to stalk down the corridor towards the Ravenclaw Tower.

Luna smiled sincerely at John. "You're a good friend. Sherlock needs that." She said, before following in her fellow Ravenclaw's footsteps.

Friend? John thought. They had only met twice. Who would call them friends? Not Sherlock, certainly, if the rumors were to be believed. But then he thought of a better question.

"Are you ever gonna tell me what this actually was?" John asked down the hall. He would bet his last galleon that this wasn't some random schoolyard petty fight. The mention of an incident last year, some guy called Jim and a Moriarty . . . It all hinted at something more. Something big.

Sherlock turned around, tilting his head curiously at him. The look in his eyes was one John couldn't quite pin, but it made him feel transparent, like Sherlock was looking straight through him and noticing everything about him.

Then he smiled, and it was an enigmatic half-twitch of pale pink lips. "Perhaps." And with that parting remark, he and his companion were gone.

Yes, I know it's short.

Thoughts? Like it? Hate it? Have a situation that you want to see happen? I take prompts and critique.

Have a nice day/night!

Blue Seidr