It was nearly 2 in the morning on a Monday. Slytherin House was quiet - the prefects were done patrolling (hopefully), the common room had cleared out, and the students were asleep in their beds. Or, at least, most of them were. Jonah was, unfortunately, wide awake, though lying still and silent in his bed one might have guessed otherwise.

Being up late was not at all unusual for him, especially not this close to exams - 1:40 in the morning barely even qualified as late anymore. But tonight Jonah wasn't up studying, or stressing, or doing any of the other things might normally be doing at 1:40 in the morning. He just couldn't sleep. And he was bored of staring at the ceiling of his dormitory and listening to the other boys snore.

He sat up, looking at his housemates from his bed. Who would be entertaining at this hour? Hmm, not him... Maybe... Ooh. Yes. His eyes fell on the sleeping form of Alistair Spectre and a smile worked its way slowly across his face. Surely Allie wouldn't mind being woken up, right? Or at least, he wouldn't be grumpy for long, given the right incentive.

Jonah swung his feet onto the floor, treading lightly to avoid waking the rest of the room. Shaking his friend's shoulder, he hissed, "Spectre, wake up. We're going exploring."

Alistair let out a low groan, protesting softly to being shaken awake. He blinked, eyes adjusting to, well.... Being awake. His gaze slowly focused on Jonah, who was weirdly wide awake at two in the morning. Had he stayed up working on final projects and studying for the OWLS?

Wait.

Exploring.

Did he say exploring?

Half of him wanted to roll over and tell Jonah to fuck off and explore by himself. The other half of him knew that he wouldn't be able to get back to sleep. Besides, exploring could be fun. It was early in the morning, who was actually going to be awake? It wasn't likely that they would get caught.

"Nnnnnrgh." Alistair moaned, sitting up. It took him a moment for his sleepy brain to process the pros and cons. And he couldn't find any cons. In fact, if he didn't go with Jonah, there was a good chance that Alistair would wake up in the morning with penises drawn on his face. After all, it's what he would have done to Jonah if the roles were switched.[1] "Fine. But I'm taking a blanket." If he was going to wander the halls at two in the morning, he was going to do it in comfort.

1.	I don't know if Jonah would actually do it, but Alistair just assumes everybody has the urge to draw dicks on the faces of the unconscious

Jonah watched as his friend's face transitioned from sleep to wakefulness. He waited patiently as Alistair seemed to figure out what was going on, guessing he'd get his answer soon enough. When the other boy neither cursed at him nor cursed him, Jonah took it as an unspoken "yes," grinning when Alistair sat up. By that point the battle was won - if he really planned on saying no he wouldn't have un-cocooned himself so quickly.

"Fine. But I'm taking a blanket."

"Take whatever you want, so long as it's quiet," Jonah muttered, returning to his bed for a moment to retrieve his slippers. "It's only almost two in the morning, you can't be too careful," he joked. Who in their right mind would be awake at this hour, the Monday after a Hogsmeade weekend? Aside from himself, that is. He picked up his wand and crossed to the door, waiting for his classmate to catch up. He listened as closely as he could for any sound coming from the common room, but heard nothing.

"It sounds like nobody's out there - are you ready?"

Alistair scooted out of bed about as gracefully as a drunk baby unicorn. Wrapped around his shoulders was his fluffiest sherpa throw. He felt like the essence of Virgil Carstairs, minus the condescension. He felt around for his wand. Alistair wasn't wearing pajamas, just a tee and his boxer briefs. He tucked the wand in the waistband of his pants and narrowed his eyes at Jonah.

"I'm not putting on trousers, and I don't have pockets." Or the patience to deal with judgement. He was too sleepy to be patient. The Slytherin put on a pair of slippers that were probably not his, and followed Jonah to the door.

Was he ready?

He gave Jonah a long-suffering stare. "It hardly matters if I'm ready, we're going to go either way." Alistair tightened his grip on the blanket and opened the door with his free hand. He shuffled down the stairs from his dorm, the blanket trailing behind him. He stopped and looked over his shoulder at Jonah. "Where the fuck're we goin'?"

Jonah rocked back and forth on the balls of his feet, waiting on his housemate. He raised an eyebrow silently when Alistair stuck his wand in his boxers, but said nothing. Actually, scratch that.

"I wasn't going to comment, but since you brought it up... Is that a wand in your pants, or are you just happy to see me?" he joked, winking for good measure. He might've been more discreet if it weren't almost 2 in the morning, or if he were talking to anyone else, but after sharing a dorm for five years, Jonah felt no need to censor himself around Alistair.

"It hardly matters if I'm ready, we're going to go either way... Where the fuck're we goin'?"

"Damn right, we are." The smile on Jonah's face was the one reserved for his particularly malicious or mischievous moments, an almost wicked curve of the lips. "There's a door pretending to be a wall about halfway between here and Hufflepuff. I found it by accident about a week ago. I didn't get to see what was behind it, though." He figured it was safer to stay in the dungeons, just in case any prefects were still about - or, god forbid, Peeves.

A door pretending to be a wall?

The idea helped stir half of his brain to wakefulness, and a slow smile spread across the Slytherin's face. As they made their way across the common room, he did his best to be quiet. Some cats were climbing the tapestries like absolute madmen, but that wasn't unusual for a school that had a feline infestation.

"Well then, it looks like you know where we have to go." Alistair pushed the exit, and the stone wall moved aside for them.

Now, if the staff really wanted to make sure students weren't out after curfew, they would have adjusted the entrances to the common rooms accordingly.

It was then that Alistair finally thought of a comeback. "About my wand." He gave Jonah a sideways glance, "You'll have to touch it to find out." He did his best to keep a straight face, he really did. But like many teenage boys, he thought that dick jokes were the epitome of comedy.

Jonah noted the smile spreading over Alistair's face with some satisfaction. Placing his feet on the floor as lightly as he could, he resisted the urge to stop and pet the cats. Later, he told himself, later. Focus.

"It looks like you know where we have to go."

Jonah nodded, running over the directions in his mind. He had made sure to note his turns on the way back last time, so he'd be able to find it again - a door disguised as a wall was a remarkably tricky thing to find otherwise. Slipping out of the common room and into the hall, he pointed in the direction they needed to go first.

"This way," he muttered, then added a quiet "lumos" to light the way.

He smirked at Alistair's response, muffling a snicker. "Is that an offer, Spectre? I didn't know you swung that way."

They were well on their way, and Alistair was now wishing that they had an invisibility cloak. He knew there were probably spells out there that would help camouflage them, but he couldn't think of them off the top of his head. It wasn't like he was a candidate to become a prefect next year, so being caught after curfew wouldn't be a big deal. What were they going to do? Expel him? No. Other students had gotten away with way worse offenses. This wasn't hurting anybody.

Or at least, Alistair didn't think it would hurt anybody.

He gave Jonah a side eye. Ah, so it was time for a game of gay chicken. A game that Alistair usually lost.

"Did you want it to be an offer?" He wasn't so sure about this joke now, but dammit he was going to keep going with it. "And, I don't know. Apparently everyone in my family is gay. Maybe I'm gay too. It's a mystery."