Teaser TeenPotterlock Student/Professor AU
That's a mouthful! Anyway, un-betaed teaser:
Holmes looks over at him. "You don't recognize it?" he asks, mouth forming a hint of a smirk. "And here I thought you'd be intimately familiar with it, Watson. It's lubrication."
"Oh. Oh." John knows he's blushing, can feel his cheeks turning red. "I don't - I mean, that's not - I wasn't -"
"Don't bother, I know what you get up to at night."
"You..." And he hopes desperately that's an exaggeration, even though he thinks probably not. His hands shake a little as he picks up his bag and he turns to leave, because sometimes it's better to flee. There's a reason he's not a Gryffindor, and it all comes down to knowing which battles have to be fought.
"Wait," Holmes says, and much to John's surprise there's actually a note of contrition in his voice. "I... apologize, Watson. That was rude."
"Yes," John says a little suspiciously. He's never heard Holmes apologize before, not even when he pissed off the Ministry and Hogwarts alike by disappearing for three days to solve a case he claimed the Aurors would never be able to solve. "But I should be going anyway. It's NEWT year, I have loads of homework to be getting on with." But even as he says it, he sets his bag down. He doesn't really want to go. He'd much rather stay. It's not often he gets time alone like this with the professor. He looks at the mess. "I can help, if you like."
"Please," Holmes says after only a beat of silence, and John smiles and takes his wand out.
The clean up of the exploded potion goes much faster with their combined efforts. John wields his wand easily, enjoying the feel of the magic as it bubbles through his veins, and he only becomes aware of the eyes watching him when they're nearly finished. He stills at the weight of that stare and looks up self-consciously. Unlike most people, Holmes does not look away or pretend that he's not watching. He keeps staring, eyes locked on John's face, and he's wearing that vaguely calculating expression he gets when he's trying to figure something out. John swallows hard, not sure he wants to know what the clever man is deducing.
"Um, so is that everything you needed?" he asks, trying to look away. He fails. The thing about Holmes' eyes is, they're so easy to fall into. They change colour constantly, flicking from green to blue to grey and back again, and some of the girls like to say he's got such strange magic that it's spilled over.
