Peppermint

mist

I'm livin' for the thrill, formula

"OH NO!"

I practically jumped out of bed, holding the sheets to my chest. "Draco!"

"Pepper," he groaned groggily, rolling away from. "What is it? Don't yell—I'm still tired."

"It's ten til seven!"

"Okay?"

"It's Monday."

He jumped up with wide eyes. "It's ten til eight on Monday. We have class in ten minutes!"

"That's what I've been trying to tell you," I hissed, groping around the sheets for my underwear. "We have to go now."

"I'll check if everyone's gone," he said, dressing in a matter of seconds. "Wait here."

Panicking, I dressed as quickly as possible and waited for the all clear. After what seemed like an eternity, Draco returned with a look of severe annoyance on his face.

"Fucking Crabbe wouldn't leave," he groaned, pulling open the curtains as he tried to fix his hair. "Sorry about that, darling."

"Do you have a hairbrush?" I asked as I pecked his cheek. "And a toothbrush?"

"Check the bathroom," he said, handing me my tie. "And while you're at it... you might wanna... you know..." He tapped various spots on my neck with a cheeky smile.

"Right," I said with a sigh. "You too."

It took a record time of five minutes for us to get ready and leave his room. We parted ways halfway there to avoid suspicion, and I barely caught Harry, Ron, and Hermione as they left the Great Hall.

"Where were you?" Ron asked as I pulled my tie out of my pocket. "I haven't seen you since yesterday's match."

"Oh, I was—er—busy," I lied.

Harry snickered. "I can tell. Planning on changing houses, Pepper?"

I frowned. "Excuse me?"

Hermione let out a little cough while Harry and Ron laughed. "Your—um—tie, Pepper. You're wearing the wrong tie."

I cringed as I looked down and found myself wearing a green and silver tie. "Oh, fuck."

"I'll fix it," Hermione said as she pulled out her wand and muttered an incantation to turn it to red. "Fun night, huh?"

"Shut up."

"Well, while you were busy shagging Malfoy," Ron said as we continued walking, "you missed one hell of a party."

"Did I?" I remarked, hoping that Draco noticed the color of his tie before we were greatly embarrassed. "Explain."

"It wasn't that exciting," Hermione said with a roll of her eyes. "All he did was rehash the entire match that night."

"Well, he did pretty well," I said with a grin.

Ron beamed. "Thank you. After letting one of Davies's goals in, I wasn't feeling that confident, but I dunno, when that other dude came toward me, just out of nowhere, I thought—you can do this! And I had about a second to decide which way to fly, you know, because he looked like he was aiming for the right goal hoop—my right, obviously, his left—but I had a funny feeling that he was feinting, and so I took the chance and flew left—his right, I mean—and—well—you saw what happened. And then, when Chambers came at me about five minutes later, I blocked it, and then we won!" He sighed. "Did you see the look on Chang's face when Ginny got the Snitch right out from under her nose?"