You have always hated Leander. Okay, hated might be too strong a word for the relationship you have, disliked is more like it.

Even though you are in the same house and share the same interest in beating Slytherin at the end of the year for the House Cup, or in Quidditch, you aren't always on the same page.

Your relationship, your friendship, with two well-known Slytherins pisses Leander off hard. Sebastian Sallow and Ominis Gaunt are probably the two you should have been least friends with during your time here at Hogwarts, especially Sebastian, his number one enemy. And Leander makes you feel this every day when you run into each other in the same classes, or corridors, or even in the common room.

Since it's the holidays and Sebastian and Ominis are away at Feldcroft with Sebastian's twin sister Anne, you would have thought that maybe Leander would stop his bickering during this time, but you thought wrong.

"I guess thinking isn't your strong suit," he threw at you this morning when you asked him angrily what his problem was.

"My problem is you, traitor," he hissed back at you, "Not out with your two Slytherin friends today? They're probably sick of you too."

You then nearly hexed him, so hard that he wouldn't have made it out of the hospital wing for the rest of the holiday. The emphasis is on nearly. You have learned to express your anger in words, not in hexes, which are appropriate but not always ideal.

Bitingly, you retorted that Sebastian and Ominis spend their time with Anne, they invited you but you politely declined. After all, you still have to catch up on some class material that you didn't had time for during school hours.

He just mocked you and just turned away from you.

So now you sit with Natty in the common room at one of the tables and try to concentrate. Emphasis again; trying.

Not far from you sits Leander, talking loudly to one of his friends. You are always amazed that he has any at all, whereas, every prick needs other pricks. They are only strong in groups.

"Oh, for the love of Godric, Prewett, if you don't shut your fucking mouth right now, then-"

Leander's head snaps in your direction so fast you briefly hope he'll break his neck. Unfortunately, he opens his mouth and starts talking instead of falling dead on the floor. Too bad.

"Or what?" he asks with raised eyebrows and an arrogant smile on his lips, "Are you going to tell on me to your oh-so-awesome Professor Fig?"

"No!" you hiss angrily, "Or I'll wipe the floor with you!"

"Ooooh," he giggles with his weird friend, whose name you unfortunately don't know, "How scary!"

Before you can rush towards him and follow up your words with action, Natty grabs you by the upper arm and calmly speaks your name, "Let's just go to the library. People like him don't go there, too many intellectuals in one room. The migrating brain cells can't keep up with that."

Leander laughs briefly until his brain has processed the sentence properly and he lets out an offended 'Hey!' just before you and Natty leave the room through the portrait.

You and your Gryffindor friend giggle as you make your way to the library, chatting about this and that and generally things you want to experience during the holidays before school starts again.

"Oh!" you exclaim quietly, after sitting down in a quiet corner. "I completely forgot that I bought something I still wanted to try out." Your friend tilts her head. From your bag, you pull out a small jar.

"What's this?"

"It's called lip gloss and it's the latest trend in London." Carefully you pull the lid off the jar and the smell of raspberry comes towards you.

"Wow," says Natty, "that smells good!"

"Yes, isn't it? Supposedly it softens the lips and tastes like raspberries, as the smell suggests."

As recommended by the nice shopkeeper, you spread a thin layer of the sticky liquid, cream, on your lips. You rub your lips together a few times and then lick your lower lip lightly. "Wow!" you say in amazement, "It really tastes like raspberry!"

Natty grins at you in delight as she watches you like this, but just as quickly screws up her face again. Confused, you tilt your head, furrow your brow and are about to ask what's wrong with her when you hear the unmistakable voice of your walking nightmare behind you, "Who do we have here? Fancy to see you." He steps behind your chair and leans in, whispering in your ear. You roll your eyes in annoyance but decide to ignore him. He reaches over your shoulder and grabs your lip gloss in no time. With a jerk, you turn around in your chair as far as you can and snap at him, "Give that back!"

You jump up and try to take the lip gloss away from him again, but he holds the jar above his head, out of your reach.

Growling, you jump up and try to grab it out of the air, but fail miserably. You don't even notice how you've grabbed onto Leander's shoulders for more momentum until he wraps his free arm around your waist and grins mischievously at you.

"You might as well have said you wanted to be near me, it would have saved you a lot of trouble!"

"And what do you dream about at night?" you spit back.

"About you, sweetie."

You squint your eyes. Good. Two can play this game and you've been on the short end of the stick long enough.

A broad grin spreads across your face, which seems to momentarily unnerve Leander.

"So?" you ask in a sweet voice, "You dream about me? Do you want me to guess what you're dreaming about, or will you tell me?"

"I- eh," the Gryffindor boy stammers.

Seeing him so embarrassed gives you more courage than you already have and without further ado you lean up and press your lips to his. Leander is so surprised by your sudden action that he drops your lip gloss and the jar falls to the floor with a loud clatter.

But you're not interested in that fact at that moment, but in the way, Leander draws in air sharply through his nose and his heartbeat accelerates under your fingertips.

His lips are rough under yours and yet it feels good the way Leander slowly follows your movements. It's awkward and uncoordinated, yet firm and gentle and after a short while he gets the hang of it.

He leans forward so that you no longer have to stand on your tiptoes and returns your kiss fierily and with passion.

After a short while you break away from him, his dreamy eyes darting over your face and the wide grin that has manifested itself on it.

You pat him against the shoulder, disengage from him and sit back down. "If you don't mind, I'd like to continue studying, and if you have nothing else to say, I'd prefer that you leave now."

Without making a sound, Leander turns away and trots off.

Only when he is out of earshot and sight does Natty begin to speak, "Damn, that's the first time I've seen him so speechless! You should have seen his face. He looked like a fish!"

You both laugh at Leander's reaction for the rest of the day.

-

In the evening you receive an owl with your name on it from none other than Leander himself.

You'll get the stunt from today in the library back.

Hogsmeade, tomorrow night after dinner. Be on time.

And bring the lip gloss.

L. P.

How mean he is!

Maybe you're just a masochist.