Peppermint

fog

And our love is a ghost that the others can't see, it's a danger 

The walk to breakfast was not a pleasant one. Nearly everybody who I crossed paths with asked me about Draco, demanding to know if what they were hearing was true. I said nothing to them, trying my best to answer George's questions about a possible new prank product.

At that moment in time, I wanted nothing more than my parents. I knew that my mother, of all people, would know exactly what to say to me. But obviously, she wasn't an option. But neither was my father, considering that he was too far away to talk to.

The next people my mind went to was Sirius or Remus. Over the past two years, they had grown to be parental figures of a sort, especially Remus. I sighed, wishing that there was some way to talk to them. Sirius was out of the question due to his solitary confinement, but Remus was a possibility. I resolved to look into it later.

When we arrived at the Great Hall, Harry, Hermione, and Ron all looked up when I sat a few people down from them. Neither of them said or did anything, choosing to stare at their cereal instead. There were whispers around the table as I tried to eat my breakfast, half of them about my relationship with Draco and the other half about my friendship with Harry, Hermione, and Ron.

"You know, I'd really prefer it if you didn't talk about me while I'm literally right here," I said loudly.

The whispering mostly stopped after that. I tried to drown out the dull gossip of others as I enjoyed my bland breakfast, trying to let my mind think about anything else.

"Let's plan a prank today," George said. "What do you think about—?"

I never got to hear the rest of George's question, because at that very moment, Draco walked into the Great Hall.

In a matter of seconds, everybody stopped talking. I felt people's gazes travel from him to me, like they were trying to detect the truth with their eyesight.

"What are you staring at?" Draco said coolly.

"Is it true you're actually dating that Mudblood?" Daphne Greengrass yelled from the Slytherin table. "Or is that just a rumor?"

All eyes were on Draco. Even the staff table was invested in this spectacle, every teacher staring at the commotion like it was the series finale of a soap opera.

I thanked the heavens that Umbridge was not there.

Draco cleared his throat.

"Well?" Daphne demanded.

Draco said nothing as he walked over to where I was sitting and kissed me full on the lips, well aware that everybody was watching.

There was a collection of gasps as he kissed me. I froze for a moment. This was mental—absolutely mental. I was kissing Draco Malfoy in the Great Hall in front of the entire school, for crying out loud. He, a Slytherin pureblood from a supremacist family associated heavily with Voldemort, was snogging me, a Gryffindor Muggle-born and one-fourth of the Golden Quartet.

It was anything but sane.

But he was no longer that person. He was the boy who loved me and cared for me and didn't care what anybody else said or thought as long as I was okay. And even though it hurt that my friends were mad, I was okay.

So I kissed him back.

I kissed him like it was the last time I was ever going to kiss him. I kissed him like it was the only thing that mattered. I kissed him because I truly, madly, and deeply loved him.