Author's Note: Wrote this story a few Christmases ago. It's short; there are only 6 chapters and about 4k words total. All romance and festivity and HB being angsty HB.
It had been a terrible mistake.
It was the last day of the winter term; the girls were partying rowdily in the great hall, and many a teacher who should have known better had joined in. An air of festivity prevailed.
Miss Hardbroom had never intended to stand beneath the mistletoe. She had not known it was there, not known there was any such thing on the premises. And she had neither intended nor expected that that infernal PE teacher woman should come skipping up, face flushed and eyes bright, point out what she was stood under and kiss her on the cheek. This action was, regrettably, witnessed by several pupils, some of whom actually had the audacity to cheer.
And it had been concluded by the aforesaid infernal PE teacher murmuring something mostly inaudible about love. About being in love. Some sort of brief, whispered confession. Some hint that, should an appropriate moment present itself, there could be a great many more kisses and these would not confine themselves to the cheek, nor would they be witnessed by a crowd of giggling schoolgirls. They would be a private matter for two, and they would be the start of something.
Of course she had avoided the woman ever since. But now, with that most hideous of all occasions looming ahead - the Inter-Academy Staff Christmas Eve Dinner, attended by teachers from several different academies who seemed to have nowhere better to be on Christmas Eve - and taking place in Cackle's Academy's own great hall, avoidance was very quickly going to become an impossibility.
It had been a terrible mistake, and she was going to make sure it was never replicated.