Author's Note: This story is happily dedicated to SylvaDragon, who gave me inspiration to write it! It's a sort of sequel to The Missing Lemon Drops (Ch.5 of Snapshots), but it's not necessary to have read that first. As always, I do not own Harry Potter.
Albus Dumbledore stormed into the staff room, looking for a certain dark-haired Scottish witch. He was not disappointed; she was sitting in a chair by the window, chatting with Pomona Sprout. Minerva looked up when she heard the door fly open. The other staff members that were there shrunk back slightly and looked terrified. The Headmaster hardly ever lost his temper, and when he did, he was very intimidating. The only person who wasn't scared was Minerva, and that was because she was even more intimidating when she was angry.
"What's wrong, Albus?" she asked.
"You know what's wrong! I had a full bag of lemon drops this morning, and now the bag is half empty!" He gave her an accusatory look, and she knew exactly what he was thinking.
"So you automatically assume that I ate them!" she said in an irritated voice.
"Well, did you?" he asked.
"Okay, yes I did. But that's beside the point. Every time a lemon drop goes missing, you blame me!"
"That's because you're usually the one to blame! What's your excuse this time?" Albus glared at her.
"I ran out of lemon drops and haven't had time to go to Honeyduke's to get more. I will go this weekend, and I will replace the ones I ate," she said angrily.
The argument continued for five minutes. Albus was still upset that she ate his lemon drops without permission, and Minerva was upset that Albus was making such a big deal out of this. Neither one of them was willing to back down.
"Admit it, Albus. You're addicted to lemon drops. You couldn't last two days without eating one!"
Albus gave a short, harsh laugh. "I could last longer than you!"
Minerva raised her eyebrows. "Do you want to make a bet? I bet that I can go without a lemon drop longer than you can."
"You've got a bet," he said. He dropped the half empty bag of lemon drops into the trash, and walked out of the staff room without another word.
Everyone in the staff room had been watching them argue with interest. Half of the staff was shocked and somewhat frightened; there had been a lot of shouting. The other half, including Pomona Sprout, looked like they were about to burst into laughter; it was ridiculous to fight about lemon drops.
"If anybody dares breathe a word about this argument to anybody," she said in a dangerous tone, "they will find themselves in the hospital wing with no recollection of what happened." They all knew that Minerva was serious, and nobody was tempted to talk about what they heard, not even Pomona. Minerva went to her office to be alone and calm down.
For the next day and a half, Minerva and Albus did not speak to each other. Each was irritated with the other, and they were both more addicted to lemon drops than they thought. This left them very cranky; indeed, they hardly spoke to the rest of the staff. The tension at the staff table during mealtimes was so thick that you could cut it with a knife.
After dinner on the second day of the bet, Minerva was in her office. She had been attempting to grade the same paper for the past half an hour, but she couldn't concentrate. She and Albus had not spoken since the fight in the staff room, and she missed him terribly. Finally, she couldn't take it anymore. She was going to swallow her pride and forfeit the bet, because the bet wasn't worth the strain it was putting on her relationship with Albus. Minerva opened her office door and came face-to-face with Albus, who was just about to knock on the door.
"Albus, I was just about to" but she was interrupted when Albus pulled her in for a kiss. His lips were hungry and forceful against hers, and Minerva kissed him back with equal hunger. After a while, they broke apart, both out of breath.
"Minerva, I couldn't do it. I need lemon drops, but I need you more. I hate what this stupid bet has done to us. You win, my dear. I will do anything you want. I promise that I will not get angry with you over lemon drops again. Please forgive me."
Minerva smiled. "I was going to come tell you the same thing. I missed the lemon drops, but I missed you more. I'm sorry for my part in this."
Albus leaned down and kissed her again. This kiss was slow and sweet; Minerva had missed this so much. When they broke apart again, Minerva started to laugh.
"What's so funny, my dear?" Albus asked with a smile spreading across his face.
"I was just thinking how weak we are. We couldn't last two full days without each other."
Albus laughed too. "I guess we are weak."
"Come on, let's go to bed," Minerva said as she took Albus' hand and started leading him toward her room.
"But it's only 8," Albus said.
"We're not going to sleep," she replied with a smile. "You said you would do anything I want. Well, I can think of a few things I want you to do."
Albus eagerly followed her to the bedroom. All thoughts of lemon drops were forgotten.