Day 6 Prompt:

mistletoe / "Is there a reason you look like you've been attacked by rabid tinsel?" / "Id really rather just drink hot chocolate and pretend you don't even exist."

word count: 585

Walburga Black had an idea. She wanted to impress Tom Riddle and she figured if she spent time hand decorating the Christmas tree in the Slytherin common room, he would have to pass by eventually. She would wear her most appealing robes—the set that she'd taken in the sides so they clung to her curves a little more than most—and bend over in front of him. Surely that would get him to notice her pleasing silhouette and ample bosom. She would also set up some mistletoe near his usual chair just so she could rescue him with a kiss. It was the perfect plan.

She did not anticipate Frederick Nott jinxing the tinsel.

She spent an inordinate amount of time with each ornament. Pausing to check the door before bending to get a glittering, glass ball and checking again before placing it on the tree. Nott had seen her and perched himself on the arm of Tom's usual chair, almost under the mistletoe. If he moved just a bit he'd be stuck. Walburga refused to kiss that creep. He watched her as she put up most of the ornaments and she started on the tinsel.

Unfortunately, that's when she found out about the previously mentioned jinx.

It attacked her. It nipped at her fingertips, gnawed on her wrists, ruffled her hair. She was about done with the jinxed tinsel—and ready to hex Nott's unmentionables if he wouldn't stop laughing—when Tom and Lucretia came into the common room together.

They weren't together together, of course—Walburga was sure that Lucretia was rather oblivious to that sort of thing—but they did walk through the door at about the same time.

Lucretia noticed her first and raised her eyebrows as she passed, heading towards the drinks cart where the house elves stocked always-hot hot chocolate. "Is there a reason you look like you've been attacked by rabid tinsel?" she asked.

Walburga frowned and tried to straighten a lock of hair that had fallen into her face.

"Are you coming to the meeting tonight, Fred?" Tom asked as he stood in front of his usual chair.

"Yeah, sure," Nott said. He leaned forward to stand and that's when the mistletoe caught him and he lost the ability to move. "Wha—? Hmm. You lose something over here, Wally?" he asked, smirking in her direction.

Walburga chose to ignore him and turned, bending at the waist to pick up an ornament she accidentally dropped. She hoped Tom was looking.

Nott continued, calling out to the only other girl in the room at the moment: Lucretia. "Lu, come over here and kiss me."

"I'd really rather just drink my hot chocolate and pretend you don't even exist," she said primly, cradling her mug in her hands and crossing her legs where she sat on a settee across the room.

He whined, "Come on, Lu."

She didn't answer him, just looked in the other direction.

"Maybe Walburga would offer you a kiss to free you," Tom murmured, he turned and headed back towards the door. "I'll see you at Slughorn's office in ten," he called back before he slipped out.

Walburga and Nott both watched him leave. Her shoulders sagged and she had a feeling she pouted as she realised he hadn't even looked her way. She turned and headed to her dorm to fix her hair. If she stomped on the way, no one called her out on it.

Nott did call after her, though, "Hey, Wally! Don't leave me here!"