Orion woke up, suddenly, probably because of some noise. "Ahhhh, my head", he moaned and tried to open his eyes.

It didn't work right away. His head was hammering with pain. He didn't see anything at first, mercifully the room was still dim. Orion had no clue where he was and with a headache surely made in hell it took some time to start thinking. His memory was all blurred. Suddenly, he registered that someone was watching him at the doorpost of this tiny bedroom. He turned his head, slowly, painfully and saw… Linda Emerson? How on earth had that happened?

Linda was grinning. "Why, good morning Mr Yaxley", she said, in a loud and cheerful voice that his head started pulsating even more.

What the… Despite his headache, he tried desperately to remember how he had ended up here, but he couldn't. He was shocked. Linda was wearing very short pyjamas; blue shorts and a white top to be precise. It was decent but still not what he would have put on in front of someone he didn't know very well… like worst enemies?

This couldn't be true. Some part in his brain decided this had to be a nightmare. He closed his eyes. The headache lessened a bit. He took a deep breath and reluctantly opened his eyes again. It was still the same room, though he now couldn't recognize the small wardrobe between the two windows. And Linda was still there, too.

"What, no "good morning"? Something wrong?", she said, still loudly and with a devilish grin on her face.

"hm?" he moaned. "How...?" His head was too heavy to say more than that.

Would this nightmare never end? She strut to the bed, matter-of-factly, asking: "Awww, you don't remember?"

He was confused. Is she telling me…?, he thought, rather quickly, considering his pain. He tried to answer but wasn't able to speak much. "I... no. Remember... what?! No... we didn't? Did we?"

"Oh yes, we did. Lots of it", she told him, smiling broadly while she opened the curtains.

Blinding sunlight came floating into the room. Orion pinched his eyes in pain and held his hand in front of his face. "Close those curtains! Ah, my head!" he cried, sounding weenies again.

Linda laughed. "Oh, you poor thing", she said and closed the curtains again.

Then, she jumped on the rather small bed (big for one person but all too small for two, in Orion's opinion), looked at him compassionately and asked: "Shall I kiss it better?"

"What?!" he exclaimed, despite his headache he was suddenly alert.

He tried to move away from her and nearly fell off the bed. He cold only just clutch to the bedpost and laid himself back where he had been. "Have you lost your senses or what?" he sneered", still holding his aching head.

"Okay, come on. You need to get up. I have Slughorn's Anti-Hangover Potion ready. It's brewing on the stove", Linda said cheerfully and took his hand to help him get up.

He looked at her sceptically. "Can't you bring it here?" he asked, because he didn't think he would be able to walk with a headache like this.

Linda stopped pulling. "Breakfast in bed? Lovely!" she laughed and practically bounced out of the room.

Orion watched her leaving and closed his eyes again. If he could only remember… after a short while, Linda came back, holding a tray with a steaming teacup. It had a flowery pattern and looked old-fashioned and silly, in Orion's eyes. He glanced at the cup, confused.

"What's that?" he asked her, sceptically.

She raised an eyebrow. "An Anti-Hangover Potion. Cures all side effects instantly. Well, most of them. Drink up", she told him and held out the cup.

He didn't take it. "You're not going to poison me, are you?" he asked, still looking very sceptical.

What was he doing in the bedroom of his former worst enemy? One of them at any rate.

"After everything that happened last night? Not likely", she hinted, seemingly full of glee.

She took a small sip out of the cup to demonstrate him it was alright. "There. See?"

He sighed and drank up the potion. Immediately, he felt the effects. His headache lessened and after a few minutes he felt fit and healthy. But his memory was still more than blurred. It was blank. He glanced at Linda, embarrassed, not daring to tell her directly he had a black-out.

"Everything that happened last night? er..." he began and saw Lindas mood trop.

She seemed crestfallen. "You really don't remember, do you?" She said, sighing perhaps a little too heavy.

"Er... no?" he replied and lowered his head.

Whose pyjamas was he wearing? And the T-Shirt? There was a writing on it ,I love women - are you next?' How did he end up wearing those things?! He blushed. Could it get any more embarrassing? And all the while, Linda was observing him, grinning.

"Sorry. I had to give you another one since yours was... well... ripped to shreds", she explained.

He turned around, gazing at her in shock. 'Ripped to shreds?' he thought, ‚does she mean… no, she can't mean..?'

He thankfully couldn't go through with the thought, because Linda was leaning towards him, saying: "As for last night... It's really sad you don't remember. We had lots of fun."

She smiled at him seductively and got up. He almost gulped audibly.

"By the way, breakfast is ready", she said, leaving the small bedroom.

He desperately tried to remember, something, anything, about last night. But he couldn't. It was all a big black hole. All he was sure of was that he had entered that pub, met Linda and started playing this drinking game. She had asked him about cheating in potions, but that was as far as his memory went. The rest was blurred and later blank. He got up reluctantly, deciding to face whatever that horrible day had in store for him.

Linda was already standing in the kitchen – can you call this small room a kitchen even? – still smiling broadly. "Coffee or tea?"

He automatically replied "tea, please" and added in a slightly desperate voice: "Can't you just tell me how I ended up here, please?"

"Wellllll..." she began, while she was pouring him some tea.

""We met at the pub, we got drunk, I took you home since you were absolutely sloshed, we pratically fell onto the bed..." she explained, in an unnervingly calm, dry voice. She came towards him, handed him the cup of tea and whispered: "The rest is history."

Orion gladly accepted the cup. "It can't be... why would we do that?" he said, taking a sip and slowly shaking his head.

He couldn't believe; he didn't want to believe, that he had actually…

"Because we were both lonely, miserable and in desperate need of some fun", answered Linda, as if there was nothing regrettable about this.

This wasn't how Orion saw it. However lonely he had been, it was hard to imagine that he would have done something like… this.

He shook his head again and tried hard to at least getting a clue about last night. At first he barely realized that Linda had pushed him to the table and into a chair. "Sit down. Eat something", she said placidly, patting his arm.

Orion stared at her, speechless at first. "It's all your fault", he finally said bluntly.

"What, exaclty, is my fault, Orion?" Linda smirked at him.

"You proposed that stupid drinking game, for one thing", he stated and began to put sausages, beans, eggs, bacon and a lot of toast onto his plate and ate without asking her first. He had realized he was starving all of a sudden – and as long as he was eating he could distract himself from thinking too much about what had happened.

But Linda wasn't through with him. "And you participated. Eagerly, if I may say so. I didn't force you to drink a single cider, it was all your decision", she went on with the conversation.

He shook his head and between two bites he said: "But that didn't bring me into your... how do you call it, here?"

"It's a cottage, dear. My cottage. It's home, and last night you particularly liked the bedroom", she replied, smirking, like it was all extremely funny. He didn't see it that way.

"I don't even remember leaving that Pub! And I certainly don't like you. Why should I... come here?" Orion went on, still eating.

For a moment, Linda lost it. "You were DRUNK. Sloshed. Pissed. Absolutely, gloriously drunk, Orion. I couldn't let you apparate in that condition, and all bed and breakfasts are closed off-season", she explained. "I half-carried you here and ... well. Here we are. And just for the record: I despise you and everything you stand for", she paused, looking at him and smirked again broadly.

"Still, the sex was pretty good."

Orion had stopped eating. He stared at Linda. "I certainly didn't consent to that!"

She leaned back in her chair, folded her arms in front of her chest and said, slowly, still smirking slightly: "Could have fooled me."

Then, she suddenly got up, excused herself and practically sprinted to the bathroom. Orion watched her leaving, rather confused for a moment before he went on with the breakfast. When she came back, he glared at her.

"You tricked me!" he said.

She whipped something out of her eyes. "Into what, exactly?"

"Into your bed", he said, because he was too embarrassed to say 'having sex with you.'

"Oh believe me, you found that all by yourself!" she smirked again and continued.

"Besides, do you really think I would go through all the trouble of getting you drunk and dragging you here just to sleep with you? Please." She shook her head, but rather amused than angry.

"Apparently you did", was all he could muster.

It was clearly her fault, there was no other possibility.

"I didn't plan this, if that's what you mean. It just happened. And it's not like you didn't enjoy it..." she shrugged.

"You didn't plan it, perhaps, but you let it happen! I don't remember anything!" he cried, a bit louder than he had intended perhaps, but still.

He had lost control, so it would have been her responsibility to prevent it – that's how he saw it now.

"That's because you were pretty drunk. And yes, I let it happen. Because it was two o'clock in the morning and I wasn't in the mood to hex you just because you wanted to cuddle", she explained him and he again stared at her, getting angry.

"Are you telling me it's all my fault?"

"No, I'm trying to tell you that this is as much your fault as it is mine. And to be honest, it wasn't the worst night I ever had. So I'm not mad at you", she said, sounding honest, but he didn't want to hear it.

"Am I supposed to be grateful for that or what?" he snapped.

It was ridiculous. Was she telling him that having had sex while they were completely drunk was something that one could just overlook and go on?

"You could at least stop calling it a mistake and trying to blame me for it. Relax, Yaxley. No harm done. Except for your shirt", she continued after she had read his face.

He shook his had, again snapping angrily: "No harm done?! I'm a married man! It's not like I could simply go out, getting drunk and sleep with my enemies and pretend nothing has happened!"

"Excuse me? Last time I checked, Bryony showed you the door! At least that's what you told me after the fifth cider. Granted, it could all have been part of your elaborate and cunning plan to get me into bed..." she snapped back.

Orion didn't believe his ears. "If it had been such an elaborate plan, don't you think it would have been more cunning to actually remember what I did?" he sneered, paused, and as an afterthought: "and she hasn't shown me the door"

"Oh, she hasn't? Well then you're in deep trouble, mister. Actually, we both are, once my boyfrind finds out. And he will", Linda said, threateningly.

Orion was confused. "Your boyfriend? You've got a boyfriend?"

He would have thought she was single, it all looked like it and hadn't she told him she felt lonely, that's why they had ended up in bed together?

She shook her head. "Oh boy, you really don't remember", she paused, before asking: "Whose t-shirt do you think you're wearing?"

He was still confused. "Yours?" he suggested.

"It's a little too big for me", she pointed out.

Orion again stared at her. Of course it would be rather unusual for Linda to have a T-Shirt saying 'I love women, are you next?' But… in an act of desperation, he asked her: "Please - tell me this is all just a nightmare."

Linda smiled devilishly. "I'm afraid not. You are really here. See?"

She pinched his arm.

"That hurt!" Orion screamed, took a deep breath and started again.

"o.k. what have I told you last night?" he asked, expecting the worst.

Linda smirked. "That I am the most beautiful and passionate woman you have ev", she began, "oh you mean at the pub? Nothing in particular, just the last ten years, condensed version."

"Can't you be a bit more specific? This is a catastrophe", he sighed.

It felt as if he would never get out of this situation.

"How much more specific than 'we got drunk, we had sex, here we are' can I get? And when said boyfriend finds out, well... you're toast."

Was she threatening him? This boyfriend of hers started to sound like someone he had no interest in meeting whatsoever. Orion shifted uneasily in his chair.

"He won't find out, will he? My wife... she's... what have I told you last night... more specifically than... what?" he stammered.

For a moment it seemed like he wanted to leave immediately. But he had to know. Linda lowered her voice threateningly. "He will find out. He... has his ways. And then it's "avada kedavra" Orion Yaxley. Unless, of course..." she said with a meaningful glance.

Inside, Orion was panicking. He tried to keep a poker face, but failed miserably.

"Unless what?" he asked.

Linda got up. Orion watched her, but was too surprised when she sat down on his lap and put her arms around his neck. He realized he was sitting upright and more and more tense.

"Unless you loosen up and stop acting so goddamn serious all the time", she said, looking him straight into the eyes and grinning maliciously.

He became even tenser. "Could you stop doing that?" he said, obviously embarrassed, but unable to simply push her off his lap.

She positively beamed at him. "Oh, but it's so much fun", she said, laughing with glee before she continued: "Setting you up like this. Because... I have not been entirely honest about last night."

She smirked. He couldn't help but stare at her.

"Would you mind telling me the truth, then? Or... don't I want to know?" he finally asked contritely, fearing the worst.

"I feel terrible about this", she said, making a compunctious face. "No wait", she paused. "I don't. It was fun while it lasted, but I'm going to let you off the hook now. I just need to check something FIRST", Linda stated and smirked at Orion in a way that made him feel confused and uncomfortable at the same time.

She tightened her hug and unexpectedly kissed him.

He was too surprised to react in any way.