Um...so, it's been a while. Sorry about that. I can't promise this chapter will be worth waiting nearly 4 months for, but it's what I've got. I hope you're all still reading after my hiatus! I can't promise I'll be regular with my updates but I'm going to try!

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Despite the two week holiday from classes, most of the students at Hogwarts weren't feeling very well-rested. Apparently, two weeks just wasn't enough for them. With their feet shuffling, the students made it back into the classrooms with fresh grumbles and complaints, and even the professors didn't seem as if they were ready to jump into the swing of things. During breakfast, Sakura had noticed that the yawns and frowns on the professor's faces matched the ones her peers were making.

Well, except for one professor.

She had spent the entire meal that morning trying not to look at him though. Not because she didn't want to. She was actually dying to see his face, dying to see if he was hiding a smirk behind his mask that only she would know the reason for. But it was best not to seem suspicious in front of her two best friends sitting across from her, eating their sausages and muffins. Sakura didn't want to draw attention to the way she couldn't stop glancing at the head table.

Thankfully, she was able to eat her breakfast without her friends suspecting a thing and at the stairwell, Ino broke off from the two of them. Tenten led the way into the dungeons and Sakura took in a deep breath of the early morning pungent fumes that never seemed to fade from the Potions classroom.

Shizune was brief in her welcome back introduction and set the assignment for the day. The class of advanced seventh years was to concoct a potion they had learned in the first half of the year without any help from their professor. Tenten and Sakura picked a Wit-Sharpening Potions. It may have been one of the easier on the list they were allowed to choose from, but while the Ravenclaw in her was a bit disappointed at the lack of challenge, Sakura was thankful for it.

Her head was in no place to try to concentrate on much of anything academic at the moment. Not when she was so caught up in other things. Other delicious and exciting things that made it hard for her to concentrate long enough to brush her hair let alone concoct a properly difficult potion.

The class broke off into pairs, gathered their ingredients and silence filled the space as everyone set out to work. Shizune did her usual; passing around the tables, watching and judging their skills with a passive expression. It used to make Sakura nervous to see the woman looking down into the cauldron, watching her mix the ingredients but she didn't think she had room in her head to feel nervous at the moment.

There were too many other things she'd rather focus on at the moment.

And properly adding her Armadillo Bile to the potion wasn't one of them. Still, she tipped the jar until the bile fell into the cauldron and stirred until the lime green liquid slowly faded to blue. When she stood back up, she caught sight of the small smile on her partner's face and blinked in surprise.

"What?" She asked, hoping she hadn't dropped any of the bile on her sweater.

With a shrug, Tenten reached for the next ingredient-Ground Scarab Beetles-and Sakura could tell that she was thinking something mischievous. "Nothing...you're just smiling an awful lot for someone handling Armadillo Bile."

In a flash, Sakura's face paled. She hadn't even realized she was smiling. She wasn't even thinking about anything in particular to make herself smile either. Or had she been? He was always on her mind lately and after what they had shared in the restricted section, how was she supposed to think of anything else?

"I'm just in a good mood." Sakura shrugged and glanced over to Shizune's back as she stood over one of the cauldrons on the other side of the room. It wasn't a lie. She was in a good mood. A great mood to be exact, but Tenten didn't need to know why.

"A suspiciously good mood." The Gryffindor nudged her with an elbow as she mixed in another portion of Armadillo Bile and began to stir. "Where is our resident worrisome Ravenclaw? Don't tell me you misplaced her over the Christmas holiday."

Sakura scowled and leaned closer to Tenten as Shizune straightened to make her next round through the classroom. She dropped her voice to a whisper. "She's still here. She's just in a better mood these days."

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The rest of the morning passed relatively the same. Rather boring, but nothing too bad. In fact, it had been such a normal day, Sakura had an actual bounce in her step as she made her way back into the Great Hall for lunch. Even with Ino's absence and Tenten deep in conversation with Kiba and Naruto, Sakura didn't let that dampen her mood.

She didn't mind eating lunch alone.

It gave her a chance to be alone in her thoughts and cast quick glances at the professor's table. Which was where she was currently staring. He sat between Professor Umino and Professor Yuhi, looking so good that it nearly made Sakura's steps slow to a stop just so she could take a moment to appreciate him. The white collar of his button-up shirt could be seen over the top of the dark gray sweater he wore. A small splash of green was all the color he wore on a tie that disappeared beneath the wool material and Sakura's fingers twitched at the thought of pulling him close to her with it.

As she moved around behind the Ravenclaw table, she let her eyes move up to the black mask covering his face. Just knowing she was one of the few if not the only person in all of Hogwarts to know what he looked like behind it was enough to fill her with all sorts of illicit thoughts. But when she brought her eyes up to his, all coherent thoughts disappeared out of her mind entirely.

He stared straight at her and even from this distance, she could practically feel the heat behind his gaze. It instantly set her skin ablaze and she let out a tiny, shuddering breath as she lowered herself onto the bench. Shino and Shikamaru were at the far end of the table, talking about something they had laid out on the table but she didn't acknowledge them. She wanted to be alone...or, well, as alone as she could be with hundreds of other students sitting around her.

Just as the plate of food appeared on the table before her, Kakashi tore his attention from her and turned to address Madame Tsunade. The headmistress lowered herself into the chair that Professor Yuhi had only just vacated and Sakura watched the two of them lean closer to one another. Immediately, panic bubbled up in her chest and she laid her palms down on the table on either side of her plate.

Tsunade was frowning hard enough that Sakura could see the lines between her eyebrows even from this distance. With a quick glance back at Kakashi, she was surprised to see him with the same exactly frown.

What could they be talking about?

Was it something Sakura could ask him about later? There were things he more than likely could never discuss with her at this point in their relationship, and she understood that. But if it was something to make him look like that, she couldn't promise herself that she wouldn't ask him about it the next time they were together.

Sakura turned away and stared down into her plate of food, her thoughts echoing back through her mind. Had she actually referred to whatever they were doing as a relationship? Was that what they had?

It didn't feel like that.

Then again, all she had to compare it to was six months of what she experienced with Sasuke and he had never made her feel like this. This was different. It was scary and exciting and unbelievable. Even after they had parted ways outside the Restricted Section over the weekend, with her legs still trembling and the effects he had on her still lingering, she couldn't quite believe it had been real.

It was torture not being able to talk to him or see him. It was even worse knowing she might not even be able to be alone with him again for weeks.

Sakura leaned her elbow on the table and picked up her fork to push it around the mound of potatoes. Her appetite was starting to wane now that her good mood had been pushed aside to make room for all the endless questions she had about things. And to think, she had thought for the lunch hour at least she'd be able to reminisce about Kakashi's head between her-

Her thoughts were abruptly interrupted by something thick, wet and horribly cold splattering across the top of her head and face. Green blobs dripped thickly down the side of her face as she sucked in a deep gasp that seemed to pull from the depths of her lungs. Time had completely come to a standstill and the silence that fell over the Great Hall was only broken by the pounding of her heartbeat drumming inside her chest.

Her eyes lifted from the plate of food now covered in the slime slowly dripping down the inside of her shirt and collecting between her breasts. Every single pair of eyes were on her. Some of the other students stared in confusion, their hands covering their mouths, but there was one group of girls, on the other side of the Great Hall who was grinning.

Sakura didn't even want to look up at the Professor's table. Without even looking, she knew he was staring her way and as embarrassed as she was that he was here to witness this, Sakura was surprised by how any humiliation she felt was quickly becoming eclipsed by fury.

She reached up and wiped a hand across her forehead, dragging a handful of the goop away from her eyes before it could drip into them. From the Professor's table, she could hear Tsunade's voice booming over the silence of the Great Hall but Sakura could only hear the buzz of her anger and the frenzy of her heartbeat pounding in her ears.

She was on her feet in an instant with her wand clutched tightly in her fist. One foot lifted to the bench and she raised her wand, pointing the tip right at the three Slytherin bitches who were howling with laughter. Another step up onto the table that kicked her plate out of the way and the spell launched before she could stop it.

The jinx hit Emi Saito directly in the face, knocking her back so hard she fell off the bench and disappeared behind the table. The two girls at her side shrieked and ducked down to pick her up, but Sakura wasted no time. She hit another one of them in the side of the head, making one of her braided pigtail flop backward. Her hands immediately went to her face but the Furnunculus spell had hit its target.

To Sakura's right, someone was shouting but she ignored it and took another step across the table.

Both of the Slytherins screamed in horror as their faces erupted with disgusting pimples popping, some growing to the size of galleons before bursting. And as the other girl struggled to help cover them with their own cloaks, Sakura lifted her wand for another round, cycling through a list of jinxes in her mind.

She never got the chance to hit either of the girls with it.

An arm snatched her by the waist and hauled her backward so suddenly, the spell she fired went directly to the Slytherin House flag above their table. It shook with the force of the jinx and Sakura gasped as she was pulled down from the table. Her left heel caught on the plate of food and dragged it off the edge.

The sound of it clattering to the floor brought her quickly out of her daze and she blinked up at the Headmistress' furious face staring down at her. It was quite clear by the look she was giving her that she had been the one shouting to Sakura to stop. Apparently, being ignored and disobeyed was high on the list of things that seriously pissed the woman off.

Sakura blinked down at the arm still snaked around her waist and once her feet found the floor once more, she stumbled out of their grip. She whirled around and found herself staring up into the familiar masked face of her Defense Against the Dark Arts professor. The look of heat and desire he had given her earlier was gone, replaced with one that rivaled his superior. It was strange, having him make her feel exactly the way he had in the first of the year. How was he capable of making her feel so amazing one minute and so small the next?

In a rush, all of the sounds returned to Sakura's head and she glanced around the Great Hall to assess the damage. The students were all on their feet, half looking her way and the other half watching Professors Umino and Yuhi tend to the still shrieking girls. They were being whisked toward the door, covering their faces with their cloaks to hide the pimples. As they left the room, the quiet pops of the boils could be heard over the chatter.

Some of the Gryffindors, mostly Kiba and Tenten, were cheering but the other professors were rushing to put a stop to it and Sakura turned to look at Tsunade once more. Without a word, the Headmistress took a step back and pointed a sharp finger toward the enormous doors.

Dread immediately filled her from head to toe and it made her head hang in shame. Sakura made her way out of the Great Hall, staring at the green slime dripping from the strands of her matted hair down to the floor. At the stairwell, she turned to face the Headmistress and was shocked to see Kakashi in tow behind her.

"Madame Tsunade, I was only-"

"We will discuss this in my office, Miss Haruno. It would be wise to keep quiet until then." The sound of her tone drained the color from Sakura's face and she nodded, dropping her head once more. She didn't dare attempt to glance at Kakashi.

He may have been her lover, but he was still her professor and quite capable of making her feel an inch tall with just a disappointed look. Of course, referring to him as her lover only brought all of the blood rushing suddenly back to her face and she had to bite her lip to keep from smiling as she turned to follow Tsunade up the stairs.

The trip up to the seventh floor was excruciating. Everyone that passed them in the hall turned to gawk at Sakura, still covered and dripping, and she could practically hear the rumors starting to swirl through the halls. There was no way to avoid them this time. She was going to be the talk of the castle for weeks.

Unless something infinitely more interesting happened, but that was unlikely.

As they made their way down the seventh-floor corridor, Sakura didn't stop herself from glancing toward the wall across from the Barnabus tapestry. She blinked and lifted her head at the sight of a solid, stone wall where the wooden door had been the night she and Kakashi had-

"Don't dawdle, Miss Haruno," Tsunade called over her shoulder and Sakura jumped a few inches off the ground. She hurried behind the two of them and clamped her teeth around her bottom lip. The headmistress led them up the spiral stairwell to her office and Kakashi followed behind Sakura.

Being alone with the two of them was making her pulse race with paranoia. This wasn't even about the two of them but she felt as if that truth could explode out of her at any second. It was probably best if Sakura accepted her punishment and kept her mouth shut just in case.

Once she stepped up into the office and followed the Headmistress to the center of the room, she allowed herself to look up at the woman. Tsunade sighed and shared a quick look with Kakashi before pursing her lips.

"Well, I'm glad you finally stood up to them."

Sakura blinked. A frown pinched her brows and though she tried not to, she glanced toward Kakashi. He wasn't looking at her, which wasn't surprising. Before she could ask the Headmistress what she meant, the woman continued.

"This doesn't mean I condone what you did, but sometimes a bully needs to be put in their place. And in this case, three of them. That doesn't mean you'll go unpunished." Tsunade pursed her lips and turned to make her way further into the office. She took a seat behind her desk and sighed, rubbing her first two fingers over the space between her brows.

Sakura had seen her do this several times over the years, mostly when she was annoyed with something or a situation. As nice as it was to hear the Headmistress praise her for sticking up for herself, she knew she wouldn't be getting off this easily.

"Yes, Madame Tsunade," she said with a nod.

Behind her, Kakashi stepped closer and Sakura held her breath. This was the closest they had been since the night in the Restricted Section and her body was responding to his nearness even though her brain was begging it not to. She focused on anything other than how he was nearly an arm's length away from her. She thought about how the slime was now drying in her hair and down the side of her face or how it was still clinging to the inside of her bra in the worst way.

It didn't distract her as well as she would have liked.

Thankfully, Madame Tsunade lifted her head and pulled Sakura's attention away from Kakashi being so close to her. With a sigh, the Headmistress pursed her lips and sat back in her chair. "As much as I feel proud of you for standing up for yourself, I can't let you off easy just because I favor you. Because you fired off two spells to their one, I'm afraid I'm going to have to double your detentions."

Sakura nodded. It didn't feel fair, especially after all that she'd endured the past year from the three of them. Then again, Tsunade wasn't aware of just how much they'd set their sights on Sakura.

"You'll report to detention every Saturday for the next month. I want an essay handed in tomorrow about the importance of self-defense and the proper ways to defuse a situation, which I'm sure you've learned from Professor Hatake." The Headmistress gestured with a hand toward the man still standing behind Sakura. With a nod, the Ravenclaw kept herself facing forward. Tsunade, however, looked over at the man. "I know you might be leaving again at the end of the month, but until then, can you cover detentions?"

Sakura's throat clenched and she had to swallow down the squeak that threatened to pop out of her mouth. Detention with Kakashi was an exciting thought but she was too distracted by Tsunade's words to dwell on the excitement. He was leaving again? When was he going to tell her? How long had he known about this?

He cleared his throat and finally stepped closer to the Headmistress' desk, right in Sakura's peripheral vision. She could see his arms were crossed over his chest and his elbow was a few inches away from her shoulder.

"I should be able to," Kakashi said quietly. "If not, I can ask Professor Yuhi to cover it."

Tsunade nodded before turning to Sakura. "Sakura, I don't want you to think this means you shouldn't stand up for yourself. I want you to stand up and fight back when anyone tries to wrong you. But next time, try not to do it in front of half the faculty. I'll have to deduct 10 points from Ravenclaw as well. Now, go get cleaned up. I'll write you a pass for your next class."

Sakura stepped up to the desk as Professor Hatake turned to make his way out of the room. It took all of her strength not to turn and watch him leave and she hoped the Headmistress couldn't tell how anxious she was at the moment. She had hoped to get him alone after this meeting and ask him when he was planning to tell her he was leaving again.

Thankfully, it didn't take too long for the Headmistress to write out her pass and Sakura folded it and stuffed it in the pocket of her skirt before turning to make her leave. She had never run down a flight of stairs as fast as she did at that moment. The stone statue guarding the passageway rumbled back into place as soon as Sakura's shoes hit the seventh-floor corridor.

Kakashi was nowhere to be seen. Surely he would have waited for her. Her eyes darted to the Barnabus tapestry where he had asked her to meet him after the Christmas Festival. It felt like such a long time ago. So much had happened, mostly between the two of them and-

A hand reached out and clutched her elbow, pulling her toward the solid wall she had seen on the way up to Tsunade's office. The wooden door had returned and Kakashi quickly tugged her inside the secret room. A yelp died on her lips as soon as it shut behind her and she was breathless as she looked up into his face.

A frown sat between his eyebrows and he reached up to pull at a particularly matted strand of hair near her cheek. Sakura took her bottom lip between her teeth and watched his eyes move across her stained face.

"I know I should be angry with you for causing such a disruption." Gods, his voice was like velvet to her ears. She swallowed tightly and let herself reach for him, fingers slowly inching up the front of his wool sweater. When his eyes finally met hers, she could tell he was smiling. "But honestly, I'm quite proud of how easily you fired off those jinxes."

The corner of her lips lifted in a slow, mischievous smile. "I was just doing what you told me to do. I let my emotions help."

"You did well." It shouldn't have made her feel so good to have him praise her. All of her concerns and inquiries about him leaving dissolved inside her mind and she was left with nothing but the overwhelming desire for him. "I'm sorry they did this. Do you think they could be behind the other incidents?"

Sakura shook her head and looked down at the collar of his shirt. She brushed her thumb over the material of his tie. A nagging thought in the back of her mind returned and she frowned. "I don't think they're that smart, to be honest."

"I suppose not," Kakashi whispered. His tone was one she'd heard before, one she had been dreaming about since the last time she'd heard it and Sakura let herself look up into his eyes once more. She wanted to kiss him so badly, but she had to know the answer to the question still bugging her.

With a frown, Sakura spoke. "Are you leaving because of what you and Tsunade were talking about earlier? I could tell it was something serious."

"You're far too astute for your age," he said with a sigh, reaching up to curl his fingers around her wrists. He pulled her hands away from his chest and brought them to his lips to kiss them through his mask. "I don't know for certain yet when I'll be leaving, but yes, the Ministry is on high alert and they're wanting me to be ready."

"Is it going to be dangerous?"

"Don't worry. If it's anything like the last few times the Ministry sent me off, it's bound to be a whole lot of nothing." Kakashi leaned forward and touched his forehead to hers with a soft laugh. "You should probably go get cleaned up."

"Do I have to?"

"Yes. Because if you don't, then I'll never make it to class and they'll send someone looking for me." He stroked a hand over the side of her head and wrinkled his nose at the feeling of the slime sticking to his hands. "I have to admit, seeing you like that was quite a turn on."

"Like what?" She was already smiling by the time the question left her mouth and Kakashi raised his eyes to meet hers.

"So sure of yourself. You looked like an Auror."

Sakura nearly whimpered. He wasn't doing a very good job of making her want to leave him. She wet her lips with a quick dart of her tongue, just enough to pull his attention down to her mouth, and she let her head fall back against the wall behind her. "Is it bad that it felt good seeing their faces all covered in boils?"

"As your Professor, I'm obligated to say that yes, it is bad that you felt good doing that." Kakashi moved closer and let one hand move to cup the side of her face. His thumb brushed over a dried streak of slime but Sakura didn't care how messy she was at that moment. "But as someone who is very turned on by you, I'd say that you shouldn't feel bad about it at all. They deserved it."

She curled her fingers around his deep green tie and pulled, bringing him close enough that their chests pressed into one another's. Another question popped into her head, one that refused to leave until it was answered, and there was no way she couldn't ask it. "Kakashi," she whispered, drawing a delicious, soft groan from his throat. He dipped his head to her throat and she felt the fibers of his mask tickle her skin.

"Mm?"

"Am-" it was hard to concentrate when he was making her feel like this without even touching his bare lips to her. "Am I your lover?"

"Is that what you want to be?" He had moved up to her jaw by now and Sakura smiled as he reached between them to tug his mask down to his chin. Now, his lips were against her skin and she sucked in a quick little breath.

"Yes," she whispered breathlessly.

Kakashi moved his fingers to the back of her head where her hair wasn't quite as tangled and hardened and he sank into the tresses, making chills erupt down her arms. With the grip on her hair, he moved to her ear and kissed just beneath her lobe, on that small, stretch of sensitive skin that made her fingers tighten around the fabric of his sweater.

"Then that's what you are." His voice was barely a breath against her ear and she didn't try to stop the whimper in the back of her throat this time. She let her eyes flutter closed and her lips parted in anticipation of his kiss. And just when she felt his lips brush against hers, he whispered. "But you need to get to class."

Sakura snapped her eyes open and stared at him backing away from her. She caught a few seconds of a wicked grin across his lips before he replaced the mask back around his nose. The absence of his body left her cold and she had to stop herself from stomping her foot and pouting. He was so cruel! How was she supposed to go sit in a stuffy classroom after being teased like this?

"You're cruel."

"And I'm late for class." Kakashi reached for the door to their secret room but didn't open it quite yet.

"You're always late for class."

She watched as he lifted his wand and drew a shape of an S over one of the strands of hair covered in green goop. The green slime lifted away and her pink hair shown through once more. Sakura reached up to her face and was thankful that the dried bits were fading from her cheeks and forehead as well. "You know," she started, looking down at the outline of his lips behind his mask. "If you wanted me clean, you could have just taken me to the showers."

Kakashi made a noise that sounded much too similar to a dog's growl. It instantly sent little jolts of heat slithering through her before he took her by the elbow and steered her to the door. She half expected him to toss her out into the hallway, but he surprised her when he dipped his head toward hers and the warmth of his breath at her ear pulled a gasp from her throat.

"Get to class, Miss Haruno. Or I'll make sure you have detention with me every Saturday night for the next three months."

Her eyes lit up with the thought and she turned her head to look up into his half-lidded gaze staring darkly down at her. The amount of lust behind his eyes nearly made her words stick to her throat but somehow, she managed to whisper. "Is that a promise?"

With another growl that made chills cascade down her spine, Kakashi pushed her out the door with a hand on her lower back. Thankfully, the hallway was empty when she nearly stumbled into it and after glancing quickly in both directions, she turned back to the door with a smirk that immediately caught his attention.

"Don't be a tease," he said, lifting his eyes away from her lips to scan the hallway behind her. "Or I really will give you detention. Now, go. We're already pushing things standing around like this."

"Fine," Sakura said with a smile. She shook the hair from her eyes, thankful to be free of the tangles and dried, green slop. If only he had managed to clean the drops that had moved into her bra. "I suppose I'll just have to shower alone then."

She ignored the sound of frustration he made and turned on her heel. She made her way down the seventh-floor corridor in a much different mood than when she came this way not even half an hour ago. A smile curled the corner of her lips, her heart was racing, and she gave no thoughts to the three girls who had targetted her during lunch. They were the furthest thing from her mind at the moment.

And while she was still concerned about whatever the Ministry was needing Kakashi for, the excitement she felt after being alone with him again, even for just a few moments, completely eclipsed any worry. It seemed that her good day from before had only momentarily been interrupted, thankfully. Those three Slytherin bitches may have thought they would ruin her day and possibly her week, but knowing they were down in the hospital ward, having their boils popped by Hana made her smile widen into a grin. Despite facing nearly a month of detention, it had been worth any punishment she would face and now, her spirits were high.

She hoped that she could ride it as long as she could, but if there's one thing Sakura's learned this year, its that every high comes with a crash.

AN- Well, consider this the last easy going chapter. It's all downhill from here. Thanks for reading!