A/N: Woohoo! I'm posting again! And my friend Lexi may have a snogging partner when I don't have one! Do you know how SAD that makes me? Anyway, thank you to charmedsisters for the Truth Spell and thanks everyone else for your reviews! As you may have noticed, this chapter officially makes my story rated R, which is sort of sad...proves how in need of a boyfriend I am. Oh well, for now I'll just have to pour out my horny mind onto the computer. Enjoy! 

Chapter Twenty-Three

Ivi advanced on Harry, as if to kiss him.

Once again, Ron's eyes were as wide as saucers. Pepper's eyes mirrored Ron's as she stared in disbelief at the sight before her.

Harry stepped back. He had no idea what Spada was going on about, and he wasn't sure that he cared to know. She kept advancing towards him, a flirtatious smile on her lips. "Look, Spada, I have no idea what you're talking about so –"

"Of course you do. Or maybe you don't have any idea because she's back. How could you forget what happened the other night; I know you had fun." Ivi winked at him.

"Cennan, what the HELL is she talking about?" Pepper spat angrily, putting her hands on her hips. (A/N: "Cennan" is "Potter" in Elvish, by the way.)

"I don't know Pepper," Harry replied, pushing Ivi away from him.

"Well then I suggest she gets the hell out of here," Pepper said, drawing her wand.

"Not until I get a good bye kiss from Harry..." Ivi said, raising a well plucked eyebrow as she leaned in toward Harry's face. The next thing Harry knew he had lips pressed up against his, and his hormones told him to kiss her back. He resisted as much as he could but the kiss was long enough for Pepper to throw her hands in the air in anger and let out a frustrated yell.

Ron was torn between amusement and shock.

"You know what? Fine! I don't care! I thought it was time for a break anyway!" Pepper yelled. "Just forget about Hermione and forget about ME and go screw Slytherins! See if I care!" Fuming, Pepper stormed off.

Ivi pulled her mouth from Harry's. A satisfied smirk was adorning her lips.

Harry glared at her before hurrying after Pepper, Ron at his heels.

Ivi watched them leave. "Won't Draco be pleased. All he's got to do is interject the poor wittle crying Gryffindor. I better get rewarded for this...now I wonder where Sadie is..."

"You didn't shag her, right?" Ron asked Harry as they dashed through corridors looking for Pepper.

"No!" Harry replied resentfully, "Did you actually believe her? I'm not that easy, Ron."

"Sorry, mate. But the way you were kissing her was sort of supporting her story."

"I was NOT kissing her!" said Harry.

"Whatever you say."

"Where'd Pepper go? I thought we were right behind her! She's gotta know that I didn't shag Spada..."

"She's got that new power thing, remember?" Ron reminded his friend.

"Oh yea. Bloody hell, are we ever going to find her?"

Pepper had Mirrored from the hallway Ron and Harry were currently standing in down to the dungeons. She wasn't sure why she'd chosen the dungeons, but she figured this would be the last place Harry and Ron would look.

She stopped walking and slid down the wall to sit down on the hard stone. She brought her forehead to her knees and sighed shakily. "How could he? Did he think I wouldn't find out?" she mumbled to herself. "Did Ron know? Why didn't he tell me? Harry could have just broken up with me. He didn't have to cheat on me – and with a Slytherin, no less." She drew in another shaky breath.

"Well well well, what do we have here?"

Pepper didn't even bother to raise her head as she felt someone sit next to her. "Leave me alone Malfoy," she said.

"You shouldn't be down here, you know. The dungeons at this time of day aren't exactly safe for a good little Gryffindor. You never know who will happen upon an innocent little girl..." Malfoy drawled.

"Just leave me alone," Pepper moaned. She didn't want Malfoy to decide to take his revenge on her at this moment. She thought he'd still be mad about what happened this morning, but she wanted him to get revenge at a time when she wasn't feeling so down. Too many thoughts were flying through her mind at the moment to process much of anything so she wouldn't be able to retaliate if Malfoy did something.

"What's wrong, Halliwell?" Malfoy asked, his tone softer.

Pepper wasn't aware of his sudden tone change, as her emotions were impaired at the moment. "Everything," she responded. "Everything's wrong. My friends, my family, my boyfriend, everything."

Malfoy put a comforting arm across her back. This gesture made Pepper raise her head. "What are you doing?" she asked.

"You're crying," he noted, evading her question. He wiped a tear from her face with the pad of his thumb.

Pepper studied his expression. He looked truly concerned about her welfare. What is he up to? Pepper wondered.

"Why don't you tell me what happened?" he asked softly. His voice sounded as if he was truly concerned.

That question sounded so comforting to Pepper, and it made her feel so safe that she found her tongue become very loose. She began telling Malfoy everything, from Hermione being mad at her, to her cutting herself, to keeping the kiss between them from her friends to Hermione's parents to the recent, heart-wrenching break up with Harry.

Malfoy made all the right facial expressions at all the right times and he rubbed Pepper's back reassuringly when she was having trouble continuing. At the end of her explanation they stared at each other for a moment: Pepper's eyes glassy and full of emotion and Malfoy's showing great compassion.

After a few seconds, Malfoy leaned in and captured Pepper's lips in a sweet, slow kiss. She responded willingly and they sat there for a while before the kisses became more intense and passionate. Malfoy helped Pepper to her feet – their lips still locked – and he backed her up against the cold, stone wall. Her arms were wrapped around his neck and his arms were around her waist.

His lips traveled down to her neck and she raised her chin, giving him more access to her skin. Pepper's breathing was growing heavier and more rapid and she wrapped one of her legs around the back of Malfoy's.

Taking that as a hint, Malfoy lifted Pepper off of her feet and carried her to the entrance to the Slytherin common room. She was distracted, (as she was busy kissing his neck now), when he said the password and they entered the green-lit room.

Pepper wasn't aware of the fact that Malfoy was taking her to his dormitory until he placed her on the silver bedspread. She didn't really care much though, as they continued their heated kissing. She ran hand through his hair, smiled, and pulled out of the kiss for a moment, glancing up at his mussed up hair.

"Told you your hair would look much sexier without the gel," she murmured before he captured her lips once more.

"Where is she? We've looked everywhere!" Harry said, frustrated. He and Ron had been searching for Pepper for almost two hours, and they hadn't had any luck in finding her.

"Everywhere but back in Gryffindor Tower," said Ron. "Maybe she went back there right away, thinking that we would look there last."

"I want her to know that I didn't cheat on her. Why doesn't she at least want to talk to me?" Harry wondered angrily.

"Ah, the ways of women," Ron mused.

Harry suddenly stopped in his tracks. "I feel so selfish. I should be thinking about Hermione, not about Pepper and Spada," he said. "Pepper's probably been in her dormitory writing a letter to Hermione or making a gift for her or something. She's probably being the thoughtful friend, which is what we should have been doing for the past two hours. Sorry Ron."

"S'all right, I've been thinking about Hermione this whole time anyway...so I s'pose that makes two thoughtful friends and one selfish one," Ron joked. "So it's back to the common room then? To devise a plan for tomorrow and for some well deserved rest?"

"That sounds good to me. Oh, I can't believe I didn't think of it before! Ron, we could look at the Marauders Map to see where Pepper is. Why am I so dim?"

"Surprised we didn't think of it. But then, your mind was too clouded with your kiss from Spada, I'm sure..." Ron wiggled his eyebrows up and down suggestively, earning a light punch in the arm from Harry.

"Shut up," said Harry, blushing as he recalled the aforementioned kiss. He had to admit, the kiss had been quite nice...

"Pepper we should stop," Malfoy panted, rolling of off the girl.

"Why?" Pepper asked, frowning as she flung her arm across Malfoy's bare chest. "I was having so much fun..." She kissed his flushed cheek.

"You're a virgin, and I'm not one for deflowering virgins. Especially Gryffindors ...this just doesn't feel right."

"I've never heard of the Slytherin Sex god saying no to sex. Or is this just a hard to get thing or something? I mean, come on, we're already naked..."

"I think you need another glass of Firewhisky," he said, reaching over to pick up the slender necked, half empty bottle.

"Only if you'll have one with me," she said teasingly, sitting up and rubbing her eyes. She accepted the glass handed to her and downed it in one gulp. The first glass had left a very distinct burning sensation in her throat, but after this one, her third glass, the sensation wasn't nearly as defined and she was getting more light-headed by the minute.

"Weren't you having fun with me, Draco?" she asked with some difficulty, as the whisky was threatening to slur her words if she didn't define her syllables.

"Of course I was," Malfoy replied, putting his still-full glass of Firewhisky down on the table to pull Pepper in for a sensuous kiss.

She giggled in pleasure before lying back down on the plush feather pillows. She closed her eyes as he kissed her. If only we were lying on a beach somewhere, she thought blissfully. A tropical beach with white sands and palm trees...

Pepper felt as if her stomach was being left behind and she opened her eyes to the sound of cawing birds. "Oh hell."

Draco removed his mouth from Pepper's collarbone as he felt a warm breeze blow across his back. Sitting up, he found himself on a beach, the ocean waves licking the bottom of the bedspread he and Pepper were wrapped up in.

"Where the fuck are we?" he asked confusedly.

"A beach," Pepper gulped. She hadn't meant to imagine her and Draco on a beach together practically having sex, she just thought the thought was nice.

"How'd we get to a beach?" Draco asked, sounding slightly irked. He glanced around apprehensively; checking to make sure the beach was deserted. Once he saw that no one was in sight he relaxed slightly. Pepper was sitting next to him, mostly covered by the king-sized cover and looking uneasy.

"I dunno," she replied, chewing on her bottom lip. Now that she thought about it, the sand did feel quite nice, and the gentle breeze was calming...she could stay here. "But it is quite romantic here..." she smiled seductively at Draco.

"How do we get out of here?" he wondered aloud, running his fingers through his now-messy hair and ignoring Pepper's previous comment.

"If you kiss me again?" Pepper suggested.

"I'm telling you Ron, she's not on here," Harry said, distressed.

"Shove over and let me see," said Ron, shoving Harry aside and pouring over the Marauders Map himself.

"Like I said: not there," Harry repeated, sighing and leaning onto the back of the couch. "So unless there's some part of the castle that the Marauders didn't know about then she's off school grounds. She could be in Hogsmede or she could be somewhere else entirely...I don't know how she'd get someplace else though. Unless she found a way to use her new power to go get Hermione some way. I don't know how she would have found Hermione, though. Dumbledore didn't say where she was..."

"Knowing Pepper, she probably found a way to meet Hermione." There was a pause where Ron rubbed the back of his neck and then gasped and pointed to a place on the map.

Harry averted his eyes to the map, and his gaze wandered to where Ron was pointing. It looked as if two dots had just shown up on the map, completely out of the blue. They were two dots that hadn't been there just a second ago when he and Ron were looking over the parchment.

"That can't be possible," Harry mumbled, blinking to make sure his eyes weren't deceiving him. The two dots read "Pepper Halliwell-Black" and "Draco Malfoy" and they were in very close proximity to each other. Their proximity was so close, in fact, that it made Harry squirm in his seat.

"The dots are practically on top of each other..." Ron remarked, squinting at the map. He, too, wanted to make sure his eyes were not deceiving him.

"We've got to get down there," said Harry heatedly. "Make sure they're not..." He shook his head in disgust. "I don't even want to think about it. Let's just go."

"Harry, they're in the Slytherin common room, we'll never be able to get in there. Besides, it's almost three in the morning and I'm tired. I'm sure even if they are..." Ron shook his head as well, trying to rid his mind of the mental picture that was forming there. "Pepper wouldn't want us barging in on it. Not that we could or I'd want to, mind you. I think we should just go to bed and deal with it in the morning. I'm sure the map's wrong, anyway, and that's not really Pepper."

"But Ron, she could be down there...shagging Malfoy," Harry cringed, as did Ron. They were both horrified at that thought.

"Harry, you know I can't function well if I don't have sleep or I don't have food. At the moment, I don't have either, so I'm turning in. We can deal with it in the morning when we're both well rested and our eyes aren't playing tricks on us. G'night." Ron yawned and got up, dragging his feet up the stone stairs to his dormitory.

After Ron left, Harry returned his eyes to the map and glared at it until he was sure he was going to burn a hole in it with his gaze.

He folded the map quickly and carried it up to his dormitory with him. Quietly grabbing his Invisibility Cloak from his trunk, he tiptoed back down to the common room and out of the portrait. He wasn't going to leave this till morning – he couldn't. He needed to find out if Malfoy and his recent ex Pepper were really in bed together. And in the Slytherin common room, no less.

He hurried through the dark corridors as noiselessly as possible, dodging teachers on late night patrol. Harry didn't have time to wonder why there were teachers among the corridors at such a late hour, as he was nearing his destination. He strained his memory to try and recall the route to the Slytherin common room as he entered the dungeons, but it was to no avail. He hadn't been there since his second year, and then he was too busy concentrating on a way to get Malfoy to admit he was the Heir of Slytherin and it was he who was opening the Chamber of Secrets. Harry wanted to kick himself for not remembering how to get to the Slytherin common room.

He searched for a while before giving up from frustration and fatigue. Slumping down on the floor he put his head on his knees and drifted off to sleep.

Pepper awoke with a splitting headache. She rolled over and found that she was lying next to Malfoy. Eyes open wide; she discovered that she was naked. Putting two and two together she devised that she and Malfoy had just had sex. She let out a very high pitched gasp of panic, causing her head to throb in pain and Malfoy to stir.

She sat up abruptly as he opened his eyes. He smirked at her amusedly. Realizing that the bedcovers were around her waist she pulled them up and stuttered, "Why the hell am I here?"

"Don't you remember our lovely little rendezvous last night, Halliwell?" Malfoy drawled, sitting up as well.

Trying not to get distracted by Malfoy's bare chest, Pepper shook her head "no," which she found out was a mistake. She clutched her head in pain, causing the covers once again to slide down to her waist. She pulled them back up again.

"I've seen everything anyway," Malfoy drawled. "No need to cover yourself now. From what I recall, you ripped off all your clothing last night. Now you want your clothes back, I suppose." He sounded highly amused and Pepper glared at him.

"I did not," she retorted. She desperately tried to remember what exactly had happened last night. Her brain only came up with one image. "You listened to what I had to say..." she said, tilting her head slightly to the side and staring at him as if she'd just seen him for the first time. "Then you brought me here and we..." she couldn't remember much after that.

"You need some Hangover Potion," he advised, swinging his legs over the bed and climbing out of it.

Pepper closed her eyes so she wouldn't see anything more, though her brain told her open her eyes. He was, after all, the Slytherin Sex god and most girls would die to be in the situation Pepper was in now. By the time she opened her eyes again he was gone, into the bathroom she suspected.

Suddenly, a wave of nausea hit her and she apprehended that she needed to get into the bathroom.

Grabbing the sheet and wrenching it off the bed she messily wrapped it around her and tripped and stumbled her way to the bathroom. Malfoy didn't even give her a second glance as she raced to the toilet and emptied the contents of her stomach. Groaning, she stood up, which caused her head to spin. Her footsteps faltered from her dizzy spell and Malfoy caught her before she hit the floor. She had a feeling he was used to dealing with this kind of thing. That thought pissed her off.

"Here, drink this," he ordered, shoving a bottle full of a thick blue liquid into her hand. It was already uncorked, so she downed it somewhat hesitantly; the potion freezing her throat as it slid down.

Instantly, her headache and nausea disappeared. "Thanks," she said quietly. She wanted to get out of here as fast as she could. She needed to think about what had happened, and if she'd really had sex with Malfoy willingly, as he said she did. "I've got to go," she tried, hoping he'd let her go without a fight.

He shrugged nonchalantly. "I know," he said. "You can get changed in my room, I'll stay in here."

She exited the bathroom and closed the door behind her as she entered his dormitory. Gathering her clothes and getting dressed, she wondered why Malfoy seemed to be the only occupant of the dormitory.

Hoping no other Slytherins had stayed over for Christmas, Pepper hurried out of the common room and tried to look casual as she strolled through the hallways. Turning a corner, she tripped on something and fell – hard – onto the floor.

Harry woke up to someone tripping over him. The Invisibility Cloak slid off of him and he saw Pepper getting up from the floor. She glared at him but didn't acknowledge him, even when she accepted his hand to help her up.

"I know you were shagging Malfoy," he said plainly, trying not to let any emotion show in his voice.

"I was not," she said, her face burning. "Besides, I'm not talking to you, Harry Potter. You cheated on me and I...well, you cheated on me. We're completely and officially broken up and that's that." Sticking her chin in the air she turned around and walked swiftly away, Harry in tow.

"So you did shag Malfoy then," said Harry from behind Pepper.

She turned abruptly to face him. "I've come to a mutual agreement that we're done as a couple Harry."

"You can't come to a mutual agreement on your own, Pepper," Harry pointed out. He was beginning to have trouble keeping his temper in check.

Pepper looked a little flustered at this comment. "Yea...well...I'm not talking to you, so leave me alone!" And, remembering her new power, Pepper Mirrored from the dungeons, leaving Harry alone to let out a very frustrated yell that echoed through the empty corridor.

A/N: Dundundun! So what happened? Did Pepper and Malfoy really do it? More importantly, did they use protection? We don't know! And we might never! Bwahahaha! Well, actually we will. Remember to review! You know you want to...