Three months after Christmas, the mistletoe was still up.
Ginny and Blaise, who had been declared the official heads of this crisis, had called a meeting in the Room of Requirement. It was the one place that the mistletoe couldn't enter, and all four houses had been using it as a combination common room/library/safe haven. Their evasion methods had been quite effective thus far, but...everyone was getting pretty antsy.
During that first meeting in the RoR the leaders (Ginny, Blaise, Hermione, Draco, Luna) had spent hours pouring over the Marauders Map, dividing up the school into boy's hallways and girl's hallways.
Where mixing could not be avoided, they drew lines down the entire hall (much to Filch's horror and dismay, he was STILL unable to remove them).
The Seventh Year girls and the First Year boys had the two lanes down the center, as the mistletoe seemed to consider this too much of an age gap. Next on the girls side was the six years and so forth until the first years were up against the wall. The boy's pattern ran the opposite direction, and this had proved effective, if a little bit of a hassle.
Even the classrooms had divided, most of the teachers simply pretending that they didn't notice.
Everyone was sick and tired of it though, Ginny included. She wanted to be able to speak to boys outside of the Room! She knew that her frustration was echoed throughout the student body, and she and Blaise had called this meeting to discuss a more...aggressive battle plan.
Blaise, Ginny, Draco, Ron, Harry, and Luna stood in a threatening semi circle around Hermione and Professor Snape.
"Apologize."
"Absolutely not. I am a teacher at this school, and I will not apologize to some...little girl." Snape cast a disdainful stare at Hermione, who was slowly turning red with suppressed fury.
Blaise stared at him in disbelief. "Are you serious? Haven't you noticed that you are the only teacher that gets trapped by this mistletoe? Do you really want to kiss any more of your students?"
Snape sneered. "I will simply have to work harder at brewing the repellent," he sniffed.
The entire group wheeled on him.
"Repellent?" Asked Harry, very softly.
Ginny raised her wand threateningly. "If you have repellent and you haven't been..."
Snape dismissed them with an impatient wave. "Oh, calm down. I haven't been able to brew one successfully...yet."
Despite herself, Hermione looked interested. "Did you try..."
"Of course I did, you silly girl, that was the first thing I did. But it..."
"Yes, of course it did, did you use peppermint or..."
"Boomslang, it's much stronger."
"That would make..."
"But that cure is easy, and...mostly...effective."
"Not as effective as..."
"Obviously, but that would contrast with the..."
"And the...no...unless you added unicorn hair, but...wait...add salt." Hermione announced triumphantly.
Severus' jaw dropped. "But wouldn't that...actually, no...the gillyweed would, in fact...that's brilliant!"
She grinned. "I know. You forgot the simplest rule of balancing the humors of your ingredients again! How have you managed not to blow yourself up? No, no, don't answer that I don't want to know."
He smiled back sheepishly. "I haven't been making much."
She rolled her eyes. "This is stupid, Sev. I'm sorry for what I said, you know I didn't mean that how it came out."
"Nor did I."
"Yes you did." They added together, then laughed.
They turned to the rest of the group, who were rolling their eyes at each other.
"Glad the two of you made up," drawled Draco "Now, I have an idea..."
Dumbledore smiled contentedly as he strolled towards the Great Hall, just a step in front of Ginny Weasley and Blaise Zabini (who were, of course, walking on opposite sides of the hallway, wands at the ready). The Mistletoe was particularly attracted to them for some reason, and they had both learned to be extremely cautious (and that the faster they kissed the less people noticed them stuck together).
This mistletoe thing was working out just fine. The girls from every house had formed a close bond, and all of the boys had learned to keep the peace. He knew that once he vanished the mistletoe the inter house conflict would all but end.
Not that he had any intention of getting rid of his beautiful plants though, he was having far too much fun. Also, he was pretty sure that there were still some rivalries lurking down in one particular dungeon.
He pushed open the doors and strode calmly into the Hall, only to stumble to a stop in surprise.
Every student in the school was stuck in place by his mistletoe...and they were all grouped around the exits.
A moment too late, he realized what was going on and spun towards the door. Too late. Ginny, Blaise, Ron, Luna, Susan Bones, Hannah Abbott, Neville, Harry, Cho, and Draco were standing behind him, effectively blocking the doorway.
A cheer went up from the students and Dumbledore walked reluctantly towards where the rest of the teachers were glaring at him from the head table.
Severus grinned, the only one who was not scowling. Just before Dumbledore arrived at his seat, Snape slid into Dumbledore's chair. A beaming Miss Granger appeared from behind it and settled herself comfortably on his lap.
Dumbledore stared in pure shock as a cheerful ringing sound announced the arrival of the final piece of greenery.
Hermione nodded at Snape's chair solemnly. "Please, sit down. We would like to discuss the mistletoe with you."
Dumbledore paused for a moment to assess the situation. He and all of his teachers were literally sealed into the Great Hall by groups of students who could not move due to the magical plants. His potions professor was sitting in his chair. His head girl was sitting on his potions professor. He sighed. How had his plan gone so wrong?
"Very well." He eased himself into Severus' chair. Hermione grinned sweetly.
"Thank you. The mistletoe needs to go. Immediately."
"You have made your point." Severus added his support, punctuated
Dumbledore nodded, regretfully realizing that they were indeed correct. "Very well."
Hermione smiled calmly. "We will need you to make an unbreakable oath saying that you will not use any form of holiday decoration to attack us ever again." She paused, considering that statement for a moment. "Never thought I would say that sentence."
Dumbledore frowned. This was taking things a step too far. "Miss Granger, as you are well aware, Unbreakable Oaths are highly frowned upon by the Ministry." He turned to his potions master. "Severus, I am disappointed that you would agree to…" He trailed off in disbelief as Professor McGonagall sailed over to his seat, wand outstretched.
"Don't be ridiculous, Albus, the students will never learn anything if they are looking over their shoulders and eyeing holiday decorations suspiciously. I suppose we can only be grateful that you happened upon this idea during Valentine's Day rather than Halloween."
A collective shudder ran through the great hall, and Dumbledore sighed in defeat. "Very well." He clasped Hermione's hand in his and swore.
Cheers broke out across the hall as McGonagall vanished all of the mistletoe except the one that was hovering over Snape and Hermione.
All eyes went to them, and Hermione sent a mischievous grin at Dumbledore. She kissed Sev neatly on the cheek and together they shot a hex directly into the mistletoe.
It exploded into thousands of tiny pieces, each of which blossomed into a full self-replicating firework. Banners appeared over the house tables, all the house colors swirled together on each banner.
Professor Flitwick jumped happily onto the table. With a sweep of his wand the tables were stacked neatly against the walls. Another flick and loud music blasted through the hall. The students surged forward excitedly.
Draco grinned striding to the center of the room and conjuring a microphone to be heard over the music. "Welcome to the first annual inter-house party!"