For Alyssa, my little lipsticked friend

(*)

Draco Malfoy had just finished up the final touches of a late Christmas snack when he heard the front door to his flat slam open, accompanied by a very loud whistling sound that was the brutal winter wind.

"I am so glad I made it here!"

He smiled, or more accurately, smirked, as he made his way to his girlfriend of barely two months - the brightest witch of their age. "And why didn't you just Floo here from the Ministry?" He gestured at his fireplace.

She rolled her eyes at him as she yanked off her matching scarf, beanie, and gloves (a gift from Harry; Draco intended to do better), and finally her jacket, leaving her in a red sweater and black jeans. "Because you obviously haven't been listening to the news lately, I'd like to inform you that the Floo Network is down because of the blizzard."

His eyebrows furrowed. "Does the weather even have anything to do with the Floo Network?"

Hermione Granger snorted as she walked up to him. "Read a bit more about the Floo Network, Malfoy. It would do you some good."

He bent down to give her a small peck on the cheek. "You know I prefer it when you tell me about those things. It sounds quite sexy."

"Malfoy!" she shrieked, turning as red as a tomato. Chuckling, he ducked away from her as she attempted to hit him with a rolled-up Daily Prophet, and escaped into the kitchen. "For Merlin's sake, you can be such a-"

"How was work?" he called to her from the kitchen.

She could only sigh as she sank into one of his couches, and closed her eyes while waiting for him to emerge from the kitchen with whatever he had cooked up. Hermione had been surprised to find out that Malfoy could have been a cook in a previous life. She didn't know if he was concocting up tiramisu to help her forget all the times he called her a Mudblood, but it was working.

Forget about time; Draco Malfoy's tiramisu healed all wounds. Bollocks to everyone who called her shallow.

"Awful. You'd think people have better things to do on Christmas Eve than call up the Ministry for the most mundane things." She was still training at the Ministry; if you could call answering phones and replying to owls and sealing letters training.

"Oh, at least you had an eventful day," he replied.

"At least you had the day off," she shot back, adjusting her position so that she was lying down on the couch. She heard him laugh. "Oh shut it, you and I both know who had the better day."

He came in with two mugs of what she hoped was hot chocolate. He placed one mug in her hands with a proud, boyish grin. "My special hot chocolate recipe. I thought it would be perfect for a night like tonight."

She smiled up at him, and propped her legs in his lap after warming her hands with the mug. "So thoughtful," she mused, and practically purred when he started massaging her feet.

When she was satisfied that the hot choco's temperature wouldn't scald her tongue when she downed it, she lifted the mug to her lips and took a lingering sip. "Oh, Merlin," she breathed out, the lovely aroma of hot chocolate wafting around her like a beautiful haze. "That's beautiful."

"Glad you like it," he replied, watching her inhale the hot chocolate fumes. "Just a random question, who's more beautiful, you, or the chocolate?"

"The chocolate," she replied immediately, and took another sip, closing her eyes as she did so. "What did you put in this brilliant concoction, Draco?"

He felt something stir in his chest as she called him by his first name. Even though they were dating, she was so used to calling him Malfoy that it was a habit that was going to die hard. Draco relished in the feelings he felt whenever she called him 'Draco'. "Vanilla, Cinnamon... Probably a dash of red wine." He took a sip from his own mug to see if it was as good as she insisted it was. Wow. It was now officially one of his favorites.

She turned her surprised doe-brown eyes at him. "Red wine?"

"I watched it in one of those Muggle shows," he shrugged. "Thought I wanted to test it out on you."

Hermione nodded eagerly, taking another sip. "It's good. We should have it for breakfast tomorrow. And lunch. And during snacks."

He let out a dry laugh as he set his mug down on the table in front of him. For a few long minutes, there were no other sounds other than the delighted noises Hermione made whenever she sipped from her mug.

Noises that left little to the imagination, but we'll save that story for another day.

"I've finished," she announced proudly, sounding like a child. "Is there more?"

"In the kitchen-" Draco started to get up, but she beat him to it as she dashed off to the kitchen, moving faster than any time he had seen her.

When he had finally reached the kitchen, she was already taking a premature sip from her mug. He raised an eyebrow at her as he leaned against the counter. "I have this suspicion that you are going to fall in love with my hot chocolate."

She smirked, and tried not to flush as she realized how sexy he looked when he had an eyebrow raised. "I have this suspicion that you are one jealous man."

Draco stepped closer to her, his gray eyes boring holes into her. "Jealous? Yes, I am. You see, I tend to get a bit possessive."

Her breathing got shallower, and she realized a bit late that her palms were getting sweaty. Damn, if this kept up, she was going to lose her hold on the mug. "I h-had a feeling you'd be like that," she murmured, bravely trying to meet his gaze.

"But, I don't see why I couldn't, mm, share you with the one thing that's taking your mind off of me," he said, and before she could process what he was saying, he reached a hand out to lightly skim his index finger across her hot chocolate.

"Draco, what-"

And then his finger, covered in hot chocolate, reached out to trace her lips. "Draco-" her breath hitched.

"You have no idea what comes over me when you call me that," he growled, as he leaned forward to kiss her.

She gasped at the intensity, and nearly dropped her mug in the process. Draco immediately remedied this by dumping the mug in the conveniently-placed sink, as he pulled her closer to him, savoring the taste of his masterpiece on her lips.

Before both of them knew it, he had her against the wall, both of his hands boxing her in at either side of her face, and her hands tugging at his shirt collar. Both paused for air; it still smelled like hot chocolate and red wine. "Malfoy, you... You clever man," she gasped raggedly.

"Hmmm...?" he could only reply, staring at her half-lidded brown eyes.

"Chocolate, vanilla, red wine..." she rattled out his ingredients. "Those are all aphrodisiacs," Hermione breathed out.

His eyes glinted mischievously as she realized his plan, and her heartbeat noticeably quickened as he bent his head lower. "I was waiting for the brightest witch of our age to figure it out," he breathed against her ear. She shivered.

"Could have fooled me," she replied, and they were suddenly connected together again, as she pulled him against her and kissed him, with a different, soothing tenderness that their previous kisses had lacked.

It was, safe to say, one of the best Christmas Eve's either of them had experienced to date.

(*)

Author's note:

Bad, Kaitlin. Bad, bad, bad. This was a bit more steamy than I had intended it to be.

But when Alyssa wanted the prompt to be 'Aphrodisiacs', I knew that this was not going to be some Dramione fluff underneath the mistletoe.

This is by far the farthest I've gone, the closest I've ever dared to make the characters... Er... Connect. Even I'm a bit shocked by how this turned out.

Read and Review. :)