Chocolate frogs and sugar quills
Summary: RW/HG. Hermione has always noticed Ron's sweet tooth. Hogwarts and beyond. One-shot fluff. Follow-on from 'Toothflossing stringmints' but can be read as a stand-alone. Hermione's POV.
Rating: K+
Disclaimer: They aren't mine. They belong to JK Rowling. The only thing I own here is the plot.
The very first time Hermione Granger met Ron Weasley on the Hogwarts Express, he was surrounded by shiny sweet-wrappers and had a mouthful of chocolate frogs. He also had a smudge of dirt on his freckled nose, but truthfully (even though she made a point of highlighting it just for something to say) she barely noticed that. What she did notice immediately was that Ron Weasley apparently liked sweets: an awful lot.
He didn't discriminate either she soon found. He was always eager to cram in another droo ball or peppermint toad cream. He wasn't particularly keen on cockroach clusters, but then again, who was? After a particularly nasty incident that occurred in his second year, he also wasn't quite as willing to eat jelly slugs with the same reverence he had in the past either. Again, understandable.
Hermione had been instantly intrigued with Ron's sweet-tooth and unbeknownst to her at that time, would continue to be for the next few years.
She put it down to scientific study at first of course. Just because she happened to notice exactly how Ron's nose wrinkled whenever he ingested a particularly potent Bertie Botts Every-Flavour Bean or how he smiled appreciatively whenever he ate another delectable square of coconut ice did not mean anything to Hermione at that point, other than it was a further interesting factor in her research.
And just because she noticed that despite his incredible fondness for sweets, Ron Weasley had the nicest smile of any other boy she knew and not one single filling in his perfectly straight teeth, did not concern Hermione Jean Granger at that specific moment in time.
The first smidgen of concern that she was perhaps slightly too preoccupied with Ron's sweet-tooth actually occurred a few years later. Viktor Krum had kissed her at the Yule Ball and Hermione, who whilst admittedly had not been expecting fireworks, had been disappointed to discover that Viktor's kiss had been reminiscent of luke-warm pumpkin juice and that she felt nothing apart from the feeling of decidedly sloppy lips moving against her own mouth.
When she had found her thoughts wandering mid-kiss to Ron however, and at the notion that he probably tasted deliciously like sugar quills, she pulled away from Viktor, shocked by her own uncharacteristic stupidity and at what she had only just realised. Merlin. It wasn't just Ron's sweet-tooth she had been so actively interested in, was it?
"Erm-oh-Ninny?" Viktor asked uncertainly, worried.
Hermione forced a weak smile even though her stomach was in knots and waved a dismissive hand, though of course she wasn't willing to resume their kiss. "It's nothing. Really."
Only it was of course, something.
When Ron was seeing the insipid-yet-annoyingly-pretty Lavender Brown, Hermione was quite sure she had never felt worse in her whole life. Seeing the other girl trail after Ron made her stomach hurt and she knew she'd rather face a death-eater than have to see them kiss again. Bitter, consuming jealousy rose in her whenever she saw Ron offer Lavender a square of Honeydukes chocolate or a droo ball, yet she always wondered why Lavender didn't accept one. For someone like Hermione who always put enjoyment over vanity, the fear of spots had never been an issue and she liked sweets too much to turn any down for such an inconsequential little reason, so that thought simply never entered her head.
She also wondered why Ron always looked over at her with that expression in his bright blue eyes, even when the two of them weren't talking to each other anymore. It didn't occur to her at the time that he was just as miserable as she was.
She'd finally got to kiss Ron. Amidst waves of emotion and fear before the Battle of Hogwarts, she'd flung her arms around his neck instinctively and the kiss had been brilliant. Yet, at the time, she hadn't taken the time to fully appreciate the way his lips moulded so well with hers, nor the way he had indeed tasted sweet, delectable. Those thoughts only came much later when she was kicking herself for not being brave enough to tell him how she really felt.
It was nearly two years later before she'd have enough courage to finally take the initiative and kiss him again. Two years! Merlin, a lot could happen in that time, but somehow she didn't doubt that Ron's kisses would be just as sweet as she remembered.
Mistletoe. That was what it finally came down to. Hermione had suppressed a small smile of glee when she had seen the sprig floating innocently above Ron's head that Christmas day at the Burrow and had cast a grateful look in an amused Harry's direction. He and Ginny merely rolled their eyes and scarpered with the rest of the Weasley's, finally leaving her and Ron alone. About bloody time.
Ron's face was the colour of a fire engine when he realised what was dangling above his head. He spluttered out a few nonsensical words before Hermione eventually just mustered up her courage, threw her arms around his neck and kissed him.
She was right of course. He tasted even better than she remembered and she couldn't stop herself from blurting out; "you taste like chocolate frogs and sugar quills." Then she turned scarlet too. What a stupid thing to say when she'd been waiting two whole years for this! She could have at least come up with something more loquacious, sexy maybe.
Ron was looking a bit bewildered, almost perplexed by her statement, yet his eyes were hopeful too; "is that a bad thing?"
Hermione then realised he was feeling as nervous as she was and pulled him closer, all in the matter of scientific research of course. "No," she said, her heart beating nineteen to the dozen, "you taste just delicious."
And of course to her, he did.
A/N: Please let me know what you think! Reviews are my chocolate frogs.