Hot Chocolate…

To those who are following summer's Come: I'm sorry to be taking so long to update I'm trying to make Charlie and Ron's fight 'perfect'. So anyways, this story just came to me while I was studying Chem. I don't know how or why but it did.

Hope you enjoy it…

Hermione suppressed a groan as she rolled to face the wall next to her bed. She screwed her eyes tight and willed, no begged, for sleep to come. But unfortunately luck was not on her side. If anything she felt even more alert. She turned and glanced at the clock on the nightstand, it was only a quarter past eleven!

After an evening of Christmas Eve celebrations and drinking most of the Weasley clan, bar Molly and Arthur, had opted to head back to their own homes. In fact there were a total of only 4 people staying at the Burrow that night. Every Christmas she would take a week of from her work at the Ministry and spend a week at the Burrow catching up with Harry and Ron and all the other Weasleys. But now most of them were married and raising families of their own. Harry and Ginny had rekindled their relationship after the war and had gotten married two years later. Bill and Fleur had their own cottage and a daughter to look after. Ron had married Luna Lovegood, after an amicable split with Hermione. They'd both just realized that it wasn't love between them. Fred and George of course had their apartment above their shop. Percy was still not on speaking terms with his family so that basically left him out of any family function. So the only Weasley who was still staying at the Burrow was Charlie.

After staring at the wall for another minute, Hermione gave up on the idea of getting sleep. Instead she decided to make herself a cup of hot chocolate. As she walked past Charlie's room she saw that his door wasn't fully closed and she couldn't resist a peek. Quietly she crept up to the door and stuck her head in. She saw Charlie tossing and turning in the bed but that was not what made her immediately shut the door and lean her back against it and command herself to take deep breaths.

The sight of Charlie's bare chest popped into her mind again and Hermione immediately scurried down to the kitchen wanting to rid her mind of it. She busied herself making the cup of hot chocolate and then took it to the living room where she settled herself on the sofa. She gazed out the window looking at the snowflakes falling and forming a blanket of white on the ground.

She tried to think of mundane things like the amount of paperwork that was going to on her desk when she got back to work but her mind kept on going back to Charlie. Ever since he moved back to England after the war, she'd gotten to know the second oldest Weasley sibling better. Especially over the last few days as they were the only ones at the Burrow. But she knew she'd had crush on him since that first time they met in the summer before her fourth year. But at that point of time her crush on Ron had been stringer. But over the last couple of years she found those feelings for Charlie resurfacing again and wanted nothing more than to stuff them down back where they came from. Hermione knew that Charlie saw her as nothing more than a friend or even Ron's best friend.

Then she heard a soft whisper in her ear, "Watcha' doing…"

Hermione shrieked and jumped up and in the process spilt her hot chocolate all over her shirt and her neck. She whirled around and saw Charlie standing behind her grinning at her mischievously at her. She glared at him, "Charlie Weasley! What were you –UGH! Look at what you did!" she hissed motioning to her chocolate drenched self.

Charlie didn't even flinch under her glare; he simply shrugged and said, "Consider it payback for waking me up in the middle of the night."

"Waking you- exactly when did I wake you up?! When I noisily slurped my hot chocolate?" She snapped.

Charlie continued grinning at her, "No, when you decided to spy on me."

Hermione's face turned as red as Charlie's hair. "Spy?" she choked out, "I didn't- I mean your door was- and I…Oh crap."

Charlie chuckled and pulled out his wand and cleaned up her shirt. "Well, there your all cleaned up…except for that bit on your neck but using magic on your body is dangerous is it not?" he asked raising an eyebrow at her. When she looked at him she could have sworn she saw a glint of desire in his eyes, the same desire that was coursing through every vein in her body then.

In two strides he closed the distance between them. And then before she knew what he was doing he'd lowered his head to her neck her eyes widened as she let a little gasp as she felt his tongue on her neck. Slowly his lips moved up her neck. She felt his hot breath against her ear as he murmured something incomprehensible. He then traced her jaw line with his lips before slanting them over hers. Their lips moved in sync as though they'd been doing that forever. Hermione let out a little a moan as his tongue pried her mouth open and played a seductive dance with hers. She reached up and wrapped her arms around his neck pulling him closer to her. His hands slipped up her shirt and it took all her self control not to give in to her weak knees.

But at that moment Charlie gently broke the kiss and rested his forehead on hers. "This is ok right? I mean, I don't want to hurt you."

She just nodded; she had a little trouble finding her voice. Charlie grinned at her again and pulled her to the sofa. Once she was nestled in his arms he spoke again. "I always thought you saw me as your best friend's older brother." He ran his hand up and down her arm. "Or an older brother to you. It's been so hard."

She looked at him, "Hard?" she inquired.

"Yeah hard. Every time I saw you I had this…urge to just kiss you and every time that happened which was pretty often I had to stop myself."

Hermione grinned at him, " Really…" she paused and then added, "You know I thought you saw me as Ron's best friend nothing more."

Charlie cupped her face, "That couldn't be further from the truth. Let me prove it to you." He said before leaning down and capturing her lips in a kiss that would put all other kisses to shame. And while she ran her hands through Charlie's soft, red hair she heard the clock strike twelve. It was Christmas and she'd gotten the perfect gift.

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