Fluff!

Warnings: Slash, HPxDM…OOC moments.

The Christmas baking incident:

Draco frowned as he read down the list of ingredients, "Goyle, do we have…" he made a face, "…cloves?". Goyle scratched his head and looked over the counter-top with confusion, "Cloves…uhh." He looked at the ground spice in a container and nodded his head, "I think so."

Draco exhaled slowly with slight nerves, "This is the first time I'm doing something like this." Crabbe ambled behind the youth with white-blonde hair and peered at the recipe over Draco's thin shoulder, "Yeah. And why are you doing this again?"

Draco pinched the bridge of his nose, "Honestly I don't know. But it's Christmas and I wanted to make some cookies. Remember?"

Crabbe exchanged puzzled looks with Goyle who just shrugged. "Uh…okay. Who are they for?"

Draco whipped his head sharply around to glare at Crabbe, "When did you ask so many questions?" he accused, his voice sounding a little panicked. Goyle nudged Crabbe who only backed away from the suddenly snarling gray-eyed boy warily, "…uh…Never?" he squeaked.

"Exactly," Draco quipped. He turned his gaze back to the recipe, his cool façade back into place. "Okay Crabbe, preheat the oven to 175 degrees Celsius."

"You know," Crabbe started difficultly, "Professor McGonagall is going to kill us if she finds out we conjured up a basic kitchen in the prefect dormitory." He had shuffled towards the almost muggle-oven resembling cooking compartment.

"If you had not noticed," Draco drawled in response, sounding a little annoyed that Crabbe would dareto forget. "I ama prefect."

"Butwe're not." Goyle piped in, hurrying over to Crabbe so he was clearly out of lashing range from Draco if he was to become irate again.

"Oh relax," Draco smirked as he ran a thin, pale finger down the recipe, "People give away the prefect dormitory passwords to anyone nowadays and you are invited here."

Goyle puffed his chest out a little as Draco stressed the word. "Now stop complaining and heat the oven."

Crabbe obliged and after pulling out his wand, dragged it across a dial that set the temperature. "Done,"

"Good," Draco seemed a little satisfied. "Everything seems to be going well, I mean. How hard could it be? Baking some cookies…honestly." He then peered down at the recipe once more, "Alright… 'Grease an 11x7 inch baking pan'…" he opened an overhead cupboard to search for a baking pan but as soon as he had opened it, an avalanche of silver pots and pans rained down upon Draco who took a step back, just in time.

As the chaotic assortment in the cupboards substantially fell to the ground and onto the counter-tops, loud, jarring noises rang out and reverberated within the room. Goyle clapped his hands to his ears as Draco shied himself away to avoid being concussed. This all happened in a split-second and Draco uncoiled himself to whistle, a little impressed. "That was close." He gingerly stepped in and out of the cooking utensils spread precariously onto the floor and used a finger to point at each of them. "Nope…nope…nope…aha! That one," he picked the baking pan up in triumph and looked over at the other two boys in delight. "Everything's going so well!" he trilled. The other two just exchanged a glance. Draco was in a very strange mood today.

Draco, however, did not notice or pretended not to notice the awkward, contrastingly to the moment before, stilled air and spread the pan before him. He pulled out his wand from the fold of his robes and with one hand held the baking paper. "Diffindo," he muttered under his breath and the paper ripped clean away… "Ouch!" Draco swore colourfully as he saw blood starting to blossom at the tip of his index finger, which had been supporting the paper. "Stupid," he glared at the bubble of blood angrily, he had cast the spell a little too strongly, it wasn't meant to cut his finger too!

Goyle and Crabbe watched on, confused and not knowing what to do. They were very lost. They had never imagined Draco undertaking any task so willingly and with determination. Especially not baking cookies! House-elves' jobs, he used to scoff…now look at that hunched figure, spraying grease over the paper on the baking pan. They shook their heads; the world was truly coming to an end.

"What are you doing? Staring like that," Draco snapped. Well, at least not everything had changed. Crabbe and Goyle rushed forwards immediately to see what help Draco needed but tripped over the still very dangerously littered objects on the floor and fell on their buttocks with a loud crash. Draco rolled his eyes at the sight, "Dunderheads," he uttered with a long-suffering sigh, "Get a medium bowl and cream together the butter and sugar. I think I've done enough work, haven't I?" he surveyed his still dripping finger, "Beat an egg and lemon peel Crabbe while Goyle, you can get another bowl to stir the flour, almonds, cinnamon and cloves together after you've done the butter and sugar." Draco nimbly stepped around the two boys still lying on the floor and flopped on a nearby chair, "Well!" he demanded, "Get to work. This is too dangerous for me. Mother will have a fit if she sees what state I am in," he gave a dramatic sigh and lay down in a comfortable position.

Crabbe and Goyle blinked. Well, they should have known. In their dreamswould Draco undertake any task willingly and diligently. They both got to their feet after a few grunting and picked two bowls off the floor. Draco surveyed the scene with amusement as they continued to bellow at each other and run into appliances and cooking equipment to look for the ingredients. They eventually, after thirty minutes of aimless searching, succeeded in throwing the ingredients in the bowl and after another thirty minutes found two large blunt objects to start pounding the ingredients in the bowl together.

Draco, at this stage, had been lying on his back, reading a thick potions book but when he heard the harsh sounds of blunt objects colliding into plastic and if they missed, other surfaces of metal and wood, got to his feet howling. "No! You idiots, not thatbeating!" Draco's finger had stopped bleeding and he was feeling a little more energetic. The ingredients in the bowls were starting to splatter out of the bowl with such forceful hitting.

"Move!" Draco forced himself in between the two and grabbed a fork. He seized the bowl away from Goyle and started to stir vigorously, venting his annoyance into the mixture. "Can't you two do anything right?"

Goyle started to back away as he saw a harsh, angry glimmer residing in those grey eyes and felt a little fearful. The fearful demeanour gave away to the one of pain however as he had accidentally backed away to make contact with the very hot oven door. He yowled in shock and pain as he jumped from foot to foot, nursing his pulsing hand.

"Imbecile!" Draco screamed, not able to take in how many mistakes were being made just to bake a few Salazar-forsaken cookies! Weren't they meant to be relaxing and for Christmas cheer! Whoever wrote that stupid book about what to give your love interest for Christmas, Draco was surely going to murder him or her, the gender did not matter! "Put it under the water," Draco pointed his wand at the tap and it burst out an icy jet of water, which Goyle hurriedly put his throbbing hand under. He gave Draco a watery look of gratitude to which Draco scowled.

Crabbe looked on sympathetically at Goyle while Draco tried to beat the mixture in the bowl Goyle had been beating. "Salazar-forbid! Look at this sloppy mixture! ONE egg Goyle!! ONE EGG!" Draco pushed the bowl away from him with great force, his face screwed up in amazement at the stupidity of his two alleged friends. Goyle was too busy looking at his hand to notice and yet Crabbe tripped over an innocent saucepan on the floor and this time, fell flat on his face. CRASH.

"WHAT IN MERLIN'S NAME IS GOING ON HERE?" A deep, mellow voice raised in anger punctuated the vibration caused by Goyle and Draco instantly froze. Harry Potter appeared at the doorway, his pyjamas still on and his glasses askew. His bottle green eyes were livid with anger. Crabbe shrank back, still on the floor as Harry also froze in his tracks to match Malfoy. "Malfoy!" he snapped, "what are you doing?" disbelief was etched on his face and he was trying very hard to keep his draw from dropping.

"I-I'm baking cookies," Draco grimaced at the shakiness of his voice. He exhaled and squared his shoulders in defiance but Harry's gaze was diverted to Goyle. "And what happened to him?" Harry suddenly asked, his voice softening a little. "Oh, he got burnt," Draco, added dismissively, waving a hand. Harry, however, was over in a stride, taking a look at the burn, "It looks bad," he commented as he examined the raw patch of skin, "You should go to Madame Pomfrey, she'll fix it."

Oh yes, as always…Saint Potter. Goyle jerked his hand back under the icy pour of water and only grunted in response. Draco's mouth had gone dry. This was the perfect opportunity, if only he could get the two dunderheads to leave. But Draco Malfoy was the master in the art of manipulation; he knew exactlywhat to do. "Crabbe, take Goyle to Madame Pomfrey and get her to look at it." Crabbe tried to regain some of his lost dignity by jumping to his feet and by dragging a simpering Goyle out of the room. He, being unaware that it had all been lost long ago.

As the twosome shuffled past Harry, Crabbe even elbowing him in the stomach, Harry's attention became fixed upon Draco once more. Draco felt himself shaking a little and his head feel slightly dizzy to become enshrouded in mist as those bottle green eyes bore into him. "You're crazy," Harry announced, after scrutinising him for a while. Draco found himself echoing those words as if in a trance, "Yeah, crazy." Harry shook his head, "It's almost midnight. I was tryingto get some sleep ages ago but you – just – wouldn't – shut – up!"

Draco snapped himself out of those mesmerising eyes to actually take in the words, "Well, no one told you stick your do-gooder nose into it!" he spat.

"I'm the Gryffindor Quidditch captain, the captains' rooms are right next to the prefect's dorms! I'm a light sleeper okay? You've been banging and screaming in here for hours! The others must be deafnot to hear it!" Harry ruffled his messy jet-black hair in agitation and Draco found himself staring. "W-well, you go right back to your captains' rooms and leave me to back these cookies!" he shouted, his face turning slightly pink, "I need to get these done by Christmas day tomorrow."

Harry had been ready to retort with all his strength but he visibly deflated at these words, "…cookies? For…Christmas?" he seemed slightly taken aback but he regained his posture and gave a derisive snort, "Ha! That's rich. You don't have anyone to give those to!" Harry paused, "Oh?" he mocked, "Your mummyand daddy. And it seems like you are doing a wonderfuljob at it," he continued sarcastically. Draco's face burned, "Get out," he muttered dangerously. It had been a stupid idea anyway, "Now,"

"Yeah, well if you make another noise, I'm seriously telling Prof Mcgonagall. I've got a game tomorrow; just because you got kicked off the Slytherin team doesn't mean you have to be so inconsiderate to the others."

Draco growled in response.

"You should be grateful," Harry pressed on darkly, "If you're quick enough you don't need to explain the conjured appliances and ingredients in your room from the kitchen…" He turned around as if to leave and Draco turned to the dismal bowl he had pushed away, his hands trembling uncontrollably and top of that, the back of his eyes started to water. Those words really stung. Get a grip, Malfoy…Draco tipped the mixture out on a chopping board and felt the tightness and constriction of his chest go up a notch as he saw the watery blob that was meant to be the dough. Great…why are you still doing this? He thought furiously to himself, it's not even going to appreciated or even known for that matter…then why, do you want to still go on ahead of it…after you know what a failure it is?

That was when he suddenly felt strong arms around him and a warm body close in on him. Draco's heart escalated into erratic beats. He had been so wrapped up in his own thoughts; he had not heard the footsteps approaching him! "That's disgusting," Harry said as he looked at the blob, meant to be the dough. Draco ducked away from him, his face flushing a deep crimson. He had not expected Harry to approach him from behind either!

Harry turned to Draco who only stared back with widened, for once, unguarded grey eyes. "You're hopeless," he gathered more flour in his hands and rubbed them over the blob. He did this over and over again with great patience so that the blob gradually started to become dough. Draco watched on, using the time to get used to Harry's unfamiliar company and to watch his archrival show such care and diligence in his task. He knew he was hopeless…hopelessly in…

"See?" Harry looked triumphant, breaking Draco's thoughts. Draco flushed in embarrassment, "Well, Goyle did that," he reputed quietly, "If I had done it…it wouldn't have been a problem."

Harry's sudden high spirit seemed to crash back down to reality as he blinked. He shrugged, "Well, knead it."

Draco approached the dough and tried to moisten it and make it come together but his thin, lithe fingers and hand could not really do the work sufficiently. Draco scowled as Harry quietly chuckled beside him. Draco had never heard Harry really laugh in his presence. It was…nice.

Harry took the dough from him and worked efficiently, forgetting Draco for a while but Draco wasn't annoyed. He was strangely very content to just watch his electric eyes focus in attentiveness, his messy hair be brushed aside impatiently with his wrist as he succeeded in making the stiff dough come together.

"Here," Harry passed it onto Draco, who took it without another word. Harry also reached for the recipe, splattered with egg and butter. "Roll the dough out to 1/8 inch thickness and cut into rounds using a cookie cutter…" He looked meaningfully at Draco who found himself growing pink again. Draco nodded absent-mindedly as he began to roll the dough out to 1/8-inch thickness. He was surprisingly good at this and did this very quickly, to which Harry nodded, approvingly. Draco felt his knees grow weak and let himself exhale slowly as Harry turned around to find the cookie-cutter.

Harry passed one to Draco and they both started to cut into rounds. "Yours is growing all lop-sided," Harry commented. Draco stared down at his and realised that was true. He was reckless when it came to stamping; Draco had used force but not persistence so the edges had not come away completely causing him to move the cookie cutter in order to stamp the shape. This meant disfigured cookies.

"Yours are…" Draco looked over at Harry's perfect cookie shapes and pouted, "…err…not round,"

Harry glanced at him strangely, "We're using a cookie-cutter, of course the shape's round."

"No it's not!" Draco spoke hurriedly. Harry just smiled and a pleased tinge blossomed on his face. Draco was taken aback but just returned to his work. Ummm…Potter, half of the rounds should be on the baking tray. We can bake those."

"Oh?" Harry looked slightly crest-fallen, "Weren't there more to it?"

Draco's eyes widened in surprise, "Uh…yeah, but you can go now if you want." He faltered, "go and get your beauty sleep for tomorrow," he added, a little strained.

Harry's eyes swivelled back to Draco and he wiped the back of his wrist across his cheek, "You're hopeless," he repeated, "You probably can't do the rest by yourself."

There was pregnant silence as both boys refused to make eye contact. Draco was the first to break it; he placed half the rounds, 2 inches apart on the baking pan and using mittens, placed them in the preheated oven to bake. The other half was to have a Christmas tree shaped cookie-cutter to cut away the middle. Draco enjoyed cutting away the small little dough Christmas trees and his usually cold, guarded face allowed a small, treasured gleeful smile as he bent over his work carefully. His hands moved systematically. This time, it was Harry's turn to stare as he saw the pale boy not looking quite apathetic as he did most the time. His sarcastic manner and aloof demeanour was not evident at all. He seemed so ethereal and natural. Harry stretched out a hand subconsciously, to touch him. He wanted to see for himself, if this was the real him.

Draco looked up as he felt a warm, masculine hand stilling his own ones from doing their work and looked up in surprise. Harry's vibrant green eyes met the gaze as he looked down at him. A second ticked by to which Harry's mind was growing panicked; he had to say something, anything to excuse what he had done! Why had he touched him! He had not even meant it! To Harry's great relief, at that exact moment, the oven gave a small ding and Harry closed his eyes in gratitude. When he opened them again, he was in control once more, "The cookies are done."

Draco seemed a little disappointed, "Oh," he puffed. Then he stopped in pensiveness, "Oh Potter, wait a minute." Harry having turned away from him to collect the cookies in that instant felt Draco's hand around his wrist. It spun him around with amazing form for someone looking so lean and it put him off balance. "Ahhhh! What?" Harry toppled forwards abruptly and before he knew it, he saw Draco fall to the ground and instead of the ground, Draco rise up to meet him. Harry had Draco pinned under him and suddenly an electric shock that Harry had never experienced before developed from the pit of his stomach to spread to the rest of his body. Draco struggled from underneath him, "Oi, Potter. Get off me!"

Harry leant back on his knees so that he wasn't completely off Draco but he wasn't squashing him either. Draco stopped struggling but when saw the awkwardness of the whole situation, his face flushed a pretty pink once more and Harry just realised that this had been a mistake. The cookie baking was a mistake, not leaving and helping this hopeless child was a mistake.

"Get…off…me…" Draco repeated, fear starting to show in his eyes as Harry continued to loom over him. Harry opened his mouth, "What was it?" he asked softly. Draco felt himself panic a little, what was Potter asking him? It couldn't be about his feelings could it?…He could not tell him now…this confrontation was overbearing!

"Why did you want me to wait?" Harry repeated again.

"W-what do you mean?" Draco stammered.

"The reason why we fell to the ground, Malfoy! What did you want?" Harry demanded a little more furiously. That was when Draco understood, "Oh…as in why I stopped you from getting the cookies?" the question had been so simple, Draco suppressed the urge to laugh. "Oh…because," Draco extended a hand to wipe away the flour clinging onto Harry's cheek gently with his thumb. A fluttering feeling erupted from the tips of his fingertips and Draco dropped his hand hurriedly. At the same moment, Harry drew away.

"You…had flour…when you wiped…" Draco muttered incoherently but Harry just let him quieten down and Draco gazed up at him expectantly. Harry opened his mouth again, "the cookies…"

"Oh right," Draco stood up, his face a little shadowed and helped Harry up, his stance a little rigid.

Harry gingerly switched the cookies with the rounds with Christmas tree shapes in the middle and put the uncooked, patterned rounds in the oven.

"It smells good," Draco commented, satisfied as he saw the firm cookies that were light brown at the edges. They smelt like sugar and flour and a very warm Christmas evening.

Without they noticing, midnight was approaching and Draco and Harry sat side-by-side on the floor. Crabbe and Goyle must have returned to their dorms, Draco thought quietly, it was certain that Madame Pomfrey would never let students to be out of bed at night. The smell wafting from the oven was too enticing…and so was the shampoo that Potter used…nope! Got a little sidetracked…Draco shook his head, "Potter, why did you help me?" he asked suddenly.

Harry looked startled at the question, as if he did not know the answer himself. "Because you're hopeless at it…" he stated firmly, "you would have ended up like Goyle."

Draco huffed, "Don't compare me to that dunderhead!" he snarled, "and I didn't need your help orsympathy!"

"And you call yourself his friend," Harry snorted, "And it wasn't out of sympathy…it was a basic duty as a human being, Merlin knows what would have happened in here and constant banging would have kept on waking me up. Best to get it over and done with so that I could sleep."

"Go sleep now!" Draco fumed, "Nobody is stopping you. We have it all done, all I need to do is put the jam on and I can do that!"

Harry ignored him, "It's done," he interrupted as the oven dinged.

Draco stalked past him and took the pan out. The cookies with the Christmas tree shape cut out were hot so Harry and Draco spread the jam on the tops of the solid cookies and when the cookies with the shapes cut out had cooled, put them on top.

Even though there was terse air between them, they could not help but marvel at the aesthetically pleasing cookies. Draco gingerly held one in his hand, "Try it," he commanded. Harry placed him under his green scrutiny before he bit down on the cookie Draco held out to him instead of taking it into his own hands. Draco was surprised but watched on as Harry munched. He waited anxiously and sighed in relief as Harry grinned, "It's nice."

"Who are they for?" Harry asked after a while of pensive thought.

Draco's face turned brick red, "Oh, someone."

"Oh," Harry stopped his chewing, "Then I can't have more than one can I?"

"No! Have them all," Draco pushed the batch towards Harry without hesitation.

"B-but…don't you need to give them to -"

"Oh, don't worry about it. Just have it." Draco insisted, his grey eyes set determined.

"You…sure?" Harry stuttered.

"Yeah," Draco nodded furiously, "Absolutely positive."

Harry watched Draco for a long while, making him feel a little uncomfortable but just shrugged and reached for another cookie.

That was when Draco could not take it anymore. He needed to do something reckless, anything!

"Potter!" For the second time in the evening, Draco grabbed Harry's wrist reaching for the cookie and dragged him towards him. Harry fell forward in surprise and Draco caught his lips with his own.

The pillow of flesh was warm and tactile, the friction causing waves of pure bliss through Draco. As he deepened the kiss, Draco found he could taste the sugar and the cookie crumbs lingering in the caverns of Harry's mouth and after just a moment of shock and confusion, Harry's started to respond. Slowly but reassuring as they explored the secrets and unprecedented caverns of each other. It caused something glorious and warm to bubble from the pit of their stomach to engulf them in a dizzy feeling of pleasure, relief and release of the tension. As Harry pulled away, Draco sighed against his mouth.

Harry took a few faltering steps backwards to which Draco watched, unfazed. His beautiful eyes were still alight with life and yet were sparkling oddly with pleasure and surprise.

"W-what…are you…-?" he gasped.

Draco leaned forwards, closing the gap in between them quickly, eager to taste him again, "Merry Christmas,"

RECIPE FOR LOVE [CHRISTMAS COOKIES

INGREDIENTS

3/4 cup butter, softened

1 cup white sugar

1 egg

1 teaspoon lemon zest

2 cups all-purpose flour

3/4 cup blanched slivered almonds, ground

1 teaspoon ground cinnamon

1/8 teaspoon ground cloves

1 cup raspberry jam

DIRECTIONS

Step 1: Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Grease an 11x7 inch baking pan.

Step 2: In a medium bowl, cream together the butter and sugar. Beat in the egg and lemon peel. In another bowl, stir together the flour, almonds, cinnamon and cloves. Gradually stir the dry ingredients into the creamed mixture. The dough will be stiff, so you may need to knead it by hand to get it to come together. Press half of the dough into the bottom of the prepared pan.

Step 3: Roll the dough out to 1/8 inch thickness and cut into rounds using a cookie cutter. Place cookies onto a cookie sheet spaced 2 inches apart. Count your rounds and use a small cookie cutter to cut the center out of half of the cookies. This can be done while the other half of the cookies bakes.

Step 4: Bake for 10 to 12 minutes in the preheated oven, until firm and lightly browned at the edges. Allow cookies to cool completely. Spread jam on the tops of the solid cookies and top with the cookies that have shapes cut out.

Love it? Hate it? let me know PLEASE!!

noeru K