A.N: Hey, this was originally written for my best friend as we did a fanfiction secret santa but she gave me permission to post it here also.
I hope you enjoy, please if you see any mistakes or anything I could add don't hesitate to inform.
The mug chinked against the gold ore marbled into the table. It steamed chocolate into the air in small flapping robins who swirled around each other as she stirred the hot chocolate, cream melting into the drink in a pale froth. Hermione set her book down marking the page. She wrapped her now un-gloved hands around the cup and sighed as she brought it to her mouth; winter was beautiful but it wasn't half cold.
Hogwarts had been wrapped in a quilt of white for about a month now and as most of its students had gone home for Christmas it almost looked as if it could be sleeping, quite peacefully so. She was the only one out of the trio who had stayed at school for the holidays, the Weasleys had offered to have her stay as well as Harry but she felt it was an intrusion. Her parents, who would have been her first port of call had gone to Australia to see family there, which should have made Hermione feel lonely or forgotten, but she felt almost relieved, she didn't seem to fit with her parents lives anymore.
The liquid scorched her lips and turned her tongue to sandpaper, Hermione winced, nearly dropping the mug on the table. She moved her book out of the way and flicked her wand to bubble away the spillage.
"Still clumsy then Granger" A voice crooned from above her and she looked up, flicking her hair out of her eyline.
"Still an arse Malfoy?" She returned.
"Depends on whether you think I'm cute or not?"
Luckily her face was still red from the outside chill so he was unaware of the reaction that comment got.
Draco sat down in the occupied booth across from her, the worn padding moulding with his form. Hermione picked up her drink again crossing her legs as she did so moving them away from his as he stretched out.
"Make yourself comfortable!"
"I will, thank-you" He replied raising his arms and extending.
His eyes glinted at her in a pale grey hue and his lips quirked at the corners at Hermione's obvious distaste.
Hermione narrowed her eyes slightly and glared at him, alarmed at the fact that Draco Malfoy was sitting across from her... This wasn't a common occurrence
"You don't usually stay for Christmas"
"Neither do you"
They both looked at each other and inhaled, understanding the same thing at once. They'd both been left.
Hermione drank more of her hot chocolate, just to be doing something, his gaze was unnerving, but strangely familiar, like she'd felt it regularly.
"Are you willing to do this whole Christmas thing?" He asked suddenly, pulling himself into a more upright position.
"Christmas thing?"
"Yeah, I mean, do you mind if... I tag along" He shuffled about a bit, losing composure.
"You want to spend Christmas with me?" She repeated incredulously. "I am a muggleborn"
"Yes, I'm aware, but that should make you an expert on Christmas right." The smirk was back.
They both walked in silence, un-awkward but not comfortable, something there that wanted to be said. The footsteps crunched and hissed in sequence and was soon joined by Hermione's snuffling as her nose pinched with the cold. Draco looked sideways, concerned as he watched Hermione unconsciously hunching in on herself .
"Look, take this!" He said almost exasperated. Beginning to open and take off his coat.
"What! No!" She began staring at him, his fingers peeling away the layer of clothing. She then swung away quickening her pace.
Draco groaned, truly exasperated now. He scanned the shop signs and caught Hermione up taking her elbow and guiding her to the closest door, despite her rather feeble attempts at further protest.
The shop was quaint, and snug, with winter furs lining every wall and circular table in sight. The door was low enough that Draco had to duck through it and the ceiling was only an inch above his standing height, but with him dressed as he was Hermione was half tempted to push him against the wall and see if he blended in. He wouldn't have though, she though, his skin was far too pale to blend in with even the whitest of furs in the shop.
Draco moved away from her and towards a rack of suede. Hermione in turn readjusted her bag but remained stoic, glancing to and from the door clocking her chances of escape. They were slim. And It's not escaping if you don't mind the current situation, she thought. Hermione told her inner monologue to shut up and continue to watch Draco as his hands fingered and then slid along the coats.
"Are you planning on standing there a while Miss. Granger" His chin was aimed at her and she could just see the up-tilt of his smile before he turned back to the garments and brushed them aside. "Come here and take your pathetic excuse of a jacket off."
"I can't afford these Malfoy, what are we doing here, the agreement was to walk back to Hogwarts, if you are intent on being difficult..."
"One, you don't need to afford them, I can and two, we are walking to Hogwarts...technically, we haven't walked a step in the opposite direction, have we?" He smirked slightly and took the coat he was holding off its hanger and held it in her direction.
She sighed and stalked over to him, thrusting her bag and now discarded jacket into his shoulder for him to fumble at with his free hand momentarily taken aback but less so when she began to twist the fur lined garment around her torso and over her shoulders; perking the collar into place next to her neck.
"Well...?" Hermione was looking away from the boy before her but was fully aware of his presence.
"Adequate, Take it off, back of the shop, cloaks." He practically ordered, hanging her belongings on a nearby hook and brushing past her. She had only just noticed how fantastic he smelled; did he always smell of cinnamon? Or did Peeves throw scented Snowballs at him as well? The first years usually got the brunt of that but since there weren't many still at Hogwarts this year...
Hermione followed Malfoy around to the back of the shop where it was slightly darker with only three candles glowing among the fabric. Draco draped a cloak over her head and tied the front. Hermione was frozen in place, trying to breath like a normal human as his hands went behind her head to pull up the hood. The lining was a dark soft-as-down fleece with gold trimming and a crushed emerald fabric to keep away the wind. It was probably the most expensive item of clothing Hermione had ever touched, let alone worn.
Draco's hand followed the trim of the hood and ghosted over her cheek, painting the blush with his fingertips until his thumb reached her chin. All the air had solidified in Hermione's system and refused to move as the warmth pulsed through her skin and radiated into her skull.
"You look lovely in green." He hushed.
"I'm a Gryffindor." She replied, managing to move the air stored in her lungs into a short coherent sentence.
"Yes" His eyes looked behind her. "Red it is, it'll match this" He retraced his touch over her cheek."And these..." He retracted his hands and picked up some brown leather gloves, with a red lining before walking past her to the similarly styled cloak.
Hermione stuttered a breath, heaving in the oxygen, while using her quivering fingers to release the clasp.
They were walking again, the silence a little more comfortable now, although buzzing, like it an opportunity left unused. Hermione glanced at Malfoy and swallowed thickly, her tongue not paying as much attention to her commands as its had done for previous years of her lifetime. But she noticed just for a second, a looking of longing, aimed at Honeydukes.
Are you actually kidding me. But she thought back, she couldn't remember ever seeing Draco in the sweet store, or ever eating anything sugary at all; not that she'd been paying attention. She halted in her tracks, the cloak swinging around her. It took Draco a few paces to notice that she had stopped.
"Thought you were in a hurry to get back." His eyebrow raised as he cocked his head at her.
"Hogwarts isn't going anywhere."She turned and walked towards the sweet-adorned window still keeping an eye on Draco, gauging his reaction. It was masked but it was there, an adorable glimmer of hope, of an excuse. "I don't think I've ever seen you in here."
"No, I went in once but I didn't buy anything" He said, the mask cracking slightly.
"Come on, I'll re-inverse you in sweets." She said gesturing her head to the door and smiling, unabashedly happy that she had found a way to possibly shrink her guilt... he had bought her an incredibly expensive cloak. And gloves...and gloves.
As soon as the door opened the smell of Christmas overwhelmed them, although Draco wasn't entirely familiar with it. He just knew it smelt good. It was as if sugar had been dissolved in the air and in turn was dissolving into his bloodstream with every breath. Glass jars of every sugary treat imaginable were lined along the minted green shelves, linked with toy trains carrying samples of their delights in their carriages . A gold waterfall of syrup flowed over the top of a shelf and smelted into the ground below, the froth spinning into candy floss and floating out of the sugar lake only to be bejewelled in glitter and coloured sherbet as they bopped to the ceiling. The centrepiece of the shop was an almost life-sized gingerbread house, with iced glass windowpanes and candy cane fencing surrounded by a syrup moat.
Draco was in awe, he was literally a kid in a candy shop. His eyes had begun to spark and his mouth was parted to capacitate the extra need of breath, to subconciously inhale the childhood he'd missed out on.
"Where would you like to start?" Hermione could barely contain her smile now it spread across her face making her glow, combined with the ruby of her cloak, to Draco she was radiant.
"Where would you suggest?"
"The fainting fancies!" She chimed spinning to find the jar.
How apt.
Hermione had all but drowned Draco in treats, out of guilt and to see the look of delight every time he tried a new sweet; there were only around three he didn't like in the whole store. Now as they walked past the gates the silence was almost companionable. The buzz was still there but it was almost a part of the conversation.
They stopped outside the entranceway and Hermione handed Draco another of his sweet laden bags leaking glitter onto the cobbled floor and her new apparel, the shop attendant had gone a little over board, but then again so had they. She looked down at the cobblestone and smiled again.
"See you at breakfast" Malfoy said.
Hermione nodded and started to wonder away getting more and more confused at what had just happened over the last two hours with each step.
"A warning that I will be considerably fatter" He called to her. "But no less attractive."
She rolled her eyes, so he hadn't changed then.
Hermione grabbed a book from her small nightstand and scurried downstairs, she had only very quickly brushed her hair and so it remained as a mane of fuzz around her head, swishing about as she walked. Today the school staff were to put up the Christmas decorations and like the child she was this made her incredibly happy. As she trotted she was glad to see that some of the traditions were similar with that of her usual muggle Christmases, paper chains for instances were already weaving about in the air.
She rounded the corner to the great hall and began to walk the aisle to her usual seat before she stopped dead. Draco Malfoy was sitting in her seat, drinking a cup of tea and staring at her like this was a usual occurrence. He actually looked puzzled at her abrupt stalling.
He wasn't confused however he was amused, and slightly apprehensive, there were some second years who had been whispering and pointing at him for the last ten minutes and that made him even more unsure as to whether or not he should be sitting on this table.
"You going to sit down Granger?" Hermione sat and narrowed her eyes across the table .
"Any particular reason for why you are sitting at my table?"
"Yes, I am bored of these two types of sweets..." He slid the two oddly shaped boxes across the table "Care to share?"
"Its eight in the morning"
"Problem?"
She picked out a sweet from the taller box and twisted it open...
"Yeah, No, I can't eat this right now" She wrapped it back up and requested some toast, which appeared before her along with butter.
They both sat in silence for a bit, Hermione watched the decorations ballooning across the length of the hall, in streaks of the house colours, it was odd to see the mixture of colour when the traditional was red and gold, but it made sense to not favour one house over the rest. The decorations were actually quite different to normal muggle ones upon closer inspection, the weirdest of which was the small monkeys swinging in swooping arcs along the ceiling. Are monkeys even a magical creature? She didn't think so.
"You were actually serious about this 'Christmas thing'?" She said, eyeing the tree in the corner of the hall, which was bare as of yet.
"Yeah, we tend not to celebrate it so much in my family" Draco looked over his shoulder in the same direction as Hermione. "Yeah, why is there a giant tree in doors?"
She looked at him as if he were mad, it was a Christmas tree and she told him as much, still shocked at his confusion, it was meant for this time of year.
"As far as I'm aware that just a pine tree." He replied.
Hermione stood up and gestured at Draco to follow her.
Within the room of requirement it looked exactly like the Gryffindor common room except for the giant tree in the middle of the room, the fancy decorations in boxes and the stockings by the fireplace.
"Your lesson begins now"
"I wasn't aware I was to be taught"
Hermione started to talk mainly at Draco but some of it went in. Baubles were hung of the tree and there was a distinct shortage in space to put the glass balls anymore.
But all he could really think about was her, and how close she was, without her being distant and closed off, in both senses. He felt something unlock inside him and smiled. Hermione saw him and smiled back, pleased that they had done this, that she had finally figured him out.
Draco heard a rustling above his head. He looked up at the mistletoe, she hadn't noticed it yet and was bending down to take a shiny red bauble out of the box. He waited for her to drape it from the branch and then touched her elbow, raising his eyes so that she too knew what was going on. He could see her physically gulp.
"I didn't ask for that" She squeaked. Draco took a step forward and he muscles tensed and relaxed in double time. He wasn't.
"Hermione..."
He did, his hand reached to her jaw line and up into her hair before moving his face closer until his lips pressed hers gently. Her eyes fluttered shut and she reached up to hold onto his shirt before her knees buckled and she landed in a puddle of glass. Her mouth was on fire, and it spread down her throat and flowed through her chest and continued, until her whole body was engulfed in flames, she supposed that this was what it was like to drink firewhiskey.
Draco moved his arm around her lower back and pulled her forward pressing down on her mouth for a second before relaxing, opening his mouth to coax hers to do the same. She complied, unconsciously, allowing him entrance and he tasted amazing, like raw cinnamon and cream.
He let her go and her knees finally gave out, he was already supporting her so it wasn't a problem, he chuckled and guided her to the comforter, letting hr sit before joining her. Hermione rested her head on his shoulder and he put his arm around her. We fit, she thought.
A.N: Thank-you for reading, I hope you enjoyed this.
It is fairly likely that I will post an M Rated add-on to this in the future so if you are interested in breaking your fluff-filled session of cosiness you should check back to my profile for that.
Have a nice day.