A/N Here it is darlings! I am sooooooo sorry for the wait, I know it's been forever, but I've been busy doing stuff. So anyways, here is the next chapter. The prompt is Cherries, submitted by Cupid'sDaughter19.
And no, I STILL don't own Harry Potter, it belongs to the lovely Joanne Katherine Rowling
Cherries
'Those cherries. Those God damn cherries. Why does she have to eat them so prettily anyways? Why couldn't she just pop them into her mouth and chew like a normal person?' Draco Malfoy thought to himself as he watched the Head Girl Hermione Granger slowly suck on a cherry as she flicked through a book. He shifted slightly on his chair, watching her across their shared head dorm. 'At least she isn't eating them with whipped cream like last week' he grumbled to himself.
You see, ever since Granger and I got chosen as Head Boy and Girl, we had to share a dorm with a common room. Mcgonnagall kept pushing and pairing the two of us together until we finally got sick of fighting and called a truce.
Before you know it, we had started helping each other with homework and things like that until we got quite close to each other. But as I started hanging out with her more, I noticed her eating habits.
Oh no, she didn't eat like a pig and she had excellent manners. But it was the cherries. I had discovered that she loved cherries, and I was okay with that, cherries are quite delicious. It was just the way she ate them that bothered me.
She didn't pop them in her mouth and chew like a normal human being, oh no, she had to eat them in a way that forced me to practice his self control.
She would dangle them in front of her mouth, holding the stem, then her tongue would slowly reach out and pull it into her mouth. She wouldn't even fully take it into her mouth. She'd slowly suck on half of it for awhile, as if she could taste it through the skin of the fruit, then she'd roll it around her tongue softly, before finally biting into it. Even then she'd close her eyes and savor the taste, a blissful expression on her face.
She didn't know I watch her of course, I make sure of that, but for some reason nowadays, whenever she looks at me, she gives me this meaningful look, like she knows something I don't. It's starting to scare me a bit. And by a bit, I mean a lot. I hope I haven't done anything, I may be a pureblood and an excellent wizard, but she was a downright genius. One does not simply mess with Hermione Granger and hope to live the rest of one's life without pain or humiliation.
As I watched her give a cherry a particularly delicious lick, and I internally groaned. There goes my afternoon studying.
1 Week Later.
She had gone back to whipped cream again. Sometimes, I wondered if the Gods were against me. I thought that it would be over by now, she had developed several passing food crushes in the past, and none had lasted this long. Her first one was bubblegum. That was ok, it was not that difficult the way her lips moved if you didn't think about it. It was harder when she was blowing bubbles of course, her lips pursed in a way that made me want to kiss them all day long, and the popping sound kept drawing my attention back to her lips again, but I held out, and ignored her. She got over gum in a couple of days. Her next food fetish was strawberries. And she had a tendency to pick the juiciest, plumpest, redest strawberries that trickled juice down her chin when ever she took a bite. And the sound she made when she got a particularly delicious strawberries had made me flee the room on more than one occasion.
Her next food of choice were peppermint sticks. I didn't even bother with trying to resist. I made it a point to never be in the same room as she was when she was sucking on one. And now she was eating those darn cherries with whipped cream again.
I sighed painfully as I spotted a dash of whipped cream on the corner of her mouth. The sound caused Hermione to look at him.
"Are you ok?" she looked at him with a concerned expression.
Oh great, now shes looking at me, he internally face plamed.
"Draco? Do you want to go to the Hospital Wing?" she walked over to me and perched lightly on the arm of the sofa I was sitting on.
She reached out to rest her hand on my forehead- presumed to feel my temperature- and as she leaned forwards, I could practically taste cherries on her lips, just from looking at them. It also didn't help that her top buttons were undone and she might have revealed a bit of lace as she leaned forwards.
I groaned out loud, which turned out to be a bad idea, since it only made her think that I was in pain.
"Are you ok? Draco say something" she said, beginning to panic slightly.
I managed an eye roll "Hermione, calm down woman, I'm fine, just kind of tired from studying"
She nodded in understanding and I continued.
"I think I'll go to bed early and I'll be fine tomorrow"I lied, I knew that I wouldn't be fine tomorrow, unless she quit her cherry obsession, which I found highly unlikely to happen any time soon.
As I retreated into my separate bedroom, I didn't see her frown at my back.
2 Days Later
Draco stared at his Ancient Runes textbook unseeingly. It was late, and as far as he knew, he was the only person left in the library, even Madam Pince had left long ago. The only reason he had been allowed to stay was because he was one of the only people (along with Hermione and a few Ravenclaws) who really used the library and had never been caught doing anything against the rules of the library. But just because she hasn't caught me doesn't mean I haven't been doing anything, Draco thought to himself with a smirk. He looked at the mess of runes and olden texts that swam across his vision and sighed.
Usually Hermione helped him with his Ancient Runes homework, but now that option was clearly out of the window. The past few days he had been avoiding her like the plague. He made it a point to never be in close proximity with her should she still smell like the sweet fruit that plagued his dreams. It was obvious that it hurt her, he could still clearly her hurt expression when he moved to a different seat when she sat next to him in Charms. So far, he had managed to avoid her attempts to talk to him, but he knew that she'd corner him in the end. It was just those cherries! They stained her lips a most delicious shade of red and their sweet-sour smell clung to her wherever she went. He couldn't risk being around her should he do something that might ruin their friendship, something like kiss for example, no, it wouldn't do, he would just have to talk to her and explain that he couldn't be friends with her anymore, even if that meant lying about as to why that was.
He sighed again and gathered his books and stuffed them into his bag. He was about to exit the library and to find Hermione when his path was blocked by said Gryffindor.
He immediately halted and searched his mind for a way out as Hermione glared at him. He decided at he should try an act normal.
"Good afternoon, Hermione" this only seemed to made her angrier.
"Don't you 'Good afternoon' me, Draco! We need to talk"
He pretended to be surprised "About what?"
She stalked towards him, forcing him to back up "You know exactly about what"
She continued walking towards him until she had him up against a bookshelf. "You've been ignoring me" she pronounced each word with a hard poke to his chest.
He raised an eyebrow "I have no idea what your talking about. I've just been studying, exams are in a month you know"
She glared at him again "Oh really? Than how come you haven't realized that your textbooks are missing?"
The little minx, he swore in his head. She must have stolen my books to see if I would react. I hadn't realized. "I have. I just haven't asked you" I replied, going along with it
She smirked "Aha! See, your textbooks haven't been touched, their still on the small table in our common room. This proves that you aren't studying and that your are avoiding me on purpose" she crossed her arms, triumphant before a thought occurred to her.
"Question is why" she frowned up at me before continuing in a softer tone.
"Why aren't you talking to me, Draco? Did I do something?" She bit her bottom lip worriedly "because if I did, I'm sorry"
I sighed but didn't reply strait away. When it was obvious that I wasn't going to reply, she continued.
"I mean, I've tried to talk to you and you completely ignore me. And you even moved away from me when I tried to sit next to you." She hesitated before continuing "Do you hate me now?"
I looked at her incredulously "Are you kidding me? Of course I don't hate you"
She frowned, worrying her forehead "But then why-"
I cut her off "It's those goddamn cherries!"
She blinked "Cherries? What cher-"
I didn't let her finish "You know exactly what I'm talking about, Hermione." I pushed my self off the book self and started walking towards her, so that I was the one forcing her back. "I'm talking about those delicious little red fruits that you never seem to stop eating!" I groaned. "I can't do this! Your seriously making me practice my control here 'Mione, and that's one thing I've never been good at!" I closed my eyes. "I don't want to do anything that I'll regret later, I don't want to ruin our friendship"
I opened my eyes and backed off, putting distance between the two of us. As I turned to leave, she called out "Draco, wait"
I took a deep breath and stopped. I heard her footsteps moving closer until she was standing in front of me. I could tell that she was waiting for me to look at her but I stubbornly didn't look her in the eye. She sighed and laid a gentle hand on my cheek. My eyes snapped to hers.
"Tell me Draco, what do the cherries make you want to do?" For a while we just stood there in the deserted library, neither one of us moving, neither one of us breathing. Until I covered her mouth with mine.
She tasted exquisite, exactly the way I imagined her to. She tasted of cherries, of sweetness and sugar. She tasted like Hermione. I hungrily devoured her mouth, forcing my tongue in, desperate to taste more of her. After awhile we parted and rested our foreheads against each others.
"You know something? I huskily whispered in her ear. I felt her shiver and shake her head no. I smirked. "I think cherries are my new favorite fruit."
So thats it people, I hope you enjoyed it and tell me what you think of it! Also, I might upload a new version of the first chapter because for some reason, I just realized how sucky it was compared to my other works :P Also, guys I could use some help with my POV writing, as some of you have probably noticed, I switch from third person to Draco's point of view a lot, I just don't really know how to do that! If someone could help me by giving some advice that'd be great.
Queen of Faerie