Author's Note: I actually didn't think I would be up late once again in the early hours of the morning writing a story once again (that's what I did yesterday when I published the first chapter of my first multi-chaptered story "Harry Potter and the Book of the Three Kings"). But when I was about to take a shower, I decided to try this shampoo that I got from my aunt for Christmas that smelled like sugar cookies, milk, and snickerdoodles and then all of a sudden the idea for this story popped into my head which lead me to writing the whole story in my head as I showered. I think it's kind of an interesting story. It's A/U because it fits into my own little world that I've created in my song potion series and my first multi-chaptered story and also the fact that I have Harry and Ginny dating earlier in HBP then canon. So I hope that you like it!
Disclaimer: I don't own Harry Potter and I'm never going to. I'm sorry, but it's just not gonna happen.
Coconut Macaroons
Ron Weasley lay in bed wide awake despite the fact it was around one in the morning. It wasn't because he couldn't sleep, it was because he was too busy observing the sleeping, bare form of his girlfriend Hermione Granger. She looked so angelic when she was asleep like this with her hair splayed across his bare chest. He remembered when it used to be quite bushy, but now a days was much tamer then it had been when he first met her. That hair was one of the many things that he loved about her. Another thing he loved about that hair was the way it smelled: it smelled like coconut macaroons.
Ron didn't get how her hair could always smell so much like his favourite biscuit; it was one of those mysteries that he pondered about. Did she have a special shampoo that smelled like coconut macaroons, or did she use a shampoo that smelled like coconuts and use some other product that made her hair smell so delicious to him? It was one of those questions that he would think about from time to time.
But there was a funny thing about coconut macaroons; he used to hate them for many years.
It all started when Ron was three-years-old and his mum had baked a different kind of biscuit one day instead of the chocolate chip ones that he loved to eat all the time. These biscuits were puffy looking and had some tan coloured shavings on the top of it. When he asked his mum what they were, she told him that they were coconut macaroons. Unsure of this coconut macaroon, he apprehensively tried one. It was one of the best things he had ever eaten. What had looked like a hard, crunchy thing was actually moist and chewy, and the way the coconut played across his taste buds made him smile with happiness. He decided that he loved coconut macaroons.
He didn't start to hate coconut macaroons until his mum brought him and his other six siblings to see his Aunt Muriel a few months later. Even at the age of three Ron never really liked the old woman. When he got there and saw that she had put out coconut macaroons, he couldn't help but not hate the old bag as much. But that's when things changed. It was when Ron was trying to eat one of the coconut macaroons that Aunt Muriel saw him wolfing them down that she slapped him on the back telling him to stop eating so many. The slap on the back caused Ron to choke on the macaroon he was eating. It wasn't until his mum came back into the room and saw that her youngest son was turning blue from lack of oxygen that anyone did anything. He decided because he almost died from the damn macaroon lodged in his throat that he hated coconut macaroons and that he would never love them again.
Years passed and Ron kept to his hatred of all coconut macaroons. When his first year of Hogwarts was starting, he was exited to finally be going to school. He boarded the train only to find that all of the compartments were already filled except for one that only contained a scrawny, black haired boy who wore a pair of glasses. He met his first best friend that day when Harry allowed him to join him in the compartment. When a bushy haired girl already in her school robes came by asking he or Harry had seen a toad, that's when the trouble started. For when she stepped into the compartment, she brought with her the smell of coconut macaroons, and worse, it was coming from that big mass of hair. Because she smelled of the biscuit that almost cost him his life, he decided that he could never like, let alone be friends with this girl whose name turned out to be Hermione.
His mind changed about Hermione when she overheard him insulting her after charms class one day. He felt a bit guilty that he had hurt her feelings, but what really changed his mind was when she had been cornered in a girls' lavatory by a mountain troll that somehow had gotten into the school. It was then that he decided that he could be friends with Hermione despite the fact her hair smelled like coconut macaroons.
Second year brought with it a whole new set of problems. The first was when someone opened the chamber of secrets and was attacking muggleborn students. Another was when the whole school started to think that Harry was the heir of Slytherin even though he knew his friend wasn't. But the worst was when Hermione had been petrified before the Gryffindor/Hufflepuff match. It was awful to see her lying so still in a hospital bed, and what struck Ron as strange was while he missed his other best friend, he actually missed the smell of her hair. It bothered him a bit that he never once smelled coconut macaroons the whole time she had been petrified. He though he would have been happy for at least that, but he found himself missing the smell of the biscuit that he hated. When Hermione was finally revived, he would now fully admit that he was glad to smell coconut macaroons once again.
Third year found himself fighting with Hermione all the time, mostly over the fact he was positive that her cat was trying to eat his rat Scabbers. When he accused her that Crookshanks had eaten Scabbers, they didn't talk to each other. And because he was fighting with her, they didn't hang out together which meant that Ron didn't smell her coconut macaroon scented hair for a while again. He told himself good riddance since he didn't like the biscuit anyway and he was fighting with her anyway. It wasn't until Buckbeak had been sentenced to a hearing and Ron had volunteered to help Hermione try to help her build a case that Hermione actually hugged him. He was in shock because she had never hugged him before. And also he got to smell her hair up close, and it did smell really, really good.
Fourth year the Triwizard Tournament took place and Harry was entered. Ron had been stupid enough to think that his friend had entered himself, but he was just jealous that his best mate was getting so much attention and he hardly got any. It was also when the Yule ball took place that Ron realized that he had to find a date. He had asked Hermione as a last resort saying that she was a girl after all (which he now realized was a stupid ass thing to have said) but she had said that someone else had asked her to the ball already. He had been sure at the time that she only said no because she was being stubborn and didn't really have a date, but when he saw her on the arm of Victor Krum, he realized that his feelings for Hermione might be changing. Also he didn't like the fact that some other bloke got to be that close to her and smell the smell of coconut macaroons. Even though he hated coconut macaroons still, he didn't understand why he was getting so worked up over it. He even started a fight after the ball was over with her because he was jealous of her being with Krum. That night Ron started to think that maybe he didn't hate coconut macaroons as much as he thought he did.
Fifth year found Ron as the new keeper of the Gryffindor Quidditch team. The first game of the year was one of the first times that Harry and Hermione found Ron unable to eat (which had even shocked Ron a bit seeing as he always ate, even when he had a stomach bug when he was eight he was always eating). It was when he was getting up to leave that Hermione surprised him: she kissed him on the cheek and he got to have a strong whiff of her hair. Ron was stunned beyond words as he lightly touched the place where her lips had made contact with the skin of his cheek. Now he was really starting to think that he might not hate macaroons anymore.
But before the first game of the year last year, Ron changed his mind again. When he and Harry found Dean and Ginny kissing in a deserted corridor and he and Ginny started to have words, Ginny said that Hermione had kissed Krum. Something in him broke as he thought about how that ass got to kiss her and smell her coconut macaroon scented hair that he decided that he no longer cared. He started dating Lavender Brown shortly after that. And to Ron, her hair smelled nothing like coconut macaroons, and he couldn't be happier that his girlfriend didn't smell like the biscuit that he hated so much. As December went by, Ron found himself always snogging with Lavender at every chance they got and he found out that she kind of tasted like chocolate chip biscuits which he claimed was his favourite biscuit. And yet something wasn't right, and he didn't know what.
Ron finally figured it out on Christmas Eve when he was home for the holidays. Ron sat in the kitchen as he watched Ginny pull something out of the oven; she had made coconut macaroons. The hot, fresh smell of them danced in the air and Ron couldn't help but think about Hermione and the way her hair smelled exactly like the fresh biscuits his sister had just made. He watched as Ginny put a few on a plate and went into the sitting room where Harry sat on the worn out sofa and sit down next to him. She picked one up and fed it to Harry. Ron watched as Harry nodded his head in approval and smiled. Harry picked up another one of the macaroons and fed it to Ginny before she kissed him.
Ron looked down at the tray of macaroons and decided to try one of the biscuits that he had hated for the last thirteen years of his life. He picked one up and as soon as he took a bit, he savoured the taste that he had missed for so long. Ginny had made then perfectly; they were moist, chewy, and the coconut danced across his tongue along with what he believed to be cinnamon in ways that filled him with happiness.
And that's when Ron realized two things: one, he loved coconut macaroons, and two, he loved Hermione Granger.
He knew that he had been trying to deny the fact that his feelings for Hermione were more then just friendly, but he was too stubborn to admit that he loved her. He also realized that his whole biscuit love/hatred was related to his Hermione/Lavender problem. Hermione was his coconut macaroon; he loved her so much but he didn't want to admit it since she clearly didn't love him. And Lavender was his chocolate chip biscuit; while he did like her like he liked the biscuit, Lavender just wasn't Hermione, just like chocolate chip biscuits weren't like coconut macaroons. Ron picked up another macaroon and ate it, all the while thinking how pathetic it was that he was comparing his love life to biscuits.
His birthday was definitely a turning point in his relationship with Hermione. When he got poisoned and had been in the hospital wing unconscious, he had had a dream about Hermione. It was strange since the dream had started out with him following the smell of what he thought had been fresh baked coconut macaroons. But when he reached the source of the heavenly smell, he found out that it wasn't a plate of coconut macaroons that he had found, he had found Hermione. And she surprised him when she wrapped her arms around his neck and drew his head down and pressed her lips to his. He couldn't believe that she was kissing him, and to his amazement she also tasted like those wonderful macaroons that he loved so much. Ron found himself whispering her named when their lips broke apart for air. He was heartbroken when he woke up only to find that it all been a dream; a wonderful, magical dream. His relationship with Lavender disintegrated not long after that.
During the past summer, he remembered Bill's wedding when he got to dance with Hermione for most of the night. While he had hated dancing at the Yule ball three years ago, he found that he liked dancing when he got to dance with Hermione. He loved the fact that he got to hold her close to his body while they moved with the music, and he loved the fact that he got to smell her coconut macaroon scented hair so close to his nose. It was a delicious torture that he would gladly repeat over and over again. He just wished he had had the courage to tell her how he really felt about her then.
But back in September, that all changed. Harry and Ginny had gotten tired with Ron and Hermione dancing around their feeling for each other so they pranked Hermione into singing to him about how there wasn't any other man but him. She had run out of the room in shame, but he went after where he kissed her for the first time. And when they kissed, it was better then the dream he had had of himself and her kissing when he was unconscious in the hospital wing. He did find it funny though that like the dream, she tasted like coconut macaroons.
Ron placed a kiss on the top of her head and he felt Hermione stir before she woke up.
"Mmm, why are you still awake, love?" Hermione asked sleepily against his chest. Ron smiled and ran his hand down the smooth skin of her back, she shivered at the feeling.
"Just thinking about how much I love you and how your hair smells like coconut macaroons. I love that your hair smells like my favourite biscuit." Ron said as he wrapped his arms tightly around her and kissed her. After a few minutes they broke apart and Hermione snuggled back into his chest and placed a kiss on the skin over where his heart beat strong and sure.
"Hm, if you say so." Hermione whispered with a smile on her face before she fell back asleep on Ron's chest. He smiled before relaxing down into the pillow of his bed. Ron really did love Hermione beyond belief, and he really did love coconut macaroons.
Author's Note 2: Well, there ya go. And with the Christmas scene, I used the scene in the HBP movie but instead of Ginny feeding Harry what looked to be a mini quiche she fed him a coconut macaroon and then he fed one to her instead. But anyway, please review!