Title: The Possibilities of Melted Chocolate
Rating: PG-13
Pairing: H/Hr
Disclaimer: Don't own them. Blah.
Summary: Chocolatey fun with Harry and Hermione.
Author's Note: I got a little bored. At two in the morning. This is what happened. I'm not usually a H/Hr fan, but after the fifth book I started to get the feeling that we're being prepared for something. This is my way of acclimatising, I think. Plus, I wanted to feel like it was the summer.
For once, there wasn't a cloud in the sky. The sun beat down relentlessly, baking the grass and turning Hogwarts castle into a giant oven. Small bees floated in and out of the open windows in search of flowers. Hagrid was in the process of putting up a canopy to provide shade for his precious new batch of Blast-Ended Skrewts.
In the East wing of the castle, the intolerable heat was having a very strange effect on a group of sixth year Gryffindors. They were slumped over desks in Professor Mc Gonagall's Transfiguration classroom. But not a single one of them was doing any work. McGonagall had abandoned the classroom to go and help with students who had fainted.
On the back row, Harry Potter and his best friend Ron Weasley were making paper planes. Ron was still marvelling at the idea of planes ("One person flies three hundred people? They don't have to do anything at all?") and the paper plane technology was catching on throughout the class. Soon, following Harry's instructions, they were all producing paper planes - some good, some bad - and passing them to Hermione, who would enchant them to fly on their own.
While Harry was adamant that this took all the fun out of the so-called Paper Plane Theory, he had to admit that not having to throw them around constantly was a bonus.
Surprisingly enough, when McGonagall returned ten minutes later to find her students fanning themselves with their old essays and the room full of demented paper planes, she said nothing and allowed them to carry on.
Harry glanced over at Hermione and threw a specially-made paper plane at her head. It lodged itself in her bushy hair; she pulled it out and huffed in irritation. Harry watched curiously as she bent over it and scribbled something, then sent it winging its way back to him.
He unfolded it and read her neat loops:
Harry,
if you ever do that again, I will take your bloody paper planes and jam them right up your-
"Hermione!" Harry exclaimed in horror. The fact that she'd never used such language before was beside the point; the image her words had produced was too nasty to even contemplate. He hastily replied:
OK, I never will again, I promise.
She read it, glanced over at him, and wrote something almost grudgingly:
Want some chocolate?
Harry's eyebrows shot up into his hairline. He wasn't sure why they weren't just talking to each other normally - after all, she was only a little way down the bench. But no - to hell with normal conversation. He wrote a little reply:
Is it still solid? I'll have some if it is.
He missed the mischievious grin that flicked briefly across her face as she read what he'd written. The plane came back to him:
What if it isn't?
He frowned. That did not sound like Hermione at all.
I don't know. I suppose I won't bother.
Her exasperation was plain on her face. She rolled her eyes and struggled to cram her reply in on what little space remained.
Spoil my fun, why don't you?
His frown deepened in intensity, and he was about to ask her what the hell she was going on about, when the bell rang and he didn't get a chance.
***
It hit him two hours later as he was trekking up the stairs to the common room to get a book. He stopped walking and sat down abruptly on the stone steps. Surely not... no, it was impossible.... Had - Had she been... flirting with him? About melted chocolate and the possibilities it held? He shivered, feeling hot and cold at the same time.
Then, as though he had made a snap decision, he stood and sprinted all the way to the common room. As soon as he'd got his book, he was going to go and find her... he was so determined in his mission that he almost missed her sitting by the window in his haste to get to the dormitories.
She looked over at him, surprised but apparently uninterested. "Hello."
"Hi," he said breathlessly, and slowly, he approached her. "Have you got any more of that chocolate left?"
Her expression darkened. "Yes," she replied morosely, "and it's solid, too, so you can eat it now."
"Actually," he said, still slightly breathless and getting closer now, "I was rather hoping it was melted."
Hermione looked up at him. She frowned and tilted her head, obviously confused. He moved swiftly to Plan B, and sat down next to her. "Hermione... can I kiss you?"
Her mouth dropped open in shock; he took a chance, leaned in, and kissed her.
She tasted of chocolate.
~Finis~
