Warm Brownies
by: epiphanies
One-shot. Fluff galore. A very early Christmas present for you guys. ;)
Harry closed his eyes and inhaled.
The sweet scent immersed him, captivated him, took him away from the lemony fresh tile of the Dursley dining room.
Luckily, his Aunt Petunia couldn't see him standing there ("Like a filthy layabout!") because she was standing in the kitchen behind the wall that separated the two rooms.
And, even though he couldn't see his aunt in the room next, he knew exactly what she was doing. One of the best parts of his childhood was that smell. Warm brownies.
Not that he'd ever gotten any, of course. Only, once, he had managed to nick a stale one from the bottom of the tupperware "Brownie Bin." It had been the most sensational taste of his life - until he arrived at Hogwarts, that was. Even so, they didn't serve brownies at Hogwarts.
No, warm brownies weren't corporeal to Harry. They were just a vision. A dream. A scent. A watery mouth. And he didn't expect that he'd ever have the privilege of enjoying a warm brownie.
~%~
"So, Harry...how was your summer?" Ginny asked, folding her hands across her lap on the train to Hogwarts on Septemer first.
Harry blinked. When had Ron and Hermione left the train car? Had Ron and Hermione -been- in the train car? What was...he had been staring at Ginny. Staring at her long red hair. Staring at her distinct splash of freckles across her nose. He'd been staring at her, and he just couldn't figure out why.
But she looked an awful lot like...
His mother. Ginny looked like his mother, he realized with a jolt. Ginny looked almost just like the fifteen year old Lily Evans that Harry had seen in the Pensieve in Snape's office.
"Harry?"
He blinked again.
"Uh, uh..." he stammered stupidly, "I was, er..spacing."
Ginny raised a cinnamon eyebrow at him and smiled, "Spacing, hmm?"
Harry gulped and nodded. Why hadn't he noticed it before?
"I wonder why Voldemort chose you," he said, then felt instantly mortified. Where had THAT come from?
Ginny looked stricken, "Er..." she shifted in her seat uncomfortably, "Well, I don't know...maybe a thing for redheads?"
"I'm sorry." He blurted, "I don't know why I...I mean-"
"Hey, chaps!" Ron announced, grandly swinging open the door and holding it for Hermione, "Back from Prefectness! At last!"
Hermione shot him a swift Look that Harry pretended not to notice. He shot his own look at Ginny, and they agreed. Their conversation? Over.
~%~
He'd realized it not long after that train ride.
She was like warm brownies.
He had yet to try a warm brownie. He'd only ever had that stale one from the bottom of the bin...and he knew the difference would be worlds apart. And even though he'd never had a warm one before in his life, he knew that he would, upon the chance, give absolutely anything for a crumb, a nibble, a taste.
She was like warm brownies.
~%~
Harry could feel her watching him from across the room. Dobby's year-old baubles -and then some- were hanging about the room again. As well as the, ahem, mistletoe (though Harry had nothing to fear, for Luna had performed an elaborate anti-Nargle charm at the beginning of their meeting one hour before.) Everyone but Ginny and Harry had trudged off to bed.
"So, er, did you get everything you wanted for Christmas?" Harry asked, trying not to notice how her red hair matched the shiny bows in the Christmas tree.
Ginny shrugged and slipped her wand into her back pocket, "Well, I suppose so...I assume that you got your Weasley jumper?"
"Yeah," Harry half-grinned at her as she stepped closer - for the doorway was, of course, right behind him.
"Well, I got something I'd been wishing for..for a rather long time," she batted her eyelashes and Harry felt dots of pink patch his cheeks.
"Really? What's that?" he asked croakily, then glanced up and said, while enduring a bout of intense deja vu, "Mistletoe."
Before Harry knew what was happening, he'd angled his head down to hers, and she'd stepped on her tiptoes, and their lips were touching.
When they pulled away, Harry refused to speak his mind - that kissing Ginny was much nicer than kissing Cho.
"Well," Ginny said, looking down at her festively sneakered feet, scarlet setting in on her features, "I'd actually meant to say that my best gift was Percy coming home with all apologies, but..."
Their eyes met in amusement and Harry's face split into a grin as they began out of the Room of Requirement, "Really? That's great, Ginny."
"I know."
"Does Ron know?"
"Not yet. I'm supposed to tell him...I'll tell him tomorrow." She winked, "No doubt Hermione's giving him his own Christmas present at the moment."
Harry laughed and he couldn't remember a time that he'd felt better - especially since the events of last year.
As they walked along the corridor to the Gryffindor Common Room, laughing, smiling, joking, completely comfortable with the other, Harry smiled a furtive smile.
She tasted like warm brownies.
LA FIN