Brown Dwarf Gingerbread Stars
He makes gingerbread, gingerbread cookies to be exact. And he cuts them into stars, sprinkles the edges with a decadent mix of sparkling gold crystallized pineapple and honey crushed into fine granules so that the cookies literally sparkle in the firelight. He carefully wraps them in a layer of baking parchment, then wraps that in a layer of lavender colored and scented tissue paper, places them carefully in a box of heavy, glossy ivory-colored cardboard tied with a purple ribbon with rippling, curly ends. He pauses for a moment, then heads for his mother's garden. He returns with a sprig of fresh lavender and carefully tucks it into the ribbon's knot. He stares at his work then apparates away.
The next day Hermione nearly trips over the box as she slings through her dorm room door and prepares to race to her first class. She catches herself, stops and stares nonplussed at the very pretty - and deliciously scented - box on her doorstep. Unable to take the time to decipher it, she snatches it up, prepares to toss it back inside her room then stops, her mother's voice ringing in her head, "There's no need to be ungracious, young lady." So, she shrinks the box, drops it into her bag and practically runs to class.
So, it's not until three hours later, when she's survived both her classes, and her stomach has started rumbling that she remembers the box. She pulls it out of her bag and unshrinks it. Gingerly - yes, gingerly, and she'll actually laugh at that later - she undoes the ribbon, lifts the lid and peeps inside. She blinks - then casts a spell. Nope. No hexes. No curses. No jinxes. Huh. Slowly she takes a cookie and brings it to her mouth. A low moan escapes as a combination of spicy ginger and sweet pineapple seeps into her senses. Oh my! Seconds later that cookie is gone only to be quickly replaced by another. Only after she's had her fourth cookie and shamelessly showered herself in crispy brown crumbs does she find the note hidden under a layer of parchment.
She puts down the cookie and opens the envelope.
Granger,
I meant what I said. My family are like a handful of stars - bright, brilliant, beautiful. We're dazzling and cold until you get close enough and then we'll burn and crush you. You can't live on any planet that orbits us. Because we'll sear the life right out of you and leave you nothing but a pile of ash. It's simple physics, Granger.
You on the other hand are a brown dwarf star - smaller, dimmer. But do you know what life is LIKE under a brown dwarf star? The sun never sets. It's always warm; winter can't find a home there. Even the gravity is lighter. Instead of being crushed to earth, everything that lives and grows under a brown dwarf star grows bigger and lusher and more beautiful than anything other stars could ever produce. You're smaller and dimmer and warmer and kinder. And EVERYTHING lives under you.
So just so you know: I don't take back One. Single. Word.
Draco
P.S.
I thought the cookies would make my note go down more easily.
She stares at the words for a long time, places the lavender in her hair, then gathers up the box and heads to her next class.