A/N Two chapters in one day today! Hope you enjoy :)
Chapter Five:
Allow the Granian to catch your scent as much as possible. Once it is accustomed to your smell, it is far more likely to allow you close enough to touch.
Extract from "From Wild Beast to Wizard's Steed, a how-to guide on taming Granian".
Draco was in a thoughtful mood.
Project Kiss-met was in danger of plateauing. Granger and he still met regularly; he was always careful to make sure some part of his body brushed hers each time they interacted, and so long as there was clothing between them, Granger seemed to accept his touch and even his close proximity. His problem was the next stage: how to get her over her apparent skin aversion.
Still faithfully perusing the Manual, he was mulling over a particular chapter. It appeared to be a key one.
Animals were very influenced by smell – very sensitive to its effects. Smell identified friend or foe, warned them to run away, and even led to sexual attraction. Draco had come to the conclusion that the same must be true of humans.
Consider Amortentia – it was said to be the most powerful love potion in the world, and what was the whole of its magic predicated on? Scent.
Clearly, for Project Kiss-met to be successful, Draco would have to get Granger used to his smell. But how to do so was a puzzler.
He didn't think tackling her Shuntbumps-style and pushing her face in his armpit would go down well, and it was too soon to expect to get away with embracing her – she needed to be used to his scent before he tried that. Which brought him back to where he'd started: how could he get her used to his smell?
Try as he might, he couldn't think of an organic way to do it. But then one day, the opportunity presented itself all on its own.
After several outdoor encounters, Draco and Granger had a tacit agreement that if they ran into each other when Granger was out walking, Draco would accompany her. (Of course, Granger had no way of knowing it was highly unlikely she and Draco would "run into" one another, since he worked so hard to engineer their meetings. Nor did she know he made sure these meetings occurred either early or late enough to mean few students would be around.)
So it was one crisp morning before breakfast when Draco met Hermione on the far side of the lake.
"You're up early, Malfoy," she noted. She frowned as her eyes ran over him. "Do you seriously wake up with your hair looking like that or do you have it permanently charmed?" She sounded faintly exasperated. Now that he looked at it properly, he realised there was a certain I've-just-gotten-out-of-bed quality to hers. Strangely, it rather added to her appeal, along with cheeks pinkened from the cold.
He grinned at her. "Some of us are just born this good-looking, Granger."
She rolled her eyes at him, hugging herself slightly for warmth. Draco had sensibly prepared for his early morning outing with scarf and gloves, but Granger's Muggle coat was open at the throat.
"You're cold," Draco commented and began unwinding his scarf. He would rather have just given her his scarf to wear – he had a hunch the silver and green would set off her eyes nicely – but what were the chances she would willingly wear Slytherin colours? And even if she decided she didn't care, she'd probably be savaged by her fellow Gryffindors as soon as she entered her common room. Not to mention the gossip it might give rise to.
So he pulled out his wand and Transfigured the silver to gold before holding the scarf out to her. "Here." Granger looked startled. "It won't bite, Granger." He gave her his trademark smirk. "Look at it this way, which is more foolish: trusting me and wearing the scarf or suffering the cold for no good reason?"
One corner of Granger's mouth slowly lifted in a little half-smile which did strange things to Draco's insides. "Can I think about it and get back to you?"
Draco took a step forward into her personal space, then deliberately paused for a moment; when Granger didn't move back, he managed to repress his grin and nonchalantly wound the scarf round her neck.
Turned out the combination of emerald and gold suited her even better.
A few days later, Draco took his usual seat next to Granger in the Library, inching the chair along until his side lightly pressed against hers and their faces were side by side. To his dismay, Granger looked uncertain.
He thought they were past that point.
Then she spoke: "You smell... different."
Draco blinked. "What?"
"Your smell… it's changed. You smell different," she repeated.
Draco suddenly recalled using Blaise's body elixir that morning when his own had run out. On the one hand, he cursed himself for his blunder, but on the other... he took the slight moue of discontent on Granger's face as a very good sign.
He grinned at her. As though realising herself what her words could portend, Granger's cheeks blossomed with pink, and she drew his attention to the text with a bustling, business-like air. She looked so adorable blushing, Draco felt a surge of affection and longed to press his lips to the rosy pink, but judging by her slightly jerky movements and defensively hunched shoulders it would not be well received. Besides, he didn't smell like him, and from Granger's earlier tone, this was a problem.
Suppressing another grin, Draco bent his head to the text.
After the success of the scarf episode, Draco judged it was a good time to stretch Granger's boundaries a little.
As part of his initial Granger reconnaissance, he had conducted research into her likes and dislikes – especially her edible ones.
Because of this, Draco knew never to approach Granger having eaten or even been in close proximity to broccoli, and he knew that her favourite confectionery was chocolate truffles, the richer the better.
Draco had been holding this knowledge in reserve, wanting to deploy it at the moment of best advantage. Now seemed the perfect time.
Armed with a bag of Honeydukes' Dragon Eggs – a truffle so rich it made the taste buds try to invert – he entered their study area, brown paper bag open.
"Hey, Granger, want a Dragon's Egg?" He popped one in his mouth as he spoke.
Granger looked disapproving. "Malfoy." She frowned. "We're not supposed to have— did you say Dragon Eggs?"
"I figured we could use the sugar before we tackled Snape's assignment." He held out the bag, causally offering her a truffle, making sure it was clear he was happily chomping away on one. Even with their fledgling level of trust, he wagered Granger would be cautious of accepting food he offered.
Granger paused, clearly torn. "We're not supposed to have food in the Library."
"We'll Scourgify our hands before touching any books," he promised, then waved the bag around, allowing the rich scent to waft about freely.
Granger swallowed. "Alright," she conceded. "But only because the glucose will be beneficial for concentration."
She fished a truffle out the bag, tentatively bit into it, then sighed with delight, eyes closing in bliss and lashes fluttering.
Taking advantage of her closed lids, Draco raked his gaze over her face, enjoying this rare sight of Granger not only totally relaxed, but giving in to pleasure.
Draco swallowed, then eagerly offered her another one. Granger hesitated for a shorter period of time, then held her hand out; Draco made sure their hands briefly touched as she extracted the Egg.
"Oh my gosh," she moaned. "They are soooo good."
Draco licked his lips – then had to pretend he was licking chocolate from them when Granger caught him. "They are," he agreed. He paused: "Here's an idea, Granger – edible motivation." Granger quirked an eyebrow at him. "We quiz each other, taking a question apiece until someone gets one wrong – then the other person gets a chocolate." His eyes danced wickedly. "You up for it?"
Granger slowly smiled. "Prepare to lose your bounty, Malfoy."
Forty-five minutes later, Granger had eaten just over half of the bag of chocolates and was now clutching her stomach, complaining she felt unwell. But her complaints came through relaxed laughter, and to Draco's silent triumph, she had progressed to taking truffles from his open palm.
There was one Egg left in the bag. Draco held it out to her lips. In spite of her declaration of stomach ache, Granger eyed it covetously, then eyed him consideringly.
Before he knew it, her hand had shot out to take it. Using his Seeker reflexes (which were just as good as Scarhead's, thank you very much), he moved even faster and his hand snagged her wrist in mid-air.
Granger's eyes widened in surprise, but just as it started to skirt into alarm, he smiled, winked, and popped the chocolate straight into her mouth, deliberately allowing his fingers to brush her lips.
Hermione's resultant laughter was music to Draco's ears.
A/N2 "Shuntbumps is a popular game in Devon, England. Players attempt to knock as many other players off their broomsticks as possible." With thanks to the Harry Potter wiki.