Cocoa chemistry

Grimmauld place - 26th December 1995 - a bit past midnight

I had been tossing and turning for a few hours trying to sleep. Now I found myself sneaking down the creaking stairs of Grimmauld place to make myself something to drink. As I opened the kitchen door I heard someone cough behind me and turned around. There in the dark corridor stood Ron, face crimson. I was sure I looked the same. We just stood there staring at each other, my brain working rapidly to figure out what would be the proper thing to say.

"Soo…" I began, "You couldn't sleep either, or did I wake you?"

"I couldn't sleep," He replied.

"Well, that's good."

He looked at me, wearing a confused expression.

"Oh, no. I meant it's good I didn't wake you. I'm sorry you couldn't sleep" I hurried to answer.

"I'm just playing with you," Ron chuckled.

I rolled my eyes and walked into the kitchen. Ron hesitantly followed me before closing the door. My heart skipped a beat as I realised we were alone in the kitchen. Okay it's getting quiet. I need to say something Hermione, please!

"Would you like some hot chocolate?" He asked.

"Yes please!"

Ron summoned 2 cups from the cupboard.

"Which one do you want?" He asked, holding one cup in each hand. One was orange with a black dog and the other was purple with small golden dots.

"That one," I took the purple cup from his hand. Our fingers touched lightly, sending goosebumps all over my arms. "I won't take the orange one since it's your favorite color."

"Thanks!" He smiled.

I walked over to the refrigerator where I grabbed some milk. Meanwhile Ron had gathered sugar and cocoa on the kitchen counter.

"Has Harry had any more dreams about the hallway?" I asked as I put on the stove. "I don't know. He's had dreams, but I don't know about what," Ron said.

For a while I just stood there watching as he stirred to cocoa in silence, neither of us knowing what to talk about. It felt good, being with him without arguing or feeling the constant stress about school. He turned his head and smiled at me.

"What books did you get for christmas?" Ron asked as he carefully poured the burning drink into the cups.

"I got an extra copy of 'Hogwarts a history' and a muggle book called 'The magician's nephew'. It's the first part of Narnia by C. ." I answered cheerfully. "Besides, why did you ask? You are never interested in my books,"

"I was mostly curious since I recognised the cover. I think mum read it to me and Ginny sometime,"

I smiled at the thought of him and Ginny sitting curled up and listening to their mother read.

I took a small sip of the steaming chocolate remembering my other gifts. Especially the one from Ron. Why would he give me a perfume of all things?

"Ron?"

"Yeah?" He looked at me.

"This might be a weird thing to ask…" I began. "Why did you get me a perfume? Don't get me wrong, I loved it. But, why?"

His eartips turned red and I caught him taking a sip of his drink to prevent him from answering.

"I, uum. I found it in one of the shops in Hogsmeade and I thought you might like it,"

"Fair enough"

He was staring at my face with a weird expression.

"What is it?" I asked.

"You have something on your face, let me get it for you"

Before I could process anything of what he'd said he reached out to wipe something off my nose. Suddenly there was a sound of someone opening the door. We instantly moved away from each other, turning to see who had interrupted our 'moment'.

In the doorway stood Harry and Ginny, both in their pyjamas looking equally as confused. It was Ginny who spoke up first.

"What the bloody hell are you doing here in the middle of the night?"

We looked at each other, both silently pleading for the other to say something.

"We couldn't sleep so we went to the kitchen to get something to drink and Ron happened to come down aswell,"

Ginny looked at me through a quirked eyebrow.

"I'll just try to get some sleep-" Ron said and quickly walked off with Harry leaving me alone with Ginny.

I sunk down onto the floor, groaning with my hands in my hair.

"Did you seriously have to interrupt us?"

"Yeah, I could totally smell your fantastic chemistry up there," Ginny rolled her eyes. "Of course not. Me and Harry noticed your empty beds and went looking for you!"

"He was going to wipe cocoa off my nose!" I cried out.

Ginny laughed.

"Yeah, I saw that. Now tell me the real story"

"I told you, we couldn't sleep and went to get some hot cocoa and-" I mumbled.

"Yeah, yeah. None of that. Were you going to kiss?"

I rolled my eyes.

"No! We mostly just talked about our favorite colors and my Christmas presents, okay?"

"Yeah, right!" Ginny said sarcastically.

We went back upstairs as the clock struck one. I thought about the conversations with Ron as I crawled under the covers.

"I thought you might like it" had been his words. Who is this 'new Ron' who gives me perfume and cares at least a little bit about my books? And Ginny- "I could totally smell your fantastic chemistry up there".

If this was a book I would totally name the chapter 'Cocoa chemistry' was my last thought before sleep carried me away.