A/N: My first Harry Potter fanfiction. Please be nice.
Disclaimer: Many characters and places in this work of fanfiction belong to the goddess J.K. Rowling. Also, title belongs to Natalie Babbitt, who wrote a lovely children's book by the same name. ;) Cheers.
The Search for Delicious
Sunlight filtered through the blinds, hitting the bed in bright yellow stripes. The sleeping man on the bed stirred, the sheets tangled around his waist following him. He cracked one eye open and a beam of sunlight assaulted his eye with a hazardous glow. He groaned and shut his eye quickly, bringing up a hand to rub at his eyes. He turned over, back facing the window and tried opening them again, more slowly this time.
That's when the smell came rising over the sheets and attacked his nose with a brute force. It was the smell of her. Cinnamon lingered on the sheets. Along with the cinnamon lingered the smell of sex and lust. He closed his eyes again and rubbed his temples before opening them again, looking over his shoulder. The bed was empty; the sheets only slightly rumpled to show that she had even been on that side of his bed.
A small smile graced his lips, remembering the woman who'd shared his bed the night before. She was perfect in any way that he could have ever imagined. Her skin had been soft and silky, tasting of honey, melding sweetly with his. Her body had been a curved plane of desire, creamy and sultry. Her breasts had been heavenly, fitting in his large hands perfectly. Her pink nipples sensitive and sweet, filling his mouth with her taste. Then, he'd fit her perfectly.
Just thinking of the night before made him hard. But he was lying in bed alone, with only her smell to let him know that it hadn't just been a dream. He should have asked her for her name. He should have gotten to know her better. He should have done so many things differently. But, he'd been to smashed to think of anything but his thirsting libido. And she'd seemed only willing to comply.
He didn't even remember her face, only her pink petals of lips, and the sprinkling of cinnamon across her cheeks. He rubbed at his eyes again groaning loudly. How could he let himself not find out who she was?
Looking over to his bedside table, the flashing red numbers of his lock read a hazy 8:30. "Shit," he hissed under his breath, jumping out of the bed. The sheets had decided to follow him off the bed and wrapped themselves around his legs. He tripped in his haste and found himself lying face down on the plush, white carpet.
About three inches from his head there was a small pair of white panties. They were the delicate white panties the woman had been wearing the night before. They were trimmed in a thin black lace, sexy and innocent all at the same time.
He picked up the panties and brought them closer to his face. Her smell permeated the air even more thoroughly. He dropped them and heaved himself off the floor, untangling the sheets from his legs as he made his way to the bathroom, where he turned on the water.
He was in need of a nice, long, cold shower before work.
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Draco Malfoy straightened his tie and tried to ignore the pounding headache that was thumping a painful rhythm through his skull - aftereffects of his irresponsible drinking.
"Good Morning, Mr. Malfoy," His secretary, Mrs. Meriwether, greeted as he passed her on the way to his office.
He winced and waved his hand. "And you."
"You have messages!" she called after him as he walked into his office.
"Send them in later," he said before shutting the door. He hit the lights and dimmed them. He walked around his desk and sat down in his luxurious leather chair. Opening one of the doors on his desk, he pulled out an orange juice and twisted the cap off, taking a slow sip.
"Mr. Malfoy," Mrs. Meriwether's voice floated in the room from the speaker sitting on his desk. Draco tried to ignore her. "Mr. Malfoy," she said, louder this time. "There's a young lady that'd like to speak to you."
"What does this young lady want to speak to me about?" he asked, remembering the woman from the night before again. Surely she would know who he was. She wasn't nearly as smashed as he had been.
"Uhm…" Mrs. Meriwether's end of the line went silent for a moment. Draco set down his bottle of orange juice and waited. "This young lady would like to speak to you about the new store complex."
"I see," said Draco, hiding his disappointment. "Go ahead and send her in then." He pulled open a drawer and pulled out a bottle of serum. He looked to the back label to see how much he should take, then raised his eyebrows and just pulled off the cap, lifting it to his mouth and draining a bit.
The door opened just as he was putting the cap back on the bottle and settling it in his desk. A small woman with bright hair stepped in the doorway, clutching a manila folder to her chest.
"What can I help you with?" Draco asked tiredly.
"Well, Mr. Malfoy," she said sharply, causing a wave of pain to sweep through his head. "You could help our your environment and nearly-extinct magical beasts by relocating your complex. You are harming our environment and the very rare creatures that are very important to the whole magical community."
"Please," Draco interrupted, waving his hand to stop her. "What did you say your name was again?"
She looked at him. "I didn't give you my name," she said curtly.
Another wave of pain washed over him. "Then why don't you tell me?"
"Virginia Weasley," she said. "But that's beside the point. What we really need to focus on here is how your complex is going to be affecting the magical community!"
"Well," Draco said slowly. "I was under the impression that it was going to help to bring together the magical community by providing another place for the witches and wizards to shop; to give them somewhere else to go, besides Diagon Alley. Somewhere more modern."
Ginny Weasley's right eye twitched. "But you're destroying a magical beast ecosystem."
"Where else am I supposed to build this complex? I can't very well build it right in the middle of Muggle London like Diagon Alley. That would cost billions of galleons," said Draco. "There'd be no way of concealing it exclusively from Muggles either."
"I've brought a map of England, and have marked places that wouldn't be a danger to the environment," she said, starting to reach into her manila folder, bringing out a large map. She unfolded the monstrosity awkwardly; a corner flew up and hit her on the forehead.
Draco smirked. "Having trouble?"
"No," she said shortly. She finished unfolding it and laid it out on his desk. He watched her, amused. "Now, I've marked other suitable places in red."
Draco picked up his bottle of orange juice and took another sip before looking over the map. He raised his eyebrows when he saw all the places she had marked in red. "While this is nice of you…Miss…."
"Weasley," she prompted.
"We can't use any of these places," he said bluntly. "There in the middle of nowhere."
Ginny glared at him. "Well, if you want the complex to be away from Muggles…"
"We've already found a suitable place away from Muggles." He put down his juice and reached for the map, picking it up and beginning to fold it. He finished and handed it to her. "Goodbye."
She snatched the map from him. "This won't be the last you'll hear from me," she fumed. "I'll be back. You'll regret not listening to me now."
He raised an eyebrow. "Make all the threats you like, but I've already gotten approval on this project from the Ministry and anyone else that matters. Now, Weasley, while I'm sure your bourgeois opinion matters in some places, this isn't one of them." He got up from his chair and walked around the desk and to the office door. He opened it for her. "Now, goodbye."
Stalking out of the office, she called behind her, "I'm going to fight you all the way on this."
"You can try your best," he said then shut the door with a loud click.
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"'Lo, Malfoy," said Blaise Zabini as Draco stepped into the break room. "Coffee?" he held up the half-full coffee pot.
"No," he said waving his hand. "We have any more orange juice?"
"Yea-Whoa. What is that in your pocket, Malfoy?" Blaise gave him an odd look. "Since when did you start carrying women's…undergarments in your pockets?"
Draco pulled the panties out of his pocket.
Blaise raised his dark eyebrows. "And pretty undergarments at that."
"They aren't mine."
Blaise chuckled. "Well, I figured that much. So, why are you carrying them around?"
Draco frowned. "This is the bit you'll probably find odd."
"And I don't already?"
"Point. But, I don't know who they belong to." He brought them up and let them dangle off his finger. "Nice though, aren't they?"
"Wait, wait," said Blaise. He pulled out a chair and motioned for Draco sit down as well. "How did you come across this lovely pair of panties - and not know who they belonged to?"
"I went to a bar last night, got totally smashed, had wonderful sex with the most perfect woman alive, and she left before I woke up, leaving only her panties," said Draco monotonously.
Blaise blinked. "And you don't know who this perfect woman is?"
Draco grinned. "Sad isn't it? I shall forever be taunted by a pair of nameless panties."
"How can you not know who they belong to?" asked Blaise. "I don't understand."
Shrugging, Draco said. "Well, I'd never met her before, and when I did meet her, it was in a dark bar, and I was smashed. Then, back at my place, the lights were off, and…oh…did I mention that I was smashed? Because I was quite smashed."
"Why were you smashed?"
"Sophie."
Blaise frowned. "Did she dump you? I didn't think you even liked her that much."
"Oh," said Draco. "I didn't, but she said that she didn't like my ties. I pride myself on my nice ties." Draco patted the nice blue patterned one he was wearing. "They are nice, aren't they?"
Blaise nodded. "Definitely. Don't know what was wrong with that woman. You have very nice ties." He took a drink of his coffee. "So, what are you going to do about these panties?"
"Well," said Draco, thoughtfully. "I'd like to find out who they belong to."
"That sounds like a reasonable thing to want to do."
"I have no idea where to start. Should I go back to the bar? I don't even know if that's where she likes to go. She might have only gone that night to try it out." Draco said, putting the panties back in his pocket. "And it's not like I can go around carrying the panties asking every woman in the club if they belong to her or not."
"This is true," said Blaise. "But, maybe she'd go back because she'd want to see you."
Draco rubbed his hand over his face. "You would think that. But if she had really wanted to get to know me better, or see me again, then don't you think she would have stayed this morning? She didn't have to leave so early."
"Maybe she wants to give you a chase," said Blaise. "Women are sharky like that. They like to give you a taste and then run off and make you chase them for it. Makes you wonder why you put up with them in the first place."
"I think that if she wanted to give me a chase she would have left me more than a pair of panties."
"And she might have left those by accident," added Blaise.
"You aren't helping, Zabini," Draco said severely.
Blaise held up his hands. "Sorry. But, maybe she's counting on you to at least remember what she looks like."
Draco looked at him.
"Okay, maybe not. You were that smashed?" Draco nodded. "Because of what Sophie said about your ties?" Draco nodded again. "Okay," Blaise said slowly. "Well, if you were really that smashed, how do you even know she was perfect? How do you even know the sex was all that great?"
Draco gave him another look. "I know. Oh, I know."
Blaise widened his eyes. "It was that good?"
"That good. I want this woman." Draco closed his eyes. "Badly."
"Wow," said Blaise. "I'd like to meet this woman."
"We're going to find her," Draco said firmly.
"We?" echoed Blaise. "This is your deal, mate."
"Yes, but you're going to help me," said Draco.
"And why am I going to help you?" asked Blaise.
"Because, you're my partner. And because you know that you want to." Blaise looked at him. "Don't you want the satisfaction of knowing that you found such a…mysterious woman?"
"Not particularly," Blaise said simply.
"You're going to help me."
"Yeah, I am. Gods help me." Blaise put his face in his hands and Draco smirked at him. Then Blaise looked up and grinned. "So, you should treat me to lunch."
Draco laughed. "Okay, lunch."
"And tell me, who was that making all that noise in you office this morning?" asked Blaise curiously.
"Weasley."
Blaise frowned. "Why would that git come to your office?"
"No, no, not the male Weasley," Draco corrected. "The female Weasley."
"Oooh," said Blaise. "Well, what did she want with you?"
"She was in some sort of fuss about where we're building the complex," said Draco, shaking his head. "Said something about near-extinct magical beasts and ecosystems. I don't know. She seemed loopy to me. Proposed we moved the complex to these completely remote places."
Blaise looked incredulous. "Are you serious?" When Draco nodded, he said, "Who cares about that? Doesn't she know that no one cares anymore?"
"I don't know. All I can say is that she's crazy."
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"This is an outrage!" Ginny exclaimed, stalking her apartment furiously, Colin undertow. "I can't believe that-that bastard didn't even listen to a word I said! He didn't even care about the map!" She fumed. "No one cares about the environment anymore! They don't care at all if all of the magical creatures just upped and disappeared. What is wrong with society, Colin? What is wrong with it?" she demanded, pounding her fist on the kitchen counter to punctuate each word.
"Ginny, Ginny, just sit and try to calm down, would you?" said Colin gently.
"No! I will not sit down! And I will not calm down!" Ginny shouted. "Where on Earth does that pompous ass get off treating me like that?
"Well," said Colin, slowly. "He does have this certain Malfoy mentality."
"Yeah, well he needs to get over himself and his big, fat ego."
"Ginny, you sound like you're back on the playground. You need to take a breather. Maybe you should go paint? Painting always makes you nice and calm," Colin said soothingly. "I'll even make you some of that green tea like you like. I won't put any sugar in it either this time, promise!"
"Nice…Malfoy…butcher knife…blood," Ginny muttered, walking to the sunroom with jerky movements. "It'll be a hell of a painting!" she laughed loudly.
Colin blinked and moved to shut the door to the sunroom and scurried off to the kitchen to go make her tea, taking special care to put in some sedative serum.
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Draco walked into his apartment and dropped his briefcase on the floor next to the front door, then proceeded to the living room where he collapsed on the sofa. He pulled off his robes and sat in his business suit, staring at the wall.
This was the first time in years that he'd ever felt compelled to chase a woman. Before, he hadn't had to worry about it; the women would come to him. But now, there was this mysterious woman, and he knew, he just knew that she wasn't just going to come to him. He was going to have to find her.
He reached for his robes and pulled his wand out of them, flicking it, causing a beer to float out of the kitchen and into his waiting hand. He popped off the top and took a long sip of the amber liquid.
Closing his eyes, he imagined the creamy, warm skin of the woman that had shared his bed the night before. He thought of her sultry cinnamon smell. He thought of her voluptuous curves.
Then he thought of how he might never see her again.
And he drained the rest of his beer.