House: Gryffindor

Category: Theme (Love or Love Lost)

Prompt: Red Lipstick

Word Count: 1002

Beta: NerdyJFics Thanks Jo!

Draco Malfoy had absolutely no idea why everyone had been staring at him since he had returned from his extended lunch break. His incredible mood soured a bit in the face of their bizarre behavior.

His assistant grinned as she met his eyes while dropping off the afternoon owl post, and left his office tittering incessantly. Eloise had always been a bit of an odd duck, but he had no idea what she found so amusing now.

The boy-who-would-not-die dropped by with a new case file and a sarcastic quip about red not really being Draco's color. Over the years, Draco had actually become friends with Harry, but that did not stop him from retorting that St. Potter should visit a healer to have his eyes checked for red/green color blindness. Otherwise, only an idiot would mistake the emerald tie he was wearing for red.

Harry exited his office with a snort, and Draco was left to ponder whether the savior of the wizarding world was losing his marbles. Five minutes later, his musings were cut short when Ron Weasley plowed into his office without so much as knocking. The redhead gaped at Draco, his mouth opening and closing in a way that reminded Draco of a large fish.

"Can I help you Weaselbee?" Draco may have been on good terms with the other members of the Weasley clan now, but he held strong to his dislike of The Weasel King. The feeling was mutual.

"Wha- How- Why do you-?" Ron sputtered.

"As articulate as always, I see." Draco levelled a glare at the uninvited visitor. "Either get to the point or get out of my office. I have work that needs to be done and I've had far too many disruptions today."

"Harry told me it was true. I didn't believe it until I saw it for myself."

Draco shook his head at the absolute nonsense that had just spewed from the ginger's mouth. "I have no idea what you are trying to say. Has the whole world gone mad today? First Potter tells me that I'm wearing red. And now you're cryptically yammering on about some undisclosed thing being true. I don't have time for this."

Ron smirked in a way that informed Draco that he knew something the blond didn't. If Draco hadn't been so annoyed, he would have recognized the smirk as the same one he employed whenever he had the leg up on someone.

"Perhaps you wouldn't be so behind if you quit dodging out for a two hour lunch every other day."

With that Ron left the room. Draco felt a blush creep up as he recalled his lunch break. He counted his lucky stars that the other man hadn't seen his cheeks flush; that would have been embarrassing.

Fortunately, the rest of Draco's work day was uninterrupted, and he was able to finish his existing projects before flooing out. Instead of returning to his own flat, he decided to pay a good friend a visit.

"Hermione? Are you home?"

"Be out in a moment," the witch in question called from down the hall.

Draco knew that she liked to change out of her restrictive work attire as soon as she returned to her flat. Frankly, Draco couldn't blame her- as wonderful as her heels were to look at (they did marvelous things for her posterior), they were positively murder on her feet.

Taking a page out of her book, he toed off his own dress shoes and helped himself to an apple from her kitchen. He took a large bite of the green apple but when he pulled the fruit away he was horrified at the red mark he left on the skin.

Rushing down the hallway to the mirror hanging at the end, he exclaimed, "Hermione! I think my mouth is bleeding! Where are your healing salves?"

He examined his reflection. His lips were bright red, but he could find no cuts or exposed wounds. He felt Hermione walk up behind him and starred into her eyes through the mirror.

"You aren't bleeding."

"What? If I'm not bleeding, then what's this all over my lips?"

"Ruby Woo."

"What or who the hell is Ruby Woo?"

She smiled and gave him a peck on the cheek, leaving a very familiar red stain behind. "The color of my lipstick."

His cheeks flushed with the realization that he had been wearing lipstick all afternoon. And not just any lipstick. Hers. And his assistant, Potter, and Weasley all knew it. And they must have realized exactly how he had come to wear it. "I guess the cat's out of the bag now, love."

"We couldn't have kept this secret for too much longer anyway."

He turned away from the mirror and wrapped his arms around her. "It's amazing we haven't gotten caught before. It's been four months."

"Well, Harry and Ron can be incredibly obtuse when it comes to my personal life. You'd think they'd have realized that you and I disappear for extended lunch breaks just about every day. For Aurors, they are extremely unobservant."

"To their credit," Draco said, "And you know how much it pains me to give Weasley credit for anything, not realizing we are dating doesn't detract from their skills on the job. We didn't want people to know in case it didn't work out."

"And now? Everyone is going to know. Are you ok with that?" Hermione asked uncertainly, chewing on her red tinted bottom lip.

Draco leaned in and kissed her soundly, leaving them both breathless. "I love you, Hermione Granger. I want everyone to know that I am yours. Mind, body, soul. It's all yours." He leaned his forehead against hers and smiled contentedly. "But maybe.." he trailed off.

"Maybe what?"

"Maybe you can put a stasis charm on your lipstick from now on? Potter was right. Red really isn't my color."