Curse of the Houses

Disclaimer: I do not own any of the characters, places etc. they all belong to J.K. Rowling and her people. I am just borrowing them and will return them when I’m finished playing.

Chapter Three: The truth is not a good thing

Ron was trying his hardest to listen to what Hermione was saying as he walked towards the potions classroom, but his mind was wondering to thoughts of Draco Malfoy. Thoughts of kissing the Slytherin and carding his fingers through soft blond hair were plaguing Ron’s imagination. The dream he had been having, before he had fallen out of bed the night before, had felt so vivid that Ron felt as if he had actually held Malfoy in his arms.

“Ronald Weasley, are you even listening to me?” Hermione’s shrill voice cut through his thoughts, making him snap back into the real world with a start.

“Yeah, of course I’m listening ‘Mione,” he lied. Luckily, they had reached the door to their potions class, so if she had known he was lying, she didn’t get a chance to call him on it.

Upon entering the classroom, the first thing Ron saw was the brilliant white blond hair of Draco Malfoy, who was sat at the back desk, in the Slytherin side of the room. There weren’t really designated sides for each house, however, were Gryffindor and Slytherin were concerned, the reds had one side and the greens had the other. There was no mixing unless it was absolutely necessary.

Ron took his seat next to Harry, plopping himself down with a deep sigh. He hated Potions and had a good mind to throw a good few hexes at whoever had put the timetable together and given him a potions lesson, first thing, on a Monday morning.

“Merlin, I hope we do something easy today, I so cannot be bothered with this lesson right now,” said Harry, as the two boys began pulling their parchment, ink and quills out of their bags.

“Me neither, bloody stupid, putting potions first thing on a Monday morning,” Ron groaned.

Harry nodded in agreement and opened his mouth to reply, but didn’t get the chance as the door flew open and Professor Snape charged into the room, storming to the front of the classroom. The class was instantly silent, Snape’s presence causing a chill to run through the air.

“Anyone who does not work hard in my lessons this year will fail their N.E.W.T,” Snape stated, his eyes immediately flicking in the direction of Ron and Harry, who both tried to avoid his stare. Although, Snape had fought on the same side as them during in the war, he had never gotten over his resentment of Harry and that anger was thus carried over to Ron, being his best friend and all.

“Today we will be brewing a Truth Serum, albeit not as strong as Veritaserum, but it does the job. I will assign you partners and, due to Professor Dumbledore’s orders, they will be mixed according to your houses,” Snape continued. Ever since the war had ended Professor Dumbledore had been adamant that he would break down the separation between the houses of Hogwarts and therefore, if teachers were to be pairing students up, they were to be off different houses.

Snape readout pairs of names from a piece of parchment on his desk. Hermione looked horror stricken when Snape had announced that she was to work with Blaise Zabini. The Slytherin boy was rather bright however, seemed to be lacking in motivation and would regularly spend his lessons doodling, instead of completing the set assignments. Ron was paired with Millicent Bullstrode, a Slytherin girl, who was almost as bad at potions as he was. If they were lucky, the two of them may not mess up the potion so bad that it blows up, but with the way things seemed to be going, that outcome seemed unlikely. Finally, Harry was paired with Draco Malfoy. Ron watched jealously as Harry moved to sit next to the stunning blond. He felt his heart drop, it was just his luck that his best friend would be paired with the guy he fancied. Although, in some ways it was a blessing, Ron thought. He would have just spent the whole time thinking bout the two semi-erotic dreams he had had, which would have left him blushing all lesson.

When everybody was moved into their paired groups, Snape began to explain how to brew the potion. Flicking his wand at the chalkboard, he spelled the instructions onto the board and told them to begin.

The class broke out in noise, as everyone began to work on their potions. Ron began chopping up ingredients and Millicent set about lighting a small fire under the cauldron with her wand. The potion instructions looked easy enough, Ron thought, as he skimmed his eyes over them once more, checking he was cutting up the correct ingredient.

Throughout the half an hour they were given to brew the potion, Ron continually stole fleeting glances at Draco. The blond seemed to be concentrating on this work each time Ron peeked over. He couldn’t help but notice that Draco had the most beautiful lips, as the chewed on them softly while looking at the board. Ron almost groaned audibly at the action, wishing he could feel if those lips were as soft as they had felt in his dream. He quickly averted is eyes, knowing that if he kept them there any longer he would definitely end up doing something that he would later regret.

*@*

Draco nibbled gently on his bottom lip as he stared at the instructions on the board. He wasn’t really looking at the words, rather trying to focus on something so that he wouldn’t look over at Ron Weasley… again. He tried once more to get back to his work, chopping up potion ingredients into even strips was a tricky job and it didn’t help that his mind was elsewhere.

He sighed as he saw Potter try to put a wrong ingredient into the cauldron.

“You’d think by now you would be able to read, Potter,” he said, glaring at the other boy. “That goes in after the wormwood.” Draco rolled his eyes, as Harry turned to look at the board to confirm what Draco had said. When Harry placed down the ingredient he had been holding and reached for the wormwood, Draco turned back to his slicing with a smug look on his face. Potions was his best subject and he wasn’t about to let Potter ruin his work.

Draco tried his best to concentrate on the task at hand, but the more he tried the more his mind wondered to Ron. He risked another glance in the redhead’s direction. Ron was leaning over the desk, idly doodling on a scrap piece of parchment. The position of the boy allowed Draco to have a good view of Ron’s bottom, which in Draco’s opinion was very firm looking and he was finding it hard to tear his eyes away from it. He was pulled out of his frozen state when Ron suddenly stood upright and began, once again, helping brew the potion.

He sighed, Draco wanted nothing more than to just walk over to Ron and plant a kiss on the redheads pink lips and he didn’t care that the rest of the class would see. Resistance was getting harder by the second. That’s when he made his decision, he wanted Ron and he was going to get him, and nobody was going to get in the way.

*@*

When the brewing time was up, Professor Snape began making his way around the classroom. He looked into each cauldron, checking the contents and then silently moving on. Snape’s silence was making Ron more nervous. Usually, Snape would ridicule the students who had not got the potion perfect however, this time he was staying tacit. Even when he reached Ron and Millicent’s cauldron, which Ron thought was defiantly wrong, the Potions Master did not utter a word.

With an amused grin, Snape stood before the class. “Well, now that you have all made your potions it is time to test them. I will be assigning you with a new partner and I want each of you to take a vial of your own potion with you to your new seat. There you will test the affects of your potion with a set of questions, which I will provide,” Snape picked up a second piece of parchment from his desk and once again began reading out pairs of names. This time Hermione was made to work with Pansy Parkinson, which was a bad idea if Ron had ever herd one, the two hated each other with a passion. Harry was sent to work with Blaise Zabini and Ron was paired with none other than Draco Malfoy.

Draco came to sit at the seat next to him, carrying a vial of aqua green liquid, which to Ron’s surprise did not look that different from his own. Which meant, for once in is life, he may have made a potion correctly. Ron looked over at the blond haired boy next to him. Draco had not yet said anything to him, which was weird. He had expected the other boy to call him ‘Weasel’ or use some other insult, but Draco hadn’t even acknowledged his presence.

“Are we going to get on with this or not?” Ron said, looking at Draco, who seemed to be avoiding his eye.

After a moment, Draco finally looked up at him. “Yes, I guess we should. Do you want to ask the questions first or shall I?” Draco asked. Ron gaped at him. Draco Malfoy was actually being polite to him. The world must be ending.

Ron coughed to clear his throat. “I’m not bothered, you can ask the questions first, if you like,” Ron replied. He handed the piece of parchment with the questions on to Draco and drank down his vial of potion. He felt a weird buzzing sensation erupt in head, which seemed to disappear as soon as it came, leaving him feeling relatively normal.

“Okay, first question. What’s your full name?” Draco asked. Ron’s eyes grew wide and a panic started to rise in him.
He did not want to tell Draco Malfoy his middle name. The other boy would surely laugh at him, but he felt a pull in the pit of his stomach. The more he tried to resist answering; the stronger the pull became. Until eventually, he blurted out the answer.

“Ronald Bilius Weasley,” the words were ripped out of his mouth and he felt his cheeks begin to burn. He looked up at Draco who had been patiently waiting for an answer. Draco nodded once and moved on to the next question. Ron was utterly confused. Why wasn’t Draco making fun of him? The other boy usually used every opportunity he got to poke fun at the redhead, so why was he not now? Then Ron had a thought. What if he were to ask Draco why he was being so nice to him, while Draco was under the influence of his truth serum? The plan was perfect. Draco would have to answer and then Ron would find out what evil thing he was planning, because surely he must be planning something horrible, this was Draco Malfoy after all.

Ron looked at Draco as the other boy began asking the next question. Ron was drawn to the way Draco’s lips were moving as they formed each word. Then the dream he had been having on the train came to mind and he felt himself redden more, as images of other things Draco could be doing with his mouth floated to the forefront of his mind. He remembered the way it had felt, as if it had been really happening. The hot, wet sensation and the gentle licks the other boy had been doing with the flat of his tongue. He felt himself growing hard at the memory of the all too real dream and pushed himself further under the table in hope that Draco wouldn’t notice.

“Ron, are you even listening to me?” Draco asked with a pissed off edge to his voice. Ron didn’t even notice the blonde’s use of his first name, as he tried to keep his erection from view.

“What?” Ron dumbly replied, causing Draco to sigh.

“I asked you the next question, but you seemed to be in a daze. Got someone interesting to think about?”

*@*

Draco hoped his questions would reward him with a negative answer, but whatever the answer, Ron had to be telling the truth. He was still under the influence of the potion.

“No!” Ron spat out. Draco sighed with relief, and then realized how he had phrased the question. Ron may have been thinking about someone, but that didn’t necessarily mean he was he had them. That was implying that he was dating someone. At least Draco now knew Ron was defiantly single. An evil grin spread across Draco’s face as he began asking his next question.

“So, who were you thinking of?” he knew Ron had been defiantly thinking about another person. He wanted to know whom so he could get them out of the running for Ron’s affections. Ron would be his, if he had to get rid of the whole school first, he would.

He watched as Ron’s eyes grew wide at the question and the redhead began to violently shake his head. Draco could tell Ron didn’t want to answer the question, which meant Draco had been right, Ron had been thinking about someone.

*@*

There was no way he was answering that question. Ron was shaking his head and silently trying to plead with Draco to take the question back. He needed to get away, far away, from Draco. He eyed the door wondering which would be worse, having detention with Snape or Draco finding out he had been thinking about him. The pull in his stomach was strong now and was beginning to cause him immense pain. He doubled over clutching his stomach, while still desperately trying to keep his mouth shut. The pain was burning him, making his eyes water.

“Just answer the question, Weasley. Whoever it is, it can’t be that bad,” Draco’s voice floated to his ears. Nobody else seemed to have noticed that he was in terrible pain and were all to busy testing out their potions.

He couldn’t hold it much longer. The pain was becoming unbearable and he could feel the word rising up his throat, ready to spill out of his mouth. He tried to back away from the table, but the pain hurt more when he moved. There was no escaping it; he was going to have to tell.

“You,” the word erupted from his lips. The pain stopped immediately and before Draco had a chance to say anything to him, Ron dashed out of the room.