Close Enough

Ch 39 Ron

Harry walked down to the lake, sitting on what he liked to call ‘his rock’, gazing at the castle before dropping his head into his hands. ‘You know what Harry; you are the stupidest person I’ve ever met.’ Harry muttered to himself, shaking his head slightly. ‘What would make you think that she wouldn’t know it was from you? She’s right, she’s known me for years, of course she would know that I would send that gift.’ Harry sighed, and looked up at the castle again, only to see a figure exiting the castle. ‘Draco.’ He sighed and stood up, walking toward his mate.
They met half way around the lake, Draco smiled softly at Harry before pulling him into a hug. “You alright?” Draco asked softly as he pulled away, eyes showing concern, but a small smile on his lips. “I talked with Granger after you left.” Harry didn’t say anything, just rested his head on Draco’s shoulder, “She needs to talk with you. she wants to make amends. And from the fact that you sent her a birthday present, I assume you do as well.” Draco said in a knowing tone.
“I always send her presents for holidays.” Harry said softly, pulling away from Draco walking back toward the castle. “What was so different about this one that made her come talk to me….” Harry wondered outloud.
“You sent her your book didn’t you? That would make anyone want to talk to you.” Draco was surprised by the speed of Harry’s movement; one second he was walking slightly in front of Draco back toward the castle, the next he was facing Draco his arms crossed over his chest tightly.
“What do you know about that?” Harry’s eyes narrowed dangerously at Draco, “How do you know about ‘my book’?” Draco was confused, ‘what is the big deal?’
“I’ve read it, Cord gave it to me the first night she spent in our room.” Draco looked questioningly at Harry, “What’s the big deal? You wrote it, from what Cord said it’s the truth, and if you didn’t want people to know, why did you write it?”
“I wrote it, to make myself feel better. It got published, because I’m a sucker for Cloe’s puppy eye routine. And yes, it is the truth. Thing is, the only people who ever knew that I wrote it were the girls, and me. And now apparently you.” Harry turned on his heel and began walking away, Draco quickly followed.
“Harry, I don’t understand.” Draco grabbed Harry’s arm, turning the raven haired young man to face him and halting his progress back to the castle. “What’s wrong?” Draco asked, the bond calling loudly to him of his mates distressed stated. “Tell me what’s wrong.” Draco searched the bright green eyes before him, “Please.”
“What’s wrong, Draco, is that I didn’t want anyone to know that I wrote it. Had I wanted that, I would have put Harry-bloody-Potter on the cover! What’s wrong, Draco, is that I presume, from how you are talking about it that you read the book Cord gave you.” Draco tilted his head slightly to the side, before nodding, still holding tightly to Harry’s arm.
“What does that have to do with anything?” Draco asked.
“Draco,” Harry closed his eyes, sighed, and opened them again not looking at the blonde. “That has everything to do with it. I can feel it Draco, I can feel the sympathy when you think about what you have read. I can feel the pain you feel in knowing the fraction of what happened to me that I put into that book.” Harry looked into Draco’s eyes searchingly, “I don’t want to feel that. That’s not why I wrote it. This is not the result I wanted. Cord shouldn’t have given it to you. she should have known better…” Harry sighed, and removed his arm from Draco’s now relaxed grip. “does she know?”
“Does who know what?” Draco asked, confusedly.
“Does Hermione know that I wrote it?” Harry asked softly.
“I don’t believe so.” Draco answered, wishing that he understood what was going on with Harry.
“Thank Merlin for small miracles.” Harry murmured before he turned and began walking back up to the castle.


Harry had made his way back toward the dungeons, leaving Draco to make his way back to the great hall alone. after a quick run in with his friends and a couple fond hellos to his fellow Ex-Slytherins, Draco made his way to the table where Justin and Hermione were still seated talking quietly.
“Hey.” Justin said, smiling up at Draco. “You find Harry?”
“Yea, I didn’t get a chance to talk to him about my idea. So I thought I might come discuss it with you two.” Draco smiled softly, sitting down next to Hermione. “Are you prepared to leave the Weasel for good, never to return to his side?” She nodded slightly, “so you would not mind if I, shall we say, removed him from the school grounds?” She shook her head, brow furrowed.
“What are you planning, Malfoy?” She asked, her eyes alight with interest.
“Let me ask you a couple of questions first.” She girl nodded, a curious look on her face, so Draco continued. “Ron only ever takes his aggression out on Harry when there are no teachers around, right?” Hermione nodded, “and the rest of the people around him, are too afraid to do anything about it, right?” She nodded again. “What do you think would happen if a teacher arrived in time to catch him in the act? Would all his friends, back him up, or would they explain what was going on?”
“I don’t know. I don’t talk to them much. But from how they look while it’s happening, you’d think that they would stand up for Harry before they would stand up for Ron. Why?”
Draco smirked, “I think it’s time for Ron to receive a wake up call about his actions. The next time he goes to attack Harry, he will be in for a rude awakening when a particular teacher shows up.” Draco’s smirk broadened at the expression on her face, “Don’t worry, I’ll take care of everything. So, if I need help, can I count on you two?”
“Oh, I’ve got Harry’s back so I’ve got you on this.” Justin stated firmly.
“Of course. But why are you helping me? I mean, you aren’t my friend, you aren’t even Harry’s. Ron hasn’t done anything to you.” Hermione looked at the blonde in suspicion.
“When it’s time for you to know, Harry will tell you.” Draco said cryptically before he stood. “You two enjoy your evening.” After a step away, Draco turned back, “and Justin, I don’t want to hear anything out of your room tonight.” Draco laughed at the look on both of their faces, winked, and walked out of the great hall to meet Harry for some snuggle time before bed.


It took time to work out his plan; it was the middle of December when Draco had all of his ducks in a row. He had a meeting with his godfather; setting up a notification system for if something happened. He spent a fair amount of time on ‘double dates’ with Hermione and Justin, enjoying Hogsmead and even a night at the top of the astronomy tower with a picnic. Draco had been keeping a close eye on Ron over this time; in class, at meals, and when he saw him in the hall. Even when he had other people with him he looked enraged every single time he saw him, and Draco knew it was only a matter of time before it happened.
Harry and Draco had been spending so much time together, that they were rarely apart. The only time that they were away from eachother was when Draco had classes without him. The more time they spent together, the closer the pair came to completing the bond. Draco was delighted when after some fooling around, Harry had allowed him to remove both of their pajamas and cuddle naked together. He was a little unsure as to why Harry had allowed this in the first place, but wasn’t going to turn down a euphoric opportunity. Now it was just over a week until Christmas, the occupants of the castle were all preparing to return home to their families for the holidays, causing much noise and mayhem in their wake.

Harry had just left Divination and was hurrying down the hall when a hand reached out and pulled him into an empty class room. “Wha…” was all he could get out before he was punched in the stomach and knocked to the ground.
“Hello, Potter.” Ron’s voice sneered from above him. “Long time no see.” He punctuated this with a swift kick to Harry’s stomach. “It’s been months since I could get you alone. Did you think you were done paying for what you have done to me?” Harry groaned and Ron kicked him again, “Now I have lost my girlfriend. Stupid slut thinks she can get away from me, going out with that friend of yours… Justin.” Another kick. “Between that and how you disrupted my family. The one’s you didn’t get killed will never be the same!” Another kick, “And it’s all your fault, you know that!? If you would have stopped the stupid war, you could have saved them all. But you chose not to.” Ron began stomping on Harry’s chest, laughing when he heard Harry’s ribs crack. “Not so powerful without your little friends are you, Potter?”
The door behind Ron burst open, “Mr. Weasley, what are you doing?” came a cool, sharp voice in the doorway.
“Severus?” Harry slurred, spitting blood onto the ground as he curled around himself.
“Mr. Weasley, you have been caught attacking a fellow student. The Headmaster will be waiting for you.” Another figure appeared in the doorway.
“What is the commotion?” Professor McGonagall asked crossly.
“I have apprehended a student who was attacking another.” Severus said motioning toward Ron.
“Mr. Weasley? I shall escort you to the Headmaster.” She swept into the classroom, shot a sorrowful glance at Harry still coughing on the floor, grabbed Ron by the arm and dragged him from the room.
“Harry?” Severus knelt next to Harry, reaching a hand out to him. “Are you alright? Do you need a potion?” Harry shook his head, “are you sure?”
“Yea… just give me a second and I’ll….” Harry closed his eyes in concentration. Severus watched as the scratches on his face closed, his ribs slowly snapped back into place, and the blood slowly receded until it disappeared. “See, I’m fine.” Sitting properly on the floor, looking curiously at Severus who currently sat back on his heals a few feet from him, “What were you doing in this part of the castle?”
“Had a meeting with one of my fellow teachers, was on my way back when I heard Weasley yelling and thought I would investigate.” Harry looked at him in disbelief, Severus hoped that Harry would not question him further, he didn’t like lying to the boy.
“Well thanks for coming.” Harry said softly, and they both stood. “I best get going; can I come by later to work in your chambers?”
“Of course Harry.” Severus smiled and they exited the room, walking toward the dungeons together in silence.

“Ronald Weasley, you are under arrest for numerous attacks on fellow students. The most recent of which was this afternoon, which you were caught in the middle of.” Auror Stine stated plainly. “You shall be held in isolation until your trial. The brutal attacks on fellow wizards which you have preformed have earned you, more than likely, a life sentence.” The two Aurors holding Ron swept him out of the office, and Stine looked toward Dumbledore. “I trust you will not oppose any sentence he is given?”
“No, he deserves what he gets.” A small pause, and a smile, “Lemon drop?”
“No thank you, Headmaster. Thank you for the information you have gathered. This shall be swift.” Auror Stine exited the office, passing Severus on the way.
“Ah, Severus, my boy. What brings you here?”
“I am here to make sure that Weasley is being taken care of properly, now that there is adequate evidence against him.” The headmaster nodded. “I can’t believe that you needed another attack to get him.”
“There needed to be concrete evidence, Severus. There was nothing else to be done.”
“You basically approved an attack on a student, Harry Potter no less! I can not believe that I had to allow this to rid the school of that menace! You had four individual’s worth of accounts of his actions and yet you needed him to be caught read handed! Why?”
“Severus, this way he can not escape his fate. Without this, there would have been a chance of Ron getting away with everything. We both know that testimony doesn’t mean as much being caught in the act. We all know that the mind can be tricked, and played with. That images and memories can be planted in them, we needed an account of him being caught in the act to cement his fate.”
“Albus, you are a manipulative man.” Severus hissed.
“Perhaps.” Dumbledore said, eyes twinkling, “But it’s done. He will not come back to hurt anyone any more.” Severus merely glared, and swept out of the headmaster’s office, making his way quickly toward the dungeons where he knew Harry would be in his chambers waiting for him.