Unlikely Beginnings

@>*~


Chapter Forty Five


The sun was just beginning to set, and it cast its last rays through the
small open slit in the curtains and let them stream across the room. Draco
thought he would have been the first to wake, but when he sat up in the bed,
he found the other side empty. He was about to get up and search the room
for the other boy, and if need be, he\'d go through the entire hotel, but
that was before he heard the lavatory door open. Harry walked out into the
main room, feeling a whole lot better than he had thirty minutes ago. He
felt marvelously clean now, and he made the decision to bathe as much as
possible, if he had the time. It wasn\'t that he was dirty, even if all
they\'d been doing was apparating, but the hot water really helped to soothe
his sore muscles.

Harry looked to the bed when he came out of the smaller room, and saw Draco
sitting up, then smiled at the blonde. Draco watched him for a moment before
leaning down a bit to rest his arms on his knees. He thought perhaps he
should have just been listening more carefully, and he\'d have known where
Harry was, instead of over reacting before he knew anything. The blonde
lifted his knees up and crossed his arms over top of them, legs still under
the blanket. \"We have some time, I think, before we leave. You hungry?\" he
asked, lowering his head onto his crossed wrists, and watched as Harry only
nodded. \"Fancy a bite to eat, then?\" he chuckled softly.

Harry paused for a moment, thinking about whether that was a good idea,
despite knowing he was a bit peckish. The thing was, should he get something
to eat when he\'d more than likely puke it up after apparating? He had no
idea how long it would be, if his stomach would have time to digest anything
(not that it really mattered when it came to throwing up), but the decision
was made for him when his stomach over ruled any more debate on the matter,
growling noisily. \"Sure; but something light, yeah? I don\'t want it all
coming back up.\"

Draco nodded before he stretched his legs out, and standing to reach for his
shirt. Since there was a pub downstairs in the same building, they wouldn\'t
have too far to go, just down some stairs. Harry had patted his hair down
again and then after he tugged his shirt over his head, he didn\'t bother
doing it again. He\'d put his trousers back on in the bathroom, not really
wanting to be walking around in just a towel covering his bits. Not because
he was shy, but rather because it just felt weird to do it around someone
he\'d slept with. Draco had his cloak on before Harry did and when the dark
haired boy was ready, Draco unlocked the door.

He didn\'t know how long it would be before he remembered their next exact
destination, so it was a better idea to leave their things in the room, as
they\'d be back after their meal. After holding the door open for Harry to
pass through, Draco shut and relocked the door with a spell behind them.
Across the hall and down the stairs, and they were in the restaurant area of
the pub, both hoping it had decent food. It was alright to eat a bag of
crisps every once in a while, but if they had to do it all the time, neither
of them would want to touch the things again. There were a lot less people
in the room than there had been the day before, and Draco led the way
through to one he deemed suitable, nodding to the waiter to make his way to
their table after them.

The young man wasn\'t much older than either of them, probably only by a few
years. Harry still hadn\'t bothered with a translation spell, but he could
have sworn, as he frowned at the other two men, that the waiter was rather
blatantly flirting with Draco. The blonde either didn\'t notice or decided to
ignore the strange man\'s advances. Harry wasn\'t quite sure whether he liked
watching this display, or perhaps it was just the fact that Draco seemed not
to try and stop the man. The waiter wrote something down on his pad, and
Harry assumed it was something to drink; probably their version of
butterbeer. He wasn\'t even sure if one could get the popular drink anywhere
but in England, but he supposed there had to be something equivalent to it
in other countries. \"This place doesn\'t look too bad,\" Harry began after the
waiter left, glancing around the place, and trying to ignore the quiet that
began to hang between them before he spoke.

\"It could be better, but it\'s not bad for a quick bite to eat,\" the blonde
replied. Draco wondered at their astounding conversational skills. Lately,
it had seemed a bit strange to be talking to Harry about things as trivial
as where they were eating. Not to mention that he\'d called anyone crazy who
might have suggested two years ago that he\'d be sitting in a pub in Germany,
having a conversation with Harry Potter. Sure, they\'d come a long way from
fist fights and throwing petty hexes at each other in the school halls, but
where exactly were they heading now?

The quiet returned, and Harry looked down at his hands, not quite ready to
pick up the menu. \"Did you notice the waiter was flirting with you?\" he
asked, looking up briefly to gauge Draco\'s reaction to his question. He
wasn\'t sure why he\'d asked, but he knew it might be a better idea to ask now
instead of blurting it out later when it really had no relevance to anything
at all.

\"Did he?\" the other boy asked, then pursed his lips for a moment, as if
thinking about it before looking up to meet Harry\'s eyes with a slightly
sarcastic look in his own. \"I hadn\'t realized.\"

\"Well, he was,\" Harry said when Draco picked up his menu the waiter had left
there, clearly not giving it any more thought. Despite the comment, Harry
knew the blonde didn\'t really mean it. If he didn\'t think he knew better,
though he was starting to mistrust his judgment, he would have thought Draco
had chosen not to reciprocate the attention, for whatever reason; maybe they
were getting closer, but maybe that was wishful thinking on Harry\'s part.
The thing was, though, that he had no idea when he might have begun wishing
for that.

Draco sighed quietly to himself before he folded the menu and set it back on
the table, looking to Harry, who hadn\'t stopped staring at him. \"Something
you\'re trying to tell me, Potter?\"

\"No, just saying,\" Harry said passively, picking up his own menu, anything
to keep from looking at the sudden frown on the other boy\'s face.

Draco hummed to himself, barely audible, and Harry never even looked up from
his menu. It was true, he had noticed the waiter\'s excessive attention to
him, and the way he kept looking at his lips, but he just wasn\'t interested.
Even if he was, what could he do about it? Kick Harry out of their room and
shag the manseleseless, then pop his head into the hall and tell Harry he
could come back in, and share the bed again to go to sleep? He didn\'t think
that\'d be a very good idea. Besides, since they\'d first been intimate with
each other, he hadn\'t gone out or shagged anyone else. A few of his usual
acquaintances from before Harry had asked him why he wasn\'t supposedly
interested in them anymore, but he\'d just said he\'d been tired and hadn\'t
been in the mood. He knew, truthfully, he\'d actually enjoyed his time with
the brunette, but he wasn\'t sure he\'d admit that to anyone else; at least
not yet.

A few moments later, the waiter once again showed himself to their table to
take their orders. Still not bothering with the translations, Harry left the
ordering to Draco, since he\'d expressed what he wanted before the man came
back. Harry thought it would be easier to listen to gibberish in the
background instead of trying to listen in to others\' conversations if he
could understand. He didn\'t favor being in pubs usually, and the time he\'d
spent in The Leaky Cauldron in his Third Year and various occasions since
then had been almost more than enough. He wasn\'t a picky eater, and was
generally open to anything new; the truth was, he never had a chance to be
picky with the Dursleys, especially if they chose to starve him for a week,
just for fun.

Harry tried not to look up to see the waiter again talking to Draco, for
fear of seeing the man throwing himself at the blonde. Harry gently bit his
bottom lip inside his mouth, and kept his hands clasped under the table,
hoping neither of them noticed his display of marvelous self control. Still,
in the back of his mind, he wondered why it even bothered him, or why he was
letting it get to him, since he and Draco weren\'t even dating, were they?
The only substantial thing keeping them together right now was the baby he
was carrying; oh, and the occasional shag, but that was more of a bonus.

Deciding to stop examining the dents in the table when he saw the waiter\'s
legs walk away in the corner of his eye, Harry looked up to find Draco
staring back at him. He didn\'t feel it was right to say anything, since he
really wasn\'t sure if they even had a relationship to begin with. Harry
wasn\'t sure what Draco would say, either, and didn\'t want to make this
anymore awkward or uncomfortable than it already was if Harry decided to
give voice to his opinions. The rest of the meal was, unfortunately, spent
in said uncomfortable silence, though mostly on Harry\'s side.

Draco had brightened when he\'d remembered a spot in Poland, and they made
plans for the rest of their day. They\'d have to make their way back to their
room to prepare and pack their things back into the bag. The blonde had
recalled a small park in the middle of a quaint little wizarding village,
and had briefly explained it to Harry, much to the dark haired boy\'s
surprise. Draco seemed almost enthusiastic, which was odd, but he supposed
maybe it was better to be in a known wizarding village than in the middle of
mixed company, such as they potentially were now. After finishing their
meal, they collected their belongings from the room and returned their key
to the clerk. Once outside the building, they started down an alley way
nearby to apparate from. The horrible feeling crept up into his stomach at
the thought of magically transporting himself somewhere again, and Harry was
almost beginning to feel like maybe he should have just stayed at Hogwarts.

@>*~

When Harry appeared in the park, he fell to his knees with his arms
immediately wrapping around his stomach, and after a few moments of sickness
had washed over him, he gave thanks to whatever merciful gods that chose not
to have him spill the contents of his stomach. Standing from the grass,
Harry turned to face Draco, who looked about as relieved as he felt. He
noticed, though, that the other boy\'s hood was up again, having not been for
the rest of the day thus far. With this being a complete wizarding town, it
wasn\'t exactly a wise thing to do to have their hoods down, so Harry pulled
his up asl. Tl. There weren\'t many people around, and only a few turned
their heads at the \'crack\' when they apparated to the small park.

Draco gestured for Harry to follow him and they began down the street. They
were mainly in a housing area, but they soon found the way into the business
section, and they couldn\'t help but look into the shop windows and their
displays as they passed. They had some time to spend, and it wasn\'t too late
in the day, so they might as well spend it looking in the stores. It was a
larger and wider street than that of Diagon Alley, but it held just as many,
and just as interesting stores to browse through. Both of them had decided
it a good idea to visit the Quidditch supply store, and to check out the
brooms there. Draco reminded him again of the games they were missing.

They did figure it out and it should most likely be Gryffindor playing in
the next game, and Harry really wished he wasn\'t away from school, hoping
his team would win without him. He didn\'t much care anymore about winning
the games so much as playing, but it was a nice bonus to win something for
your house. They wandered around a bit more on the street before they walked
to the end of it, still in search of a place of lodging for them to stay in
for the time being. They entered the inn, and walked up to the desk. The
translation spell still enforced, Draco spoke fluidly to the man, but it
wasn\'t German, it was different, and Harry assumed it was Polish.

The man handed over a key and gestured to the right, then behind them and to
the left, giving directions for the room, and something else. Draco thanked
and nodded at the man before he turned back to his companion. \"Diner\'s
through there,\" he said, pointing to where the man had, behind them to the
left, \"and the rooms are up there on the right. I\'m going to take this up,
then come back down and we\'ll check out the diner.\"

Harry just nodded at the blonde, and didn\'t feel the slight panic set in
until the last of Draco\'s long cloak disappeared up the stairs. It left him
alone in the lobby with the older man behind the desk. Harry turned in a bit
of a circle, looking at the room, hoping Draco wouldn\'t take long. He turned
and caught the employee looking at him, and Harry smiled at the man before
he remembered he wouldn\'t be able to see it anyway, since his hood was up.
Belatedly, he nodded slowly, and hoped he didn\'t look too menacing, or
anything. Then, Draco came back down the steps and joined Harry as they
walked to the other hallway leading to the small restaurant.

Draco led the way, and Harry noticed that he\'d left the bag in the room;
probably the reason he went up to begin with before coming back down. \"Are
you hungry again? You ate more than I did before we left,\" Harry said,
standing beside the blonde as they came out of the hall. There weren\'t too
many wizards and witches in the room, but enough to call it half full.

\"I just want a drink, mainly, but I could probably go for something small,\"
Draco answered, crossing his arms and stepping nearer to a menu propped up
on the counter of the bar. Harry joined him, looking at it as well, but his
attention was drawn aside, to the container holding sweets of all kinds, and
he felt his mouth begin to water. \"You want that?\" Draco asked, and Harry
stopped staring and looked back to the other boy, and nodded his head.
Merlin, he felt like a child in a candy shop at that moment, but hied ied to
put it out of his mind.

He hoped Draco was just being nice, and not laughing at him for wanting
cake. Harry did feel a bit bad for not being prepared for this trip. It was
his fault they were where they were at the moment, so why should Draco be
the one to pay for everything. As soon as they got back, Harry promised
himself, he would definitely pay the other boy back, or get him a really,
really expensive present. The only problem with that, though, was that Harry
really had no clue as to what Draco would want. Harry barely noticed a
waitress cross from the other end of the bar and Draco began speaking to
her.

He had to admit, sometimes he felt a bit intimidated by the blonde,
especially watching him pick up the menu from the counter and poke his
finger at a particular picture of what Harry assumed he wanted. The witch
looked a bit shy after Draco\'s frustrated words, since that was definitely
how they sounded to Harry, and then she seemed to ask if there was anything
else. Draco turned to look at him and then he asked him, \"Which one?\"

Harry pointed to the one he specifically wanted, and as the witch made to
write their selections down, they both missed her small grin at the two of
them. They did look a bit funny to her, two cloaked men, pointing at cakes
and getting frustrated over sandwiches. She read over the things the main
one had ordered, and then he added one more thing before he agreed she had
it correct. Nodding at him and saying it would be a few minutes, and telling
them they could take a seat, that she\'d find them and bring them their food
when it was ready. Draco watched her go, and then he led Harry to one of the
corners of the large room.

They were still visible from the counter, even if only by the top of their
hoods, but it worked. \"Where\'s my cake?\" Harry couldn\'t help but ask. It
wasn\'t as if it took a lot of preparation to nab it out of the display case,
but maybe that was the reason; it could be display only and the real things
were in the back. Draco reassured him of that exact thing, and that the
waitress would bring it over when the rest of it was ready, which wouldn\'t
be long.

\"Besides, I don\'t think I could watch you eat without taking half of it for
myself,\" Draco said as he gestured for Harry to sit down in the corner booth
he\'d selected. \"Maybe I should have got some, too,\" he mused before he sat
down as well. They usually sat opposite each other, and Harry had always
noticed Draco looking behind his shoulder, so Harry opted to doing the same
thing for the blonde, assuming it was the reasoning for sitting face to
face. Here, however, in the corner seat with the bench to the wall, Harry
was surprised to have Draco slide in beside him, barely three inches between
them because the Slytherin was sitting so close to him.

\"You can have a bite of mine,\" Harry said, feeling all too awkward at this.
If Draco were on the other side, Harry could at least see the blonde\'s face,
but now he couldn\'t unless he turned to his side, and that wasn\'t exactly
pleasant on his neck. There was, of course, the whole thing about Draco
sitting next to him. He knew very well that they slept in the same bed
together, but this was different. Were they supposed to have an arm around
the other\'s shoulder or waist? Or have a hand on the other\'s knee? Harry
doubted that would happen, though not that he\'d mind if it did, so he simply
sat there with his hands to himself.

\"Damn,\" Draco said after a minute. He\'d leaned forward, his elbows on the
table, watching ahead, and Harry had busied himself with folding a napkin
into various shapes. \"I know where we should be going, but I just can\'t get
the right picture of it in my mind,\" he continued, before Harry had the
chance to ask. He sat back after he finished, and watched as the waitress
came across the room towards them, weaving through a few tables until she
came to them.

She set down three plates, two with sandwiches, and one with Harry\'s cake,
and two bottles of butterbeer. Draco thanked her, and she smiled at them
before going back to the bar, while the blonde opened his bottle immediately
and took a drink from it. He sighed heavily afterwards, and Harry grinned as
he pulled one of the sandwiches towards himself, assuming one was his. Draco
did the same, and they started into their meal. It was mostly spent in
quiet, with Draco making inarticulately annoyed noises, presumably at his
brain not cooperating with supplying the image he needed for them to
proceed. Harry finished his sandwich before Draco did; he was apparently
hungrier than he had thought, and started into his cake after a drink of his
butterbeer. \"Harry,\" he heard called softly, and he turned to look at the
blonde beside him, an eyebrow raised with curiosity, which he knew could be
seen so closely between them when he saw Draco\'s head turned towards him,
too.

\"I really do want a bite of that,\" he said, and couldn\'t help but grin at
the stupidity of it. No, he didn\'t want his own piece, he just wanted a
bite. It was something that just looked so appealing, but he knew it would
be absolutely too much sugar for him if he had more than one little bit of
it. Harry laughed upon hearing the other boy, and he looked down at his
plate. Draco was just in time to ask, because in a few bites, he\'d have the
entire thing finished.

\"Okay,\" Harry said, still smiling, and he stuck his fork down into the cake
and broke off a small piece, about the size of his thumb. He held it up
slowly so as not to drop it, and started moving it towards Draco. The
Slytherin seemed a bit surprised at this procedure, and looked at Harry
ridiculously, but he opened his mouth before he got a fork to the face, if
he\'d been too slow to avoid having cake smeared on it. Harry slid the fork
over Draco\'s bottom lip, and waited for the blonde to close his mouth over
the tines so Harry could pull it back.

He watched Draco\'s lips as he dragged them over the fork, catching the icing
that was on it as well, and Draco almost started to laugh before pointedly
averting his eyes to the wall beside Harry\'s head as he chewed the cake in
his mouth. Harry chuckled at the other boy, and his smile faded when Draco
swallowed, then licked his lips, looking back at Harry again. Draco leaned
forward a bit, his eyes on Harry\'s mouth before darting up to his eyes for a
moment before Harry met him half way, pressing their lips together in the
middle. It was different to kiss while they both had a hood up, but it gave
them an odd bit of privacy as it hid both of their faces still, and their
mouths as Harry opened his to Draco\'s tongue slipping across his lips.

Harry could immediately taste more of the sweet icing and cake on Draco\'s
tongue as he let his own slide against the blonde\'s, and he made himself
hold back a slight moan at the taste of it, melting in with Draco\'s unique
taste. Draco teased Harry\'s tongue out of his mouth and into his own, and
then pulled away completely, looking down at Harry\'s lips before closing in
again, pressing against Harry, who opened freely this time, without
hesitation. Harry, still holding the fork, had lowered his hand down to the
table top, resting it there as he kept his head turned and his lips pressed
against Draco\'s. He knew this had to stop before it got carried away, and
since they were trying to keep a low profile, especially in wizarding areas,
Harry retrieved his tongue, and gave one last kiss before pulling away with
a slight sound of suction at their parting lips.

\"That,\" the blonde said softly when he pulled back, \"was absolutely
delicious.\" Draco licked his lips again, barely a hint of a smile on them as
he looked Harry in the eye before turning away and picking up his
butterbeer. Harry had slipped the fork right back into his mouth, licking
the remaining icing off of it, and swearing he could still taste Draco on
the metal. He was reminded of an incident in the Great Hall, involving
pudding, Draco, and a particularly arousing spoon, and Harry was forced to
finish his cake, trying not to think about it. He had no idea what Draco was
thinking about this all now, but there really wasn\'t much they could do
about it in the middle of the diner.

Aside from the odd and slightly off putting weirdness of kissing someone
while in the midst of eating, despite having actually swallowed the contents
of their mouth, Harry definitely had to agree with Draco on that one, the
kiss or the cake, whichever. Draco glared from under his hood at a pair of
wizards at the table nearest them, and they turned back to their food
themselves after shifting in their seats under the stranger\'s stare. Harry
finished the last few mouthfuls of his own butterbeer before he was ready to
go. Draco stood from the seat, allowing Harry to get out before they walked
back up to the bar. Draco called the waitress over and then handed her some
money for their meal. She smiled at Harry behind him, obviously having been
watching them, too. He had the decency to duck his head slightly, and again
missed the grin she gave Draco this time, and only felt Draco\'s hand on his
lower back before he started towards the hall to go back to the lobby.

The man at the desk wasn\'t there as they passed through, and Draco led the
way up the stairs to the room, number four, at which Harry had to grimace,
recalling his aunt and uncle at the mention of the number. He knew that
number would be his least favorite in the world for the rest of his life.
Draco looked at him with a strange expression when he glared at the metal
number attached to the outside of the door while holding it open for Harry
to pass through, but he shook his head instead of asking. Harry saw their
bag lying beside the bed on what was presumably going to be Draco\'s side,
and then he took his cloak off, listening to Draco placing locking charms on
the door as he looked around.

It was a cozy little room, and, again, only one bed. Harry felt a bit
tentative about doing anything more than kissing, but he also had no idea
how to ask Draco nicely if they could just make out. Finally, after he\'d
went to the loo and came back to take his shoes off, followed by his
sweater, which left a navy blue t-shirt underneath, Harry decided that he
wasn\'t going to say anything or start anything unless Draco did first.
Draco, however, had went straight into the toilet after Harry had came out,
and after a few minutes later, heard a flush, and more running water from
the sink.

Harry had already taken his glasses and pants off, his t-shirt, and was now
working on his socks, one of which was already stuffed into its
corresponding shoe. He missed the smirk Draco gave said socks when he\'d come
out from the smaller room, and began to remove his own clothing. Harry
pulled back the covers and shivered at the cool touch of them against his
skin. Draco climbed under beside him, and laid on his back, as usual. Harry
shifted up as close as he ever did, and was pleased to find Draco\'s arm
already under the pillows, and Harry quickly laid his dark haired head over
top of it. Draco shifted his hip to the side towards Harry, and Harry could
definitely feel the warmth as it came closer, just above his pelvis, not
even an inch away now.

Draco did feel a little odd at the situation, and he wondered when he\'d
become so used to sleeping in the same bed as the other boy. It wasn\'t aall all the worst thing that could happen, but he had to admit, if even just to
himself at the moment, that it felt good. He was well aware of the slight
distance kept between them when they got into the bed, just like the other
nights, but he was a bit uncomfortable with Harry being even more close to
him. He was attracted to the dark haired boy, and as he stared up at the
ceiling, he really did wonder at what was going to happen between them next.
He wasn\'t really the type to think about the future of a relationship, but
he supposed he was a bit forced to now, considering there was an innocent
life involved.

He fell asleep before he could come to any conclusion on that, but strangely
he still continued his thoughtto tto the dream he found himself in. The room
was changed, but it was still a room. The designs and fixtures on the
ceiling were different, and he sat up in bed and stood, finding himself
wearing a simple but expensive robe. He turned, looking back at the bed, but
Harry wasn\'t there, and the blankets were an entirely different color and
pattern. He looked up towards the large window in the room, and a figure was
standing beside it, looking out through the gap in the curtains. A pale hand
reached out from the cloak the man wore, and drew the curtain closed before
turning slowly. He smiled indulgently at Draco, and then he realized it was
his father; then the smile turned into something darker, a scowl, and Lucius
began walking towards his son.

Draco backed away, his eyes going wide as his father began to advance on
him, a cruel and disappointed look on his face as he drew his wand from his
cane, and started holding it up towards Draco\'s chest. The back of his legs
hit something soft, and he sat down gratefully, and then couldn\'t help but
squeeze his eyes shut. Nothing happened. Opening them slowly, Draco stared
back up at a more familiar ceiling, and then he remembered. As abruptly as
it had clicked in his mind, Draco sat up in the bed, not paying attention to
Harry having been laying on his shoulder, and subsequently being rolled over
and his head dropped down onto the pillows at his sudden movement. \"Shit,\"
Harry mumbled to himself, still half asleep, and rather unhappy about being
jostled awake by his pillow deciding to sit up in bed.

\"Oh, sorry,\" Draco said, though with not much meaning behind the words,
Harry noted. \"Get up, though,\" he added, doing just that himself, and
pulling his pants on from where they lay draped over the bag beside the bed.
Harry groaned and rolled over the rest of the way, grabbing his glasses from
thee tae table.

\"What are you doing?\" he managed to get out, before a yawn broke into his
words, and then he simply forgot the rest of what he was going to say. He
sat up in the bed, knowing he needed to listen to the blonde and do as he
was, and get dressed himself. Harry pulled his t-shirt and sweater back on
easily, and then stood up, and found himself seated back on the edge of the
bed. Blinking his eyes to clear a bit of the fog in his tired mind and body,
he tried again, and then pulled his pants on.

\"I remembered where we\'re going, but we should go now before I lose it,\"
Draco said distractedly as he pulled his shirt on and then bent down to
quickly tie the laces on his boots. He was definitely ready before Harry,
and Harry was sure he was about to lose it if he didn\'t slow down a bit.
Harry didn\'t quite function well after being woken up in the middle of the
night. Well, at least it was a good enough reason to wake him up, Harry
thought as he pulled his socks on and stuffed his feet in hises bes before
tying them just as quickly as Draco was.

Draco slung his cloak around himself, buttoning its clasp and then turning
to Harry after he picked up their bag from beside the bed and hung it over
his shoulder. Harry took a moment before he stood up, scratching at his
messy hair and looked at Draco expectantly. Dawning soon came to the dark
haired boy\'s face as he completely woke up and realized what they were
supposed to do; apparate, while he was half asleep, no less. Harry began to
shake his head, but, as Draco had been ready for this, wasn\'t prepared to
give Harry much of a chance to whinge about it much. \"Listen,\" he said,
stepping close to Harry and sliding a hand around the other boy\'s neck.
\"I\'ll meet you there.\" Draco leaned forward to close the gap between them
and opened his lips slightly to press them against Harry\'s, giving him a
damp kiss on his lips before pulling away and smiling before he disappeared,
leaving Harry with no choice but to follow.

@>*~

The classes on Monday had all brushed by carrying a strange feeling, making
Ron wonder if he\'d even been there. His mind had been elsewhere, and he
couldn\'t keep it on his work. He knew it wasn\'t the fact that Harry was
still gone, but it was more that his own life had changed now. He was still
the same old Ron Weasley, except for the not so little thing to a seventeen
year old boy that was losing his virginity. It made him feel a little odd
that it was one of his best friends, but, then again, he\'d never really
thought he\'d have a girl for a best friend when he was younger, but he was
proud to call Hermione that.

He looked across the Gryffindor table, watching Hermione take a bite out of
her roast beef sandwich, eyes scanning the page laid out in front of her. As
per usual, there was a heavy tome containing scads of useless information
about some boring topic to which that page belonged, and Ron couldn\'t help
but smile to himself. Ron looked down to his own plate, twirling his fork
amongst the peas there as he let his mind wander back and relive that
faithful night, and the two after that.

For a while, he\'d had a bit of paranoia at Neville having known about what
happened between he and Hermione. After the shy boy had sworn himself to
secrecy, though, the three (really, four) of them had began to grow a little
closer. They\'d always been friends with Neville, but there was never
anything specific that they had in common, but now they had something to
share. Ron still didn\'t want to know the sligh bit bit about Neville\'s love
life. That was mainly due to his inane refusal to know anything about what
the two boys did with each other, despite Hermione\'s skeptical looks to him,
really wondering if it was simply because Zabini was in Slytherin House.

They\'d all spent time in the library, a place where Ron and Hermione could
hang out with the two boys, and it soon became more than just Hermione\'s
niche. She did wonder why she\'d never noticed the boys there together
before, but it was most likely due to them having hidden, so as to keep
their relationship a secret. They always parted ways friendly, Ron and
Hermione leaving before Blaise and Neville to give them a bit of privacy.

After their first night together, Ron and Hermione had shared a few more
intimate experiences with each other. They held hands most all of the time
now as they walked through the castle halls, just enjoying spending time
with each other. Of course, that had inadvertently led to the finding of a
few crevices or alcoves to have a bit of a snog in before moving on. They\'d
come fairly close to flat out sex in some of those corners, but managed to
restrain themselves, and make their way back to the boys\' dorm, and even in
the Prefects\' bathroom.

Ron could still feel the mark of a large love bite on his collarbone from
earlier, when he and Hermione had been fooling around against a wall in one
of the many long abandoned classrooms. He hadn\'t been too sure if he was
being that good of a lover, but just judging by the sounds and praise that
Hermione whispered (and sometimes quite louder than that) to him, he figured
he must be doing something right after all. She wouldn\'t be humoring him,
after all. She\'d always had no problem telling him how things were, and he
had no doubt she would ever keep quiet about him not doing something right.
If knowing her for the past six and a half years had taught him anything, it
was that.

Before lunch was over, Hermione had dragged him up to see Professor Lupin.
It\'s not that he didn\'t want to go, but Ron was tired of hearing nothing new
about the whereabouts of his best friend. Lupin couldn\'t tell them anything
new, and neither of them were surprised. Their teacher looked frustrated and
tired, and they soon left him to his papers and made their way back to
Gryffindor Tower until afternoon classes began. Things had been the same
since Friday when they\'d last heard anything new about their friend, and Ron
just wished he knew what prompted Harry to take off, with Malfoy, of all
people, and to Durmstrang, of all places.

Ron sighed, knowing he wouldn\'t know until someone managed to speak with
them, or when they returned. At least he hoped they returned; or maybe just
Harry. Malfoy could stay, for all Ron cared. After their meal, the day
continued on as it normally did. The remaining classes were straight
forward, and then it was time for supper. It wasn\'t eventful, either, aside
from a Hufflepuff shooting milk out of their nose after a particularly funny
joke, but even that wasn\'t enough to warrant a curious chuckle in their
general direction at the laughter.

The Gryffindors headed back to their common room from the Great Hall. Most
of them had homework to finish before the next morning, and there wasn\'t a
lot of games going on, as they all seemed to have an early morning. Ron held
Hermione\'s hand as they stopped in front of the portrait of the Fat Lady.
She smiled knowingly at them, nodded politely when Ron spoke the password,
and swung open for them. They walked through the threshold of the painting,
still hand in hand, and only let go when Ron needed to pick up his books to
start working.

Hermione had completed most of her homework for the night during supper, so
she made the short trek up to her dorm to grab some more yarn before
starting a new sweater. She relaxed into her favorite chair, glancing over
at Ron sitting at the nearest table, glaring down at his own work. She
smiled and began unraveling some of the deep green colored string and picked
up her needles. It fell quiet in the common room, and most of the older
students were still recovering from the weekend at Hogsmeade, as well as
attempting to battle their homework assignments.

She had shook her head at them in the morning, most of them not even half
awake when they got to breakfast, and she was sure someone had fallen asleep
in their porridge. A lot of their Year had turned eighteen during the last
summer, and had been legally allowed to drink things a bit stronger than
butterbeer. Of course, that certainly didn\'t help control any aspects of
contributing to the delinquency of minors, because half of them opted to
buying a round or four foeir eir younger classmates.

When she heard Ron sigh down into his book heavily, Hermione looked up from
her knitting. She couldn\'t feel condescending about dropping out of
Divination anymore, for one thing, because it simply didn\'t matter, but she
couldn\'t even smile at him having problems after what she\'d told him
Professor Trelawney said. The old bug-eyed woman had been spouting off about
Harry\'s time having finally come and that, oh, she had been right all along.
Hermione had been outraged at that bit of news, however, but from what Ron
had told her followed the teacher\'s outburst, she needn\'t run to defend her
friend. The rest of the class, even including Trelawney\'s most devoted
students, had angrily told her to, quite succinctly, keep her big, fat yap
shut.

She knew Harry would be back, right as rain, and Trelawney didn\'t know what
the hell she was talking about. Hermione knew it couldn\'t really be the
homework that was bothering Ron, and she knew he was bothered. He didn\'t
sigh the way he did over Divination, so she had to ask. \"Something on your
mind, Ron?\"

Ron looked up, genuinely unaware that he\'d sighed out loud, it seemed, and
he watched as she set her knitting down. He watched her walk towards him,
and he stared at her as she scanned over his homework before he spoke.
\"Well,\" he started, \"I\'ve been thinking... about us, I mean.\"

\"Oh?\" Hermione asked, suddenly feeling a frown on her face as she looked
back at him. She hoped he wasn\'t having second thoughts about their
relationship, but the way he had said it didn\'t leave her with a lot of
secure feelings.

Ron nodded, looking down again to his work. \"I don\'t mean us, precisely, but
more about, uhm,\" he paused, taking a deep breath as he gathered his
thoughts in order. It took him a moment for the right words to come
together, or at least he hoped they were the right ones, because he had
decided he couldn\'t back down from what he was about to say now that he\'d
started. \"What I mean is, that this past weekend, you know, when we were
together, we didn\'t use any protection,\" he finished, also deciding it was
best to just get it over with.

He felt a blush warm his face to the very roots of his hair. He felt ashamed
of himself for not thinking to use any at the time, but now that he\'d had
some time to replay things in his head, he realized that they hadn\'t exactly
been careful. His mother would have his hide if she knew, so it was a good
thing she didn\'t, he supposed. Hermione sighed to herself, overcome
r
relief. She almost shook her head, thinking, \'is that all?\' For a moment,
she had been afraid Ron would admit that he regretted their time together
and wanted to just be friends again. She wasn\'t sure if she could have
accepted that, but she was glad that wasn\'t the problem. \"Oh, Ron, don\'t
worry yourself sick about it.\"

\"No?\" he asked, suddenly feeling all the more worried and all the more like
a big weight had been lifted at the same time.

\"No,\" she repeated. \"I took care of it before we even slept together. As you
should know,\" she continued, though already knowing he would have forgotten
this information, \"the contraceptive spell lasts for an entire month each
time it\'s used.\" She smiled back at his slig dum dumbfounded look, almost
beaming at the fact that he cared about it, to look out for her, and the
both of them together.

Neither one of them were ready to have children, still being in school, and
even if they weren\'t, Hermione still had a career to consider first before
she even thought of having kids. Aside from that, she didn\'t have to worry
about Ron if it did happen, since she was sure Mrs. Weasley would have
already beat sense enough into Ron about these issues, and would even make
him \'do the right thing,\' by her. Hermione was sure she loved Ron with all
her heart, but she wasn\'t ready to be tied down by children just yet.

Ron slowly started to look relieved, and she smiled at him again before
leaning down towards him. She pressed a kiss to his lips, intending it to
simply be a quick peck, but it turned into something deeper and wetter
before they broke apart, both taking deep breaths. \"Good night, Ron,\" she
said to him, standing up and tugging her shirt straight as she headed for
the stairs.

\"Good night, Hermione,\" he replied, calling behind her. He smiled now,
feeling so much better about things, but he was so tired, too. He looked
back at his Divination homework, and sighed, this time clearly about the
insanity that was theory on crystal balls. He left it where it was, since he
didn\'t have to go back up to Trelawney\'s class until after lunch, so maybe
d had have time to finish it up before then. There were only a couple older
students in the common room when Ron stood up and looked about, stretching
his arms as he walked to the stairs himself.

@>*~