Charity

Charity
By LadyDiablo


Pairing: Ron/Harry
Warning: Slash/Yaoi. Don’t like, Don’t read.
Disclaimer: Harry Potter belongs to J K Rowling.
Summary: Ron and Hermione entered Harry to run the Kissing-booth in a Fundraiser at Hogwarts. There is only one problem: he does not know how to kiss. Who will teach him?


Chapter 5


Saturday – The day of the Fundraiser


It was a beautiful day; perfect for the day’s events. At ten o’clock when the preparations were in full swing, the sun showed no sign of ever again being defeated by clouds or rain. The grounds were buzzing with activity as the students and teachers hurried about.


In the outskirts of the area, Hagrid had made his very own booth with homemade cookies and ice-cream. Beside him, none other than Dumbledore himself had set up a few carousels and students and some of the teachers were tending to various other booths. The Weasley-twins and Lee were testing their booth; they had borrowed the idea from the muggle-world. Fred and George sat together on a plank above a tank of water and just as Harry passed by, Lee hit the hammer right on the spot and they both fell into the water with surprised yelps.


Soaking wet, they spotted Harry as he tried to sneak by unnoticed by the two troublemakers. “Harry!” Fred shouted as he tried, in vain, to get out of the water tank. “C’mere mate, and help us out of this, will you?” George continued as Harry took a few steps closer to them.


“So, are you nervous? You know, kissing that many…” Fred asked as he was being helped out of the water.


“Yes, a little.” Harry answered vaguely, not really wanting to talk about it.


The twins looked at each other when Harry didn’t notice and smirked. “Of course, what will Ron say? Bet he will be really jealous.” Harry nodded, before he could stop himself and think about what he had agreed to. His head snapped up and he looked at the other two with a look of horror and realisation. They couldn’t know, could they?


“Yes, Harry, we know.” They both answered his unasked question. “How could we miss the looks between the two of you?” one of them said, Harry wasn’t really in a state of mind to notice who of them it was. “Like lightning.” The other continued.


Harry’s thoughts were spinning up a tornado in his mind. This could not be real, if Ron found out he would definitely break up with him, he would-


Harry was snapped from his distracted state by the two redheads. “And by the way, Harry, you have our full support. Go make our ickle little brother lose his breath.” They winked at him, before turning back to their booth and start setting up the plank. As he walked, almost in a daze, towards their own booth, he didn’t notice the twins grinning at each other knowingly.


His, Ron’s and Hermione’s booth was placed near one of Hogwart’s walls, at the left side of the Head entrance to the castle. As he neared them, he saw Hermione do the final touches to the booth while Ron sat on the ground with his back against one of the walls looking quite bored. Hermione was grumbling to herself about lazy boys, Harry could hear it clearly as he came closer.


Ron’s eyes lit up when he saw Harry. With some trouble, he made it to his feet and walked to meet his boyfriend.


Hermione, who hadn’t seen Harry yet, wasn’t as pleased however. “What are you so happy about? It’s not as it you can take credit for any work on the booth, because frankly you let Harry and me do most of the work…” she still hadn’t seen Harry coming up behind her and screamed loud when he tickled her on her sides.


“Ah. That was what you were smiling.” She said to herself as she watched Harry and Ron greet each other without being too obvious about their relationship. She saw the smile in both of their eyes and wondered, not for the first time, how Ron would react when he would finally see Harry kiss other people than himself.


She stood back and Ron and Harry stood on either side of her as they gazed proudly at their Kissing-booth. The red fabric was draped beautifully on the sides and on the lower front. Over the opening, the words “Kissing-booth” were written in big bold white letters on a red background. There was a sign stuck in the ground in front of the booth saying: “Kiss Harry Potter! Only 3 sickles!”


Hermione turned to Harry. “Okay then, Harry, not much time left until everyone starts arriving.” She looked at her watch. “In about two hours.”


“Anything we should do before?” Ron asked, looking at the girl.


She thought for a moment. “We need some change-money, don’t we?” She looked at Ron, but he looked at her in surprise. “Don’t look at me, I’m in charge of taking the payment, but as that Malfoy is fond of saying: I’m only a poor Weasley.” He replied a little sarcastically.


“It’s okay Ron.” Harry said as he started to go through his pockets. “I think I have some coins.” Combining Hermione’s and his change-money, they should be all right.


As time moved closer, Harry started to get nervous. They had all agreed that Harry and Ron would stay inside the booth; Harry for obvious reasons and Ron taking the payments. Hermione would be outside the booth to draw people to their booth and to greet them.


The three had also been up to their common room to change their clothes, since they had agreed to wear muggle clothing. Hermione wore blue jeans and a beige-blue shirt, her hair was up in a ponytail and she had used a straightening-charm on the frizzy locks, so her brown hair was now shining and she looked slightly different than usual.


Harry wore slightly baggy dark jeans, which he had bought on their last trip to Hogsmeade. He had a white fitting t-shirt and an open red shirt over it. He had even tried to tame his hair; or rather, Hermione had. When she finally admitted that the raven tresses couldn’t be tamed, she instead made stylish spikes that in Ron’s opinion looked quite sexy. When he saw Harry after Hermione was done with him, his eyes were big and his gaze raked over his boyfriend in a slightly possessive manner.


Ron himself wore light coloured jeans and a white button-down shirt, which was actually Harry’s, but since Ron was from a wizarding family, he did not have that many muggle clothing. Of course he had his mother’s knitted jumpers, but he would absolutely not wear any of those. They had simply transfigured Harry’s clothes so that they fit Ron’s larger frame. And fit they did. Harry had been very surprised, seeing as he had mostly seen Ron in robes. Even Hermione had been surprised by the results of Harry’s clothes and her hairstyling. She had used a cutting-charm, giving Ron’s hair a shorter and slightly tousled look, which suited the boy perfectly.


Now they were all just waiting for the crowds of parents, siblings, other relatives and people to arrive.


Harry was nervously pacing around the booth, biting his nails and running his hands restlessly through his hair. Hermione stood in the booth and Ron was leaning on the side, both watching him, trying in vain to make him think of something else. In the end, Ron reached for Harry’s hand as he paced right by him, turning Harry towards him. He took a good hold on his boyfriend’s hands and smiled.


“It will be all right, Harry.” He said in amusement. Harry stared at him in something that vaguely resembled panic. “No! That’s just it! It will be awful, I’m gonna make a fool of myself and-“


Ron interrupted him before he could get into his rambling. “Harry! That’s it! I know you are going to be fine, I should know! You kiss like a God, you don’t think I noticed? Nobody is going to laugh at you.” He finished exasperated. Both Harry and Hermione blushed at Ron’s outburst, though from different reasons entirely.


Harry closed his eyes and took several deep calming breaths. He looked up, eyes much calmer, and smiled. “Well, then. Let’s get this thing started.”


As the first visitors made their way onto Hogwart’s grounds, it hit Ron all at once. “Maybe I’m gonna be a bit jealous after all…” he whispered to himself as he looked at his boyfriend.


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He was right about maybe being a bit jealous. Try a lot. He had not thought it would feel like this, as if he was helpless to do anything. His whole body language spoke of irritation and jealousy as he took the money from the first customer. It was a fourth year blond girl from Ravenclaw. Her friends stood a little behind, waiting for their turn. No matter how jealous he was, he could not do anything, he had agreed to it after all.


When the girl leaned towards Harry expectantly, Ron saw Harry hesitate and shoot him a glance. Their eyes locked just before Harry looked away and gave the blond a quick kiss on the mouth. It was not much, not as if he had given her one of their kisses. It was only a quick peck and nothing more, but in Ron’s opinion, it was definitely enough.


The line to their booth seemed to get longer by each passing minute and after only half an hour, Harry was looking at Ron and Hermione pleadingly, begging to change the sign to ‘Kiss Ron Weasley’ or ‘Kiss Hermione Granger’.


It almost seemed as if all the girls; both young and a little older wanted to kiss Harry, and they were raising a lot of money. Even three or four boys had gathered their courage and asked for a kiss, much to Ron’s frustration. Girls were one thing, as he knew that Harry fancied boys, but what if he suddenly to felt something for one of the other boys?


The challenge, however, came when a familiar face stood before them. “No! No way! I am not kissing you!” Harry looked at Ron and Hermione, horrified.


“What, Scarhead? Afraid to make a fool of yourself?” Draco Malfoy teased, hitting right on target. He searched in his pocket and came up with ten sickles, which he tossed inside the Booth making them clatter on the ground. No one paid any attention to that though; they were all standing holding their breath, wondering what would happen next.


“Well, Potter? How’s it gonna be?” Malfoy asked with a smirk. Before Harry could refuse again, Hermione cut in.


“Harry! You cannot refuse! How would it look if you refuse only one person? What would people say?” She looked into Harry’s panicked eyes.


Ron looked at her in disbelief. “How would it look… how would it…if he didn’t kiss…” He was having difficulties getting out what he wanted to say. “How would it look if he did kiss him?” he screamed, enraged.


Hermione sighed and looked between the three boys. One panicked, one furious and one slightly smug looking. “Just get it over with.”


Harry looked at the smirking Malfoy and sighed. As he did not seem to have a choice, he thought he should just get it over with, as Hermione had said. He took a deep breath, calming himself as he took a step closer to Malfoy. He looked at Ron in regret. He could see the understanding behind the furious look in his boyfriend’s eyes, he knew he had to do it no matter how much both Ron and himself might dislike it. He was a Gryffindor for Merlin’s sake!


He looked right into Malfoy’s grey eyes and saw the challenge in them. “Okay, then. Let’s have it your way.” He said with new confidence. Ron sighed in defeat and turned his back to the both of them.


The people still standing, waiting for their turn to kiss the Boy-Who-Lived, stared at the two rivals in chock when they realised what was going on. No one of them had ever seen anything like it before and they were all eager to see the outcome of the strange situation.


As Malfoy realised that Potter was actually serious and that he was going to go through with it, the confident smirk, which had been plastered on his face, started to wane. Well, he was not one to back down, so he thought he might as well enjoy it. After all, Potter was not completely unfortunate looking, with his lean psyche and gorgeous green eyes. His very likable, if a little messy, black hair added to the image. His usual smirk was back again.


The two boys leaned towards each other, Harry’s eyes closed as if he told himself that if he did not see it, it was not real. Their lips met and, for a brief moment, time stood still. Ron had turned back around and was watching. Harry tried to imagine that it was Ron he was kissing. Malfoy decided to take advantage of the situation. He had opened his mouth and was trying to pry Harry’s mouth, which was firmly closed, open with his tongue. Malfoy almost lost his balance as Harry yanked away.


“Okay, that’s enough! You’ve had your kiss, now please leave.” Ron ground out as calmly as possibly as he held on to his Harry without making it obvious of their relationship.


Malfoy looked quite taken back with Harry’s kissing skills. He had been sure that Potter did not have a girlfriend, or it would have been all over school. So why did he kiss so well? He looked between the three Gryffindors. He almost missed it, the way Weasley held onto Harry and the jealous look in his eyes mingling with anger. Heh, who would have thought? Weasley and Potter, they did make quite a couple when he thought about it. He toyed with the idea of announcing the, now for him, obvious couple to the rest of the crowd. However, he decided to have some mercy today, not that it would ever happen again. He smirked at the shell chocked Potter and Weasley’s fuming anger.


“Potter. Who would have thought you could kiss? What will your fans say now?” he could not resist goading them some more. “Even though you are as stiff as a corpse.” He added with afterthought. It would not do to give him credit now, would it?


“Malfoy, could you please just leave? You’ve had your kiss, now go. ”Harry pleaded, tired of arguing.


The Slytherin smirked at the trio and turned on his heel, motioning for his bodyguards to follow him. They shot their own nasty looks at the Gryffindors before following their leader.


Ron, Hermione and Harry looked at each other, not believing that this had actually happened. Harry took a deep breath trying to recover enough to continue with the rest of the line to the kissing-booth. The chatter was starting up again after the silence where everybody had followed the happenings between two of the greatest rivals that Hogwarts has ever seen.


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That same evening they sat in the common room talking. Hermione sat in one of the armchairs before the fire. Much to the other’s surprise, she did not have a book, she claimed she needed some time off. Ron and Harry sat together in the couch, Harry leaning on the other boy with Ron’s arm around him. They no longer cared about what anybody said; they had already been confronted by questions from Seamus, Dean and Neville as well as Ginny and some of the others. Everybody seemed fine with it and both Harry and Ron were happy not having to hide their feelings any longer, even though it had seemed as if the others in their dorm had had a clue beforehand. Seamus had said something about how it was ‘about time’ and the others had nodded.


The fundraiser had been a huge success. A lot of money had been raised for the orphanage, which made everyone happy. The parents, friends and other family that had been there had had a lot of fun. They had particularly liked the twins’ booth and of course the kissing-booth.


Seamus’ booth with various strange muggle inventions had also been quite a success. The mini helicopter run by batteries and a hand control as well as the television had especially enthralled the wizards and witches. Arthur Weasley had spent most of his time with his son’s friend. Ginny’s booth with, as opposed to Seamus’ muggle inventions, showed inventions from the wizarding world.


Dumbledore’s carousel was a hit, as it entertained both wizards and muggles and they all laughed together, differences forgotten.


Ron considered himself lucky to have a boyfriend such as Harry and he took every possible moment to tell that to Harry. They had both talked about all the kisses earlier in the day, especially Malfoy, but everything was fine now that they had talked it through.


Harry had been terrified that Ron would leave him because of Malfoy, he had seen how jealous Ron had been and with reason. However, Ron had said that he understood and knew that it was not Harry’s fault. All evening Ron had showered Harry with love and affection to reassure his boyfriend. Harry had also eased Ron’s mind about his insecurities about the ones Harry had kissed. How could he ever love anyone but his caring and sweet Ronald? Ron pulled out his chess set and put it on the table, before challenging Harry to a game.


They sat in front of the fire, talking, laughing and playing and everything was back to normal, or as normal as it would ever be. Hermione sat looking on as Ron beat Harry at chess. She smiled to herself, happy that she had such good friends. As the three sat in front of the fire, anyone could see that these three would be friends for a long time.


--- End ---

(EDIT 06-12-12: Thanks to Heksy, I changed an error of mine. Thanks for noticing, I had totally forgotten!)

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Finished: December 10th 2006
Originally finished: February 3rd 2005
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This is it! Last chapter. I actually finished this story almost two years ago, but it was not until now that I got it all written on my computer.

I hope you have enjoyed it as much as I have enjoyed writing it. Please leave your opinion in a review!

Have a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!