What If

Don’t own. Don’t profit from. Don’t anything.





HAPPY TURKEY DAY!









OOOO



Chapter 5: Unwanted Attention



OOOO



Ron groaned as he tried to open his eyes. Oh gawd how his head hurt. He felt something hard against his back and tried to turn over only to realize his hands were up in the air. He was sitting up on the floor and his hands felt numb as he tried to bring them down only to feel metal pierce into wrists.



He finally opened his eyes.



He was sitting on the floor to his apartment. The room was trashed and Ron groaned as he stared at the mess, his head was pounding as it reminded him that he had drank way too much last night before he finally looked up to see that his hands were handcuffed to his bed frame with pink furry cuffs.



“Bloody hell.” The redhead tried to stand up but felt dizzy almost as soon as he started moving. He closed his eyes again and tried to remember how he got into this position before he suddenly heard a soft humming noise.



Ron was able to get to his feet and turned to look at his bed to reveal a blond snuggled into his blankets. The blond hummed a little more as he yawned and sat up rubbing his eyes.



“DRACO!”



The yell caused both of them to flinch as Ron’s voice echoed in his own years he could see Draco glare at him. The blond sighed before he plopped back down in the bed and covered himself in the blankets once again.



“I don’t want to get up.”



“I don’t bloody care!” Ron whispered harshly as he stretched up so that he get the cuffs over the bed frame before he looked around the apartment then back at Draco. “Why am I in these?”



Draco just groaned in annoyance as he turned over so that he was facing away from the redhead making Ron flush with anger. He jumped on the bed and kicked the blond’s body making Draco fall to the floor with an undignified yelp. It was at that second Ron realized something very important.



“Why are we in boxers! Where’re my clothes?” Draco glared up at him from the ground before he got up slowly.



“Probably down stairs in the shop still.” Draco stated boredly. “And I don’t sleep in my robes, do you?”



“No, but…” Ron flushed. “Why are you here?”



Draco grabbed his legs at that and the redhead fell on his back on the bed. He tried to push himself up but Draco grabbed the cuffs and forced them, with Ron’s hands, above the taller boy’s head as the blond sat on his stomach.



“You invited me here.” Draco smirked as he ran his hand across Ron’s chin. “And I must say last night was amazing.”



“What?” Ron croaked as Draco’s hand moved down his neck then lightly across his chest.



“I believe you had honorable intentions at first.” Draco cooed as he leaned forward so that his face was right in front of Ron’s and lowering. “But after that fourth drink I got to know a new side of you.”



Ron stared wide eyed at Draco as the blond got closer and closer.



And stopped.



Draco snorted as he sat back up and grinned at Ron’s startled face. “As if Weasleby.”



Ron blushed as he brought the handcuffs forward to show Draco. “Then why am I in cuffs?”



“You got handsy.” Draco said as he got off the other teen and walked over to a shirt that was lying on the floor. He turned to see Ron staring at him a bit skeptically at that before he smirked. “And I’m not lying about that, you know you like to cuddle right?”



Ron closed his eyes in embarrassment as he plopped down on his mattress and glared at the ceiling. He heard Malfoy move around the room before he sighed and sat up again. He looked over at the blond who was now kicking some cloths that were on the floor with his feet before he bent down and picked up a wand.



“That’s mine.” Ron said curtly as Draco looked at the wand.



“Actually, this is my wand.” Draco said as he held the wand up and shook it a little at Ron.



“I meant the shirt you prat.” Ron motioned at the maroon shirt Draco was wearing as the blond looked down at it and shrugged.



“My cloths are downstairs too.” He walked over to Ron and tapped his wand against the cuffs making them unlock before he tossed them on the floor.



“Why are they downstairs again?” Ron asked as he grabbed a shirt and threw it on, reaching for a pair of pants he looked up at Draco who had gone a little pink.



“I already said you had gotten handsy.”



Ron didn’t know if he wanted to know if the blond was being truthful or not as he slipped on some shorts. He stretched a bit before he heard the bell noise of the door opening downstairs and his eyes widened. If his cloths were still down there then- but it was too late, he couldn’t even finish the thought before his door flew open to reveal an old witch who was glaring at him holding a pile of cloths.



“What is this?” Gale growled before she took notice of Draco. She sneered as he glared back before she turned to Ron and threw the cloths on the ground. “If I find a mess in my store again..”



“It won’t happen again. I’m sorry.” Ron apologized quickly, the woman huffed as threatening as possible before she turned and went down the stairs.



“That is what runs your brothers’ store?” Draco asked with disgust before he walked over to the kitchen.



“What are you doing?” Ron closed the cabinet that Draco had opened as the blond rolled his eyes.



“I need breakfast.”



OOO



Neville stared at the sight before him and stifled a laugh.



Snape was covered in soot as he dragged a first year student into the teacher’s lounge. The student looked terrified as the aggravated potions master ranted at him.



“I swear that if you even make it two your second year potions class it will be a miracle. Only an incompetent fool like you would be able to mistake a fig root with an eagle’s claw, if this continues I might have to ask Minerva to separate you from the other students for their own safety.” Snape growled as he threw a towel at the boy. “I haven’t seen someone this inept of an ability to brew a single potion since I had-”



“Professor Longbottom!” Neville finished with an imitation of Snape. He smiled as the older man glared at him. “I hope you know that I did pass my potion’s OWL.”



Snape snorted before he glared at the boy who was looking hopefully at Neville. “I expect my classroom to be spotless by the time I get back there in a few moments. Go!”



The child didn’t need to be told twice as he ran out of the room. Neville smirked at the small child’s retreating form before he looked over at Snape who was glaring at him.



“Sorry Severus, couldn’t help myself.” Neville smiled. “That brought back a ton of memories though.”



“None that you should be smiling about I am sure.” Snape stated tartly before he waved his wand over himself cleaning the soot off instantly. “You passed your potion’s OWL?”



“I got an Acceptable.” Neville sniffed lightly as Snape snorted.



“Acceptable is a soft grade. No wonder you weren’t in Slughorn’s class.” Snape sat down at the table Neville was at as he looked over at the door as if expecting someone to come through them any second.



“Acceptable is still better than anything you would ever give me.” Neville said indignantly, “I bet I would have learned a lot more in your class if you hadn’t been so intimidating!”



Snape looked at Neville this time. They stared at each other for a second before Snape smirked. “Is that so?”



“Yeah!”



“Care to prove it?” Snape stood then as he looked over at the clock in the corner.



“What?” Neville shut the book he had been reading through, it was on the health and habits of Devil Snare, and eyed Snape.



“Follow me.” And Snape went through the doors.



It took Neville a second before he jumped up and ran behind the older man. They made their way to the dungeons in silence until they entered the potions classroom where the small first year was still trying to clean his mess. At the sight of Snape the teen paled and tried to stammer an excuse but Snape silenced him.



“Quiet Mr. Rosand.” Snape then turned so that he was facing Neville. “Do you still find me intimidating?”



“No.” Neville lied as he looked away from Snape and took in the classroom. Sure he wasn’t as scared as he used to be of Snape but the man was still intimidating sometimes. Last time he had been here had been about a few weeks.



“Then I want you to make the potion that is on the board.” Snape turned to the first year who was gawking at the two teachers. “Mr. Rosand do you want to make a wager? If Professor Longbottom manages to get the potion right then I will allow you the chance for extra credit, and if Longbottom fails then you will have to write a three foot essay on where your beloved Herbology Professor went wrong”.



Neville was about to protest but the kid nodded and then went over to Neville. “You can use my cauldron.”



“Thanks?” Neville’s voice croaked as he was led to the kid’s cauldron.



“You know where the supplies are.” Snape said dryly as he turned and went to his desk. He sat down and picked up a few pieces of parchment before the older man started to correct his students’ essays.



Neville looked at the board then at the cauldron. It was just a simple potion; he shouldn’t be worried about this. The student had gone off to go get the ingredients for Neville, and the teacher silently thanked him as he proceeded to read the instructions on the board one more time.



This wasn’t the same as when he was in school.



He was a teacher now.



He looked up at Snape to see the teacher wasn’t paying him any attention and took a deep breath. He started to dice the roots that were closest to him and quickly went to work. His potion had started as a bright red color, but as Neville kept stirring it slowly turned to a pale blue.



He didn’t have Hermione in here to go off of and he wouldn’t know if his potion was turning out correctly until Snape came over. The student seemed to be happy with how it was coming out as he gave Neville an encouraging smile and proceeded to start cleaning up whatever the Herbology teacher was done with.



Neville gulped.



He leaned over to inspect the potion closer and felt a little tired as he breathed in the fumes.



“You shouldn’t do that professor!” Neville tried to turn his head and see what the kid was talking about but his body felt so heavy.



He yawned and took another whiff of the potion and smiled dumbly to himself.



Then everything went black



“Don’t worry Mr. Rosand.” Snape stated boredly as the child tried to catch the teacher who had just passed out, knocking over the potion and making a bigger mess of the room. “Just leave him there.”



“Professor?” The student squeaked as he looked around at the mess, his unconscious Herbology teacher and then at the black robed Potion’s master who was ignoring the scene as if it was something he was used to.



“And you don’t have to worry about the three foot essay, I would never punish a student because they had faith that their teacher was actually competent at something.” Snape sighed as he sat back in his chair and finally looked at the mess in his dungeon. “You can go to dinner now, I’ll have Professor Longbottom clean up this mess once he wakes up.”



“Yes sir.” And the student grabbed his books, gave one more worried glance at Neville before he turned and left the classroom.



Snape sighed tiredly to himself as he pushed himself out of his chair and made his way over to the now snoring form. Only this idiot would forget to actually ask what potion he was brewing, but to Snape’s surprise it did seem that the teacher had gotten it right.



Or he had just turned it to a slow working poison.



Snape smirked at that before he pulled out his wand and with two swipes the classroom was back to perfect. Neville still sleeping on the floor but the rest of the room was back in order and Snape bent over to check Neville’s heart beat in order to make sure it wasn’t a slow working potion.



Minerva didn’t need any more work to deal with.



Neville almost purred as Snape ran his fingers over the soft neck, he found the kid’s pulse to find it relaxed but still at a healthy rate. He sighed before he moved his hand’s and took his time to study the sleeping teacher. Neville still looked so young even with the lines he had acquired on his face from all the hard times the child had to suffer through.



Child? Snape scoffed at himself as he reminded himself he was now staring at a fellow teacher. Snape had found himself impressive when he had started teaching at Hogwarts at the mere age of twenty but Neville had fulfilled the position when he was just barely eighteen.



Snape quickly forced himself up from the ground and proceed to nudge Neville with his foot. Neville just snorted at him before he turned away from the offending foot and Snape rolled his eyes. The potion teacher lifted his wand and proceeded to levitate the Herbologist into the air before directing him towards the giant sink that was full of what was now to be cold soapy water.



With a loud splash and a gasp from Neville, the teen proceeded to flail about in the sink only to slide in deeper so that he had a hard time moving, his body stuck in the freezing water while his head, arms and legs broke the surface.



He blinked around a few times before his eyes met Snape’s and he groaned. He blew bubbles into the water before he struggled to get out of the sink, with a few splashes of water hitting the ground first Neville finally made it out and looked at Snape who was just watching with amusement.



“Thanks for all your help.” Neville stated sarcastically before he looked around to see all the potion stuff had been cleaned up. “Did I really botch it?”



The depressed sound of Neville’s voice made Snape want to make fun of the teen just for old times sake but instead he cleared his throat.



“Surely you do realize that you did make a sleeping draught.” Snape said simply as he made his way to the desk to clean it off for Slughorn. “But alas, you didn’t even know what you were making did you?”



Neville looked sheepishly down at the ground before the teen blinked and smiled up at Snape. “But I did get it right?”



“You might have been able to finish it in an acceptable manner if you hadn’t had passed out before you were done with the final touches.” Snape admitted before he looked at Neville who was still dripping on the floor. “Only you would pass out from lack of thought into what you are making.”



“But I made it.” Neville smirked.



“No, you failed to complete the potion and therefore you got no points for this grade.” Snape turned to head for the door before he looked at Neville who was frowning now, “I would assign you a paper to explaining the safety rules of potions to be on my desk on Monday but as I have had you write that, what is it, five times now? I don’t think it will ever sink in.”



“Not because I am a teacher and you can’t actually give me homework?” Neville tried.



“Maybe a sixth time will do you some good.”



“You can’t be serious!”



“I expect it on my desk on Monday.” Snape smirked.



“What?”



“Make sure you clean the mess of water that is now on the ground too.” Snape said he turned to leave the room while the young teacher proceeded to curse.



OOO



“Where is Teddy?” Arthur poked his head into Lupin’s classroom while the werewolf looked over at the man from the chair he had just been taking a nap in.



“Harry came and got him this morning, they haven’t really seen each other in a while.” Lupin yawned a bit as he sat forward in the chair and ran his hands through his hair. “It’ll be good for Teddy to get out of this place for a while.”



“Yeah, he’ll be spending seven years of his life here as it is.” Arthur laughed as he stayed by the door. “How are you feeling?”



Lupin gave Arthur a curious glance before answering, “Fine.”



Arthur smirked a little at that before he opened his mouth to say something then just closed it. He patted the door frame that he was in a few times with his hand before he nodded at Lupin and walked away.



Lupin fought the urge to follow him as he had to remind himself to give Arthur space. The redhead had made it more than obvious a relationship with Lupin was the last thing he wanted so the younger man had decided that maybe if he backed up then he would be able to approach this in a better way.



He wasn’t giving up on Arthur; he was just waiting for the older man to realize how serious Lupin was and give them a chance.



He wasn’t going to wait forever though.



OOO



Draco sighed has he stared at the stairs in front of him.



This was ridiculous. It shouldn’t be this hard for him to walk down those stairs and just go talk to the man but-



But-



Draco ran his hands through his long blond haired and growled at himself before he took two steps forward and stopped. He had already talked to McGonagall about this, all he needed was Snape’s approval!



But what do you say to a man that you hadn’t talked to for the two years he was in prison? Draco had only said a few words in passing since Snape had come back to the school but in the end that wasn’t a real conversation.



He snorted at himself for making such a big deal about this but then closed his eyes and took a deep breath. He could always come back tomorrow.



“Can I help you?”



Draco didn’t turn around as he took another deep breath. Of course as fate would have it they wouldn’t let him off that easy today. He knew the older man was probably a good distance away, letting the teen get a hold of himself and sure enough, when Draco turned around, Snape was looking out the window as if there was something much more interesting out there.



Draco went back up the two steps he had gone down so that he was now on an even level with the man he had been trying to avoid.



“I was actually going to look for you.” Draco almost whispered as he forced the words out.



Snape had not been expecting that as he turned his attention to Draco looking taken back. He opened his mouth to say something but the blond quickly cut him off; Draco had to say this now or he would find some way to chicken out of it.



“I want to study potions.” But as soon as the words left his mouth he felt stupid and Snape had decided to not be helpful with this.



“I’m sure if you want to re-enroll here Professor McGonagall-”



“I’m not going to re-enroll here!” Draco huffed as he eyed the man. “I meant I want to intern with you.”



Snape was silent at that. They both stared at each other as if waiting for the other to just laugh and walk away. They hadn’t really separated on friendly terms since most of Snape’s betrayal had been in order to save Draco’s life but the teen hadn’t seen it then.



He might have understood it a little better now but the blond wasn’t going to thank Snape for watching out for him.



Draco turned so that he wasn’t facing the older man and instead glared at a spot on the floor. He had talked to his mom about this for the past year and while she had been surprised since it wasn’t like Draco actually needed a job the blond didn’t want to do nothing for the rest of his life. After you had been to as many social events as he had been to in his life you had to hope there was more to life.



“Oh.” Snape muttered.



“Yeah…Oh.” Draco mimicked before he faced the older man. “I know I haven’t kept up with the latest works but I am a fast learner. You know I am perfectly capable at potions and it is something that I am considering for a future career choice.”



The words were far more formal than Draco ever thought he would say to Snape but circumstances had changed and he almost felt as if they needed it.



“Draco-”



“If the next words out of your mouth aren’t how honored you are that I chose you to be my teacher then you can stay silent.” The blond snapped as the dark haired man smirked.



“Thank you.” Snape almost smiled but caught himself and glared at the blond. “And I hope you are prepared because I do not except anything but the best.”



Draco felt a weight lift his shoulders as he watched Snape explain to him on what to expect for the next few months, though most likely years that he would be studying under Snape and the blond run his hands through his hair before straightening up a bit.



“I expect you here at the school by five a.m. tomorrow.”



“Five?” Draco stared at the man as if he was insane. Snape seemed to savor the teen’s surprise for a second before nodding as if Draco should have been expecting earlier and he had decided to go easy on the blond for his first day.



“And you might need to move closer to the school in order to get here on time, should I ask Slughorn if he knows if anyone is renting in Hogsmeade?” Snape started walking down the stairs and Draco followed after him still looking a little peeved at the time he would have to wake up.



“No need.” He stated tersely and just waved his hand at Snape as the older man peered at him questioningly. “I have accommodations.”



They made their way to the dungeons as Snape continued his list of things he expected Draco to have or catch up on before tomorrow and the blond kept in stride only asking one or two questions. By the time they made it to Snape’s room the potion’s master turned to face the blond and smirked as Draco wrote some stuff on a small piece of parchment he had.



“Are you sure you want me?” Snape asked briskly as if wanted to hurry and get off the subject but wanting it to be answered anyway.



Draco stared at him for a second. “Are there better options?”



Snape just rolled his eyes as he started to shut his door.



“No seriously? Is there someone better because I don’t want to waste my time with you then.” Draco continued sarcastically as the door clicked shut and he turned on his heels to make his way out of the school.



Now he just needed to move his stuff closer to the school so he wouldn’t have to apparate everyday with luggage.



Draco smirked as he thought of a decent idea.



OOO



Neville turned the next corridor in the hall as he laughed at Arthur’s joke. It was Arthur’s night to patrol the halls for a little while and Neville had felt like he hadn’t been able to see the redhead that often recently. School was getting more hectic as the teachers tried to make sure they were caught up to where they wanted to be for Halloween since most of the teacher’s understood that the students wouldn’t be getting that much work done that weekend.



Neville sighed before he turned to see Arthur looking at the moon with an almost daze. He stopped and tilted his head as he watched the older man close his eyes before turning towards Neville with a smile.



“Sorry, just dazed out there.” Arthur laughed as he walked past Neville, the dirty blond was about to say something but decided to drop it as Arthur started to talk about some of the rumors going on through the school.



Neville yawned a bit before sighing and resigning himself to need of sleep. He left Arthur at the stairs and made his way down before he saw something interesting.



Snape appeared to be in his night robes as the older man stalked across the room as if he was on a mission. Neville stayed still so as to not interrupt as he watched Snape go outside, Neville followed quickly trying to keep up and go unnoticed before he realized that Snape was heading towards his greenhouses.



“Can I help you?” Neville called out as the other man turned around and pointed his wand at Neville. Upon recognizing him though Snape lowered his wand and cleared his throat.



“Longb- Neville.” Snape corrected himself before he sighed. “I don’t mean to disturb you this late, I just remembered that I might need your assistance in locating some plants.”



Neville perked up at this as they reached his green house. He turned on the lights and found some clean parchment before grabbing a quill and sitting at the table his students normally sat at.



“And what do you need?” Neville thought Snape might have appreciated the fact that he didn’t make a big deal about being bothered late at night for something that could have waited until morning but as Neville got to see Snape’s night robes better in the light he figured it was worth it.



Snape must had read his thoughts then because he covered himself in his jacket a bit more before he started to list off plants. “And I will be needing Moly and dittany.”



“Dittany?” Neville repeated a bit with a frown, that plant was hard to come by.



“If you can get your hands on it.” Snape added quietly as if not really wanting to give Neville the choice in not getting the plant but the potion’s master had to know how rare the plant was at times.



“When do you need this by?” Neville stood up and yawned as he pinned it to the wood on the green house that had now been filled with other pieces of paper that either had lists or specific instructions for how to grow more advanced level plants.



Snape seemed to consider this for a moment, almost as if they man had just had an urge to order a ton of plants with out any immediate use for them but then Neville thought it was quite possible that Snape had done exactly that.



“Let me know as you get each.” Snape said slowly as if calculating what he was saying. “By the end of the month would be the best, I’m thinking that I could get Draco to-”



“Malfoy?” Neville tried to stifle another yawn.



“He had to further his study of potions and asked me to teach him.” Snape stated matter of factly before also adding, “I wonder if it would be too soon to test his skills. He said he hadn’t been practicing since he left…”



Neville felt silly for suddenly feeling aggravated by the fact that Snape was talking about Draco and flushed. He turned to put up the quill when he stepped on a watering can that must have fallen over earlier. He could feel that inevitable weightless feeling that happens when you fall and braced himself for impact but instead felt himself get caught by two strong arms.



He looked up sheepishly at Snape who just eyed him boredly.



Neville steadied himself so that he was standing again and muttered a thanks to Snape as he used the older man’s arm to balance himself. As he stood he kept his hand on Snape’s arm and looked up at the man who was looking at the note that was posted on the wood, trying to figure out if he had forgotten anything. Neville felt his hand move against the fabric and watched as he made his way to Snape’s left forearm.



Snape turned his attention to the dirty blond then and they both stared at each other. Neville didn’t know why but for some reason he was suddenly curious, he opened his mouth to ask but no matter how tired he was he knew that it was a personal question Snape would more than likely not want to answer. He stared back down at the forearm before his grip tightened as he couldn’t bring himself to ask.



Not yet.



So instead he settled for a statement he hadn’t said in a while because they hadn’t had a chance to be alone. Or maybe he hadn’t said it because he was afraid of starting another argument, but here he was almost a month later and Neville knew it was still true now as it had been then.



“I like you.”



OOO



Ron stretched a bit as he turned over and wrapped his arms around the warm body next to him. He hummed a little as he sniffed their hair only to realize it felt a little too real.



He had gone to bed alone last night.



Blue eyes opened slowly as he looked down at grey eyes that were glaring up at him.



“I can put up with the spooning but do you have to smell my hair like that?” Draco’s voice drawled out and it sounded too real to be a nightmare.



Ron quickly let go of the blond and sat up. He put his face in his hands and thought hard, he had gotten home from work and cleaned the place, then after reading about some stuff he had gone to bed.



Draco had not been involved anywhere in that.



“Why are you in my apartment?” Ron croaked before he looked over at the clock he had found in one of his dad’s boxes to see that it was only three in the morning. As his eyes focused better in the darkness he also realized that his nearly empty apartment that he had fallen asleep with now suddenly had furniture and more boxes.



“I moved in while you were sleeping.” Draco stated nonchalantly before turning over and showing Ron his back.



Ron just nodded for a second before his eyes widened, his mind finally able to catch up after its sleepy haze. “You what?”



And Ron was out of bed and the lights were on. He looked at his now messy apartment that he had spent hours cleaning not even six hours ago; he had even finished unpacking his dad’s boxes! Draco just groaned at the light and pulled the blanket over his head to block it.



“No, no, no!” Ron yelled as he pulled the blankets off Draco and pointed his finger at the blond. “You are not moving in here!”



“Can’t this wait till morning? I have to wake up early.” Draco grumbled as he tried to turn over again.



“This is mad!” Ron yelled before grabbing one of Draco’s arms. “We are not sharing a bed!”



“You didn’t complain last night.” Draco mumbled as he pulled his arm out of Ron’s grasp and sat up so he could glare properly at the redhead. “Weasley, are you really planning on kicking me out of here in the middle of the night?”



“YES!” Ron shouted as he tried to make his head ache go away. He was about to try and pull Draco out of his bed before he felt his hands pulled forward so that he was now on his stomach on his mattress. Draco was over him and now holding him down by the shoulders.



“Malfoy?” Ron’s voice cracked in surprise as he felt Draco’s breath by his ear.



“If we are both going to be awake and arguing then we might as well have some fun with it.” Draco whispered as he placed a kiss against the back of Ron’s neck.



Ron went tense as he muffled a curse in the pillow but Draco ignored him as his hands traveled down Ron’s back and up again then around so that they were on the redhead’s chest. Ron tried to turn over at this and Draco changed the position so that Ron was now on his back glaring with a flush at him as he leaned over the redhead with Ron’s legs around his waist.



“What the hell are you playing at?” Ron growled before Draco kissed him.



They parted for a second and Ron stared at Draco with such disbelief that if the redhead hadn’t started blinking a few seconds later the blond would have been afraid that Ron had died instantly of pure shock. Ron opened his mouth to protest and Draco took the opportunity to kiss him again.



Ron was trying to push him off and Draco grinded their hips together earning a small hiss from the taller teen as he moved his mouth from Ron’s lips to the redhead’s neck. He bit down slightly then sucked as he enjoyed Ron arching against his body.



Then the redhead seemed to regain his strength as Draco was shoved back so that now he was at the foot of the bed as Ron scooted up on the pillows making more space between them. Draco opened his mouth to say something but quickly shut it at the look Ron was giving him.



“Oh my gawd.” Draco stated plainly causing Ron to look at him in even more surprise. “You’re a virgin.”



“Of course I am!” Ron defended.



“I thought after last night that you had atleast, I mean your hands….” Draco stopped as he saw Ron blush. “You still don’t remember then…”



“I was pissed! Of course I don’t remember, though I think now might be the good time to quit drinking.” Ron tried to catch his breath. “What the hell were you doing?”



“What do you think I was doing?” Draco defended as he felt himself blush.



They both sat there with red faces and glaring at each other. Draco heard the chime of the clock informing him it was four in the morning and groaned as he rolled out of the bed. He made his way around the furniture he had gotten in with some handy spells until he was at the restroom and turned to face Ron.



“Sorry.” And then the door was shut and the shower had started.



Ron stared numbly at it before he looked around his still lit apartment and groaned. He felt his body shiver as it remembered Draco’s heat and he shook his head and got out of the bed and grabbing some clothes off of the ground.



By the time Draco had gotten out of the bathroom and changed it was four thirty and Ron still hadn’t gone to sleep. He sat at the bar in the kitchen and they stared at each other.



“So you moved in while I was sleeping?”



“Yes.” Draco answered quickly and opened his mouth to explain but then shut it so that Ron could go at his own pace.



“Why are you trying to move here? Didn’t your family just buy the Burrow?” Ron ran his hands through his hair before he grabbed his coffer mug and looked at Draco.



“I’m going to become a potions master.”



Ron closed his eyes at this and after taking a drink from his mug he looked at the blonde. Blue stared at grey and Draco briefly wondered if Ron had fallen asleep with his eyes open.



“I’m assuming that means you are training under Snape if you are moving here, I get the need to move here but…” Ron looked around his apartment then back at Draco almost pleadingly, “Why my apartment?”



Draco just shrugged at that before mumbling, “Seemed like a good idea.”



Ron hit his head against the counter before groaning and then looking at Draco again. Every time he looked at Draco he had this expression as if he believed this was just some crazy hallucination and soon the blond would disappear. They stared at each other for a few more minutes before Ron finally spoke.



“You can stay here for a few days…but!” He added quickly as Draco smirked, “You are sleeping on the couch and you will be looking for another place to stay.”



“Fair enough.” Draco stated before he stood up and grabbed his wand. He put it in his robes before nodding at Ron and making his way to the door. “See you later roomie.”



Ron just looked like he was still hoping it was a bad dream.



OOO



Hermione was still gone touring with her book so it was odd to see another chair at the table. Neville had to admit he still hadn’t read the book but had managed to open it before convincing himself he still didn’t want to know.



His students seemed to know he hadn’t read it yet by how new the book still looked. He had to admit that most books he read did end up getting dirt on them and therefore looked a lot more used than some of the old textbooks in the dungeons.



Lupin and Arthur making their way to the table, Arthur moving his hands in a way that let Neville know he was talking about airplanes and how muggles were amazing. Apparently one of Arthur’s students that were muggle-born had a parent that was a pilot for commercial airplanes. The student brought in a model airplane for Arthur and a book talking about the parts of an airplane and had earned 50 points for Hufflepuff.



The two teachers were suddenly stopped by a small group of students that proceeded to ask the older men questions in hushed voices. This had happened a lot more recently as the school had finished reading the book and many of the teens had questions about if stuff had actually happened.



Neville was glad he hadn’t been bothered yet and folded his arms on the table before he closed his eyes and attempted to take a small nap before he had to start classes again. He heard scraping of chair on the other side of the table and looked up to see Snape and Draco.



With a thud Draco proceeded to fall asleep with his head on the table and Snape eyed him in annoyance before rolling his eyes and then glancing over at Neville.



“I like you.”



Neville blushed as he remembered his words last night and proceeded to look down at his plate. He noticed Lupin and Arthur separate so that the werewolf went over to sit in his spit by Snape and Arthur smiled happily at Neville.



“A lot of curious kids we have here.” The older man chuckled good naturedly and yawned a bit himself. “Now if they would just stay in their beds at night.”



“Who did you catch last night?” Neville smirked as he tried to look at the students, as if looking at them would let him know who had done it.



“Just two Slytherins who seemed to be spying on Snape.” Arthur then leaned forward so he could whisper to Neville. “They said that he had gone to the green houses and they had needed to ask him some questions.”



Neville flushed a little before nodding. “He had come to the green house right after I left you.”



“Oh?” Arthur looked over at Snape who had now nudged Draco to wake the blond up. “Well?”



“Well what?” Neville gave Arthur a side glance. “He just wanted to order some plants.”



“That late in the night?”



Neville groaned a bit in his throat before looking at Snape. “He had just come because he had thought it was really important.”



Arthur gave him a look and Neville just glared at the older man. “If you must know I told him I still liked him and then he proceeded to insult my incompetence at potions and stormed out.”



“So you still?”



“Well I would like to think that my feelings for the man aren’t as wishy washy as yours are for Remus.” Neville snapped in a whispered and suddenly regretted it. “Arthur…”



“Oh look! They made waffles, I always have loved waffles.” The older man turned from Neville and started to add food to his plate.



Neville looked over towards Snape who was now informing Lupin about something. The werewolf nodded before making a confused face and looking over to their side of the table. It was as if the man could sense there was something wrong with Arthur and proceeded to give Neville a little glare causing the Herbology teacher to spend the rest of his breakfast talking to Krum who was sad that Hermione hadn’t come back yet.



Neville groaned as he sat in front of his students who were looking at him with anticipation. One of the students looked over at the still new looking book on the counter and proceeded to whisper something to the girl next to here and they sighed.



“Is there something wrong?” Neville asked causing the girl to whip around and face him.



She bit her lips as if trying to think whether she should just deny it before he puffed out her chest a little bit and asked the one thing she had been apparently whispering about. “Is it true you that turned down being an Auror to teach?”



Neville blinked at that and nodded, Harry and Ron had asked him if he wanted to join them right after the war since he wouldn’t have anyone to study under at Hogwarts anymore but the teen had declined.



“It is true.” Neville stated looking a little taken back.



The students seemed to be encouraged by this and for the first time since Neville had taught this class his students proceeded to raise their hands. Neville had said to voice their questions in class because he would most likely not hear them raise their hands amongst the screaming and while it had been sort of a joke he had enjoyed the less professional approach to his teaching.



“Did you really lead a secret army here while the school was run by death eaters?”



“With Luna Lovegood and Ginny Weasley but I did help.” Neville smirked a little as he pulled out a coin that was in his pocket. The students’ eyes it with excitement as he lifted it up and showed them. “Did she write about the coin too then?”



The students nodded before one of the girls frowned a bit and raised her hand. After Neville had pointed at her she proceeded to look at his unread book. “Why haven’t you read it yet?”



Neville just smiled a bit before standing up and grabbing a few of the plants that they were going to be working on. “I’m just waiting for the right time.”



The questions stopped after that as Neville reminded his students that they would need to actually learn something today and he proceeded to talk to them about the interesting and significant history of Yew.



After classes Neville went over to his gardrn in green house four to check on the plants he and his seventh years were trying to splice only to frown as it was obvious none of the plants had taken. Neville sighed as he walked over to water the plants before he heard a knock on his door.



Draco was poking his head around the door looking at him with a smirk before the blond walked in. His robes seemed slightly burned on one side and the blond just walked over to where Neville had sat down in the dirt and proceeded to plop down beside the teen.



“I’m hiding from Snape, I figure he might not look in here first.” Draco stated he turned over as if getting ready to take a nap.



“Rough night?” Neville laughed as the blond just rolled his eyes.



“You have no idea, Ron was actually yelling at me this morn-” Draco stopped as he looked at Neville whose eyes had widened.



“Ron?”



“What? Yeah Ron, oh, but nothing like that.” Draco waved his had dismissively at Neville before pausing, “Well maybe a little like that but it was just some misunderstanding.”



Neville just nodded as he continued to water his and his students’ plants.



“What are those?” Draco pointed to the plants Neville was working on the and the dirty blond sighed.



“They’re plant I am trying to splice.”



“Not working?”



“Not really.” Neville sat on the ground again and turned the soil around some of the plants.



“Want me to ask Snape?” Neville looked up at that and Draco just shrugged. “He might have a few pointers, from what I read in Granger’s book he was pretty good with plants too.”



“You read Hermione’s book?” Neville smirked a little at that.



“Yeah just don’t tell her, or anyone else for that matter.” Draco sat up a bit before giving Neville a questioning glance. “But from what I hear, you still haven’t.”



Neville just looked away at that before they heard foot steps outside the green house. Draco had moved to hide under one of the tables as Neville laughed lightly before turning to his door to see Ron pop his head in.



“Neville mate, you don’t by any chance no where Malfoy is do you?” Neville opened his mouth to respond but looked over to his table where he could see Draco shaking his head at him.



“No, why?”



“Good, I heard he was missing and was hoping he wasn’t here. I need to ask you something.” Ron proceeded to lean against the wall.



“Why don’t we go to green house three so we can sit down?” Neville asked not wanted to give Draco the chance to over hear something he shouldn’t but not wanting to betray the blonde’s location.



“Why? I’m good standing, and you can sit on the ground if you’re tired.” Ron asked before he ran his hands through his hair not seeing Neville roll his eyes. “You know that thing I told you after me and Hermione broke up?”



“Yeah?” Neville looked at him questioningly.



“You remember, right?” Ron looked at Neville expectantly as if he thought the herbologist might have forgotten.



“I remember.” Neville stated trying to hint that Ron didn’t need to go indebt but Ron seemed to need to make sure Neville knew what he was talking about.



“That I like blokes.”



“Yes I remember!” Neville threw a glare in the direction of Draco who was now missing from under the table. Neville felt his stomach sink as he tried to think of where the blond had gone before looking again at Ron. “What is it?”



“Did you tell Malfoy?”



“No.” They stared at each other briefly before Ron let out a sigh and slid to the ground.



“Sorry mate, I knew you didn’t… I was just trying to figure out-something…” Ron hit his head on the wall before looking at Neville. “I think I might be in trouble.”



“With Draco?” Neville asked skeptically but Ron blushed a little bit. “What happened?”



“Nothing don’t worry about it.” Ron tried to get up and was about to attempt to leave before Neville stopped him.



“I like Snape.” Ron didn’t move for a while before he turned and looked at Neville who found that he needed to know what Ron thought about it, sure Arthur and Remus had seemed okay with it but Ron was someone he had gone to school with. Someone who had seen how Neville and Snape had changed.



“If this is a joke-”



“It’s not.” Neville stated quickly as he ran his hand hands through his wavy hair. “I kissed him too.”



“And Snape?”



Neville let out a bitter laugh before shaking his head at Ron in a defeated manner. The redhead frowned at that and turned so that he could put his hand on Neville’s shoulder.



“Don’t give up mate.”



“So you don’t think it’s weird?”



“Ha! I think it’s mad.” Ron admitted with a grin before shrugging, “But there has been madder.”



“You think?” Neville felt encouraged by this as he tried to rub the dirt off of his face only adding more. “Thanks.”



Ron just nodded and left through the door. Neville sighed before he heard a loud crash and remembered who had been in his green house. The teen looked around and didn’t see Draco so he got to his knees and looked under the table to see what appeared to be dragging marks in the dirt.



He gulped at that but proceeded to follow them out of a hole in his green house four into the next green house all the way to a familiar closet he had found himself in earlier that year. Hadn’t the Devil Snare taken up refuge in there?



Neville crawled around to open the door to reveal on angry Draco that was trying to fight off the offending plant. As the light came in the plant started to shrivel freeing the blond and Draco coughed a few times before glaring at Neville.



“About time.” Draco drawled out as he stood to his feet.



“Sorry.” Neville closed the door so he didn’t kill the whole plant and turned over to Draco who was now eyeing Neville with personal offense.



“You kissed Snape?”



OOO