My Paper Heart

Disclaimer: I don't own characters but the idea is mine and Draco would be weirder..... Man, I'm fucking strange.

I dedicate this to my best friends TerraRydya ( go read her shit... it rules! ) and Amber ( it's her fault I like Harry slash! ). I hope you guys enjoy!

P.S. 1) Lyrics are from the All-American Rejects 2) I won't be on-line for a while cuz I'm moving but when I do get something written, I'll find a way to posty it. 3) Takes place in 6th year. 4) First HP fic so please play nice.

Reveiws: You guys fucking rule!

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Harry stumbled blindly down the stairs and corridors that lead to the dungeons. Never in his young life had he felt such a need to run so fast or hide so much.

Not that he was aware that he was heading to one of the places where he never willingly wanted to go.

~!~!~!~!~

Harry came back to himself sharply and, taking in his surroundings through tear-stained emerald eyes, sighed.

"Better here than where others will expect I'll be." He said in a hoarse whisper.

Moving to the back row of tables, he dropped his glasses onto the tabletop with more force than necessary. He smiled bitterly when he heard them crack and eased himself onto a stool.

After sparing a few moments to contemplate the dark atmosphere of the Potions Room, Harry sagged in his seat and began crying into his hands again, not hearing the soft footsteps that were quickly encroaching on his solitude.

~!~!~!~!~

Severus Snape, the snarky, sexy, Potions Master at Hogwarts, was heading towards his classroom slowly, planning to finish preparing for next semester's lessons.

Upon entering his room however, he stopped. "I'm going to suspend whoever is in here." He muttered, then, with his command, the room brightened.

A muffled curse from beneath a mop of unruly black hair drew the Professor's attention.

"Well, well Mr. Potter. You are certainly not what I was expecting to find. May I ask what you are doing here?"

"Forgive me, sir. I just needed someplace to think. With everyone hussling to catch the train home for Winter Break, I'm afraid I was in the way in Gryffindor Tower..." Harry answered quickly, trying to scrub away his cyrstalline tears with his sleeve.

Walking to the table that Harry occupied, Professor Snape grabbed a stool and sat across the table from the young man. "Than why the histrionics Mr. Potter?" He inquired in monotone as he folded his hands on the table's surface.

"It's just that holidays make me sad..." He began, but his irate professor halted Harry's excuses with an upraised hand.

"You are lying, and might I add, you are not ever good at it. So, if you're going to drown in you own tears in *my* classroom, at least be polite enough to give me the real reason."

Harry picked up his broken glasses and began to fiddle with them, not entirely sure if he wanted a man who dispised him to hear his problem. He glanced up into the professor's blackish eyes and sighed, seeing that Snape wasn't going to let him leave until Harry gave him a straight answer.

"Alright," he said finally, still playing with his glasses. "It's not as if telling you can make the situation any worse."

Snape rose an eyebrow fractionally, thinking that it must be bad indeed if Potter said something like that.

~!~!~!~!~

"It was maybe half an hour ago. I was watching Ron get ready to leave for Break. I had had decided that it was the most oppotune time to tell him that I... love him..." Harry's gaze had drifted to the tabletop while he spoke, so he missed the ghostly smile that flitted across his teacher's stoney features.

"I was sitting on my bed while he was packing what little he needed. I asked him to stop for a moment but he told me that if he didn't hurry, he'd miss the train and his mother would kill him.

"He told me that he'd send an owl with my Christmas gift from him.

"I asked him to stop and listen to me for a moment, that what I needed to tell him was extremely important, but the prat didn't listen."

Snape chuckled darkly. "I don't think 'prat' is the term I would choose for your dear Mr. Weasley... Try 'thick-headed git.' "

Harry grinned ruefully. "That is more fitting a term, for sure. Well, anyways, Hermione came in and told Ron that they had two minutes to be in the Great Hall so they could leave on time, than she left. He grabbed his bag and was about to walk out the door when I did the stupidest thing I think I have ever done in my life." He hesitated.

"I should think," Snape snorted, "that trying to swollow a Snitch is the most idiotic sutiation you have ever participated in."

"Oh, believe me, this was stupid... I kissed him..." Harry smiled goofily. "He's a great kisser."

The professor snorted again. "I wouldn't know. Continue."

"That's not the worst part, not by any stretch of the imagination. So we were standing there, snogging, when Professor McGonagall walked in." Harry's smiled faded completely with the next sentence.

"He broke the kiss when he jumped back, giving me this look that I could only interpret as 'what the bloody hell was that for!' I left after a second, ran fast as I could and my feet took me here."

He hastily wiped his eyes on his robe sleeve again, trying to quell the tears that were reforming.

When the potions Master began to laugh softly, Harry looked up, startled. "What's so funny about this?" He asked, voice harsh from the lump in his throat.

"Only that Professor McGonagall now owes me five Galleons. We had a bet a going on how long it took you to confess to Mr. Weasley. I won."

"Oh." He sat there, thinking for a minute on this admition. "May I ask you something, sir?"

"I suppose you can, but I may not answer," he drawled.

"Why do you care about why I'm so distressed? It's no secret that you aren't fond of the students, so why did you listen to my problem?"

Snape sighed. "The Headmaster pulled me aside not too long ago and told me that I should try to understand the students, share my experiences with them so that they learn what I know of life without going through the heartaches and problems that I had. He said that I didn't have to be nice to them but to understand and help them, if nothing else. I suppose that's why I talked with you."

"Well, thank you, sir, for letting me ramble to you like some prat. I do appriecate it." He stood after putting on his glasses and held out his hand.

Snape looked at the proffered hand as if it was going to bite him before clasping it in a large hand of his own. "You're welcome."

Harry moved to the door to leave the room, but Severus' quiet voice stooped him at the doorway.

"I loved someone once." Harry turned to lookat him but he staid seated, his back to Harry. "I, however, never obtained the nerve to tell him because I'm rarely capable of such an emotional display. A mistake that I never tell him, I miss him terribly."

He shook his head minutely, then continued, "You know, everytime I think I have you figured out, you suprise me." There was a hint of ironic humor in the teacher's voice.

"And you're just misunderstood, sir." Harry added seriously.

"Well, bloody hell Potter!" Snape stood and turned to Harry. "What are you doing, still standing there? Get your arse in gear and go plot a way to get your Mr. Weasley back!"

"Yes sir!" Harry grinned and with a quasi-wave, left the Potion's Master to his work.

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During the next week, Harry made arrangements with his Head of House to move into a different room in the dormatories. He was in luck. One of the rooms was no longer occupied for the rest of the year. The previous occupants, two brothers, were not going to be return to school that year because of a family emergancy. The room itself, oddly enough, was Percy and Oliver's old dorm room.

Professor McGonagall, however, tried making it crystal clear to Harry that he was making a mistake. ("You shouldn't be doing this. You should have seen Ronald after you left, he was most upset!" "He was furious that I kissed him is why.") She granted him the request anyways.

It took the latter half of Christmas day to move his belongings into the small, two person room. It contained two Victorian-style beds, stone floor and a connecting bathroom. Harry exploited this particular luxury as soon as he had finished stowing away his things.

The problem with Ron could wait to be contemplated until after a hot shower.

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Clothed only in his bathrobe, Harry left the bathroom and stopped in shock immediately after donning his glasses.

There on his bed lounged a shirtless and shoeless Ron Weasley with his hands crossed behind his head and right knee bent. Fiery red hair was splayed over his pillow... *his pillow*... cinnamon brown eyes watching his languidly.

"You look so inviting..." Harry breathed, then blushed hotly when he realised he had said the thought aloud.

"Thank you, I think." Came the shy, hestitant reply. But then he grinned. "Is that all you can think about?"

Harry recovered quickly from his embaressment. "Well, what are you doing in my bed if you don't want me to make love to you?"

Ron grew serious. "I needed to talk to you."

"So much so that you came back from vacation over a week early?" Harry asked sardonically.

"Not exactly." Ron flicked his long fingers towards an evelope that rested across his thigh.

"Are you trying to tempt me?" He asked, walking up to the bed.

Ron blushed crimson and Harry chuckled huskily, moving to kneel between the red-head's knees. Slowly he removed the letter from it's resting place and opened it.

~

Dear Harry,

Happy Christmas! We sent this letter with Ron because I was sending him back to school early. He has been sulking around the Burrow, refusing to talk about what has been making him act so distempered. Would you please help him? He won't talk to any of us and we are hoping you can help him cheer up.

Hope you liked the sweater and chocolate cake!

Molly

~

Harry reread the letter then put it on his night stand. Instead of asking Ron directly why he was here, he tried asking, "Who told you where my new room was?"

"McGonagall." Ron wasn't sure how to phrase his apology, so he figured honesty was in fact the best policy in this circumstance. "Look, Harry, about my reaction to you kissing me, I didn't want you to think I was mad..." he said imploringly, but Harry cut him off sharply.

"Than what did you mean by it, because from the look you had, you were pissed."

"It's just that, well, McGonagall walked in and you surprised me and... and..." Ron stopped, racking his brain for a proper explaination.

"And you aren't interested in me as anything but a friend. I understand." Defeated, Harry moved to get up, but found himself pressed back-down into the mattress with Ron straddling his thighs, pinning Harry's wrists loosely in his large hands.

"What on Earth gave you such an insane idea?"

"Gee, let me think," Harry began darkily. "You are always upset and blowing up at me. You rarely talk to me or do things with me, and you freaked when McGonagall caught us snogging. And that's just recently."

"Do you have any idea as to the real reasons why I have a problem being around you lately?" At Harry's confused expression, he continued in a breathless rush. "Being around you makes my blood race, my heart pound. You get me all tongue-tied and anxious, I can't even breathe right with you near me. That's only the start of a very long list, so now do understand why I was acting so strange?"

Not waiting for an answer, Ron seized Harry's lips in an erotically chaste kiss. But even as Harry was about to deepen it, Ron pulled away, blushing.

"I... I got your gift with me.... If you want it now..." Blushing harder still, Ron reached onto the nightstand and grabbed a slim, square, black box.

"You didn't have to get me anything," Ron shook his head at the statement and held out the gift. But as Harry reached for it Ron pulled it back.

"Remember when we had our first Transfiguration class?"

Harry chuckled. "Yeah. We were late and McGonagall said that she should Transfigure me and you into a pocketwatch so that at least one of us will be on time." Still grinning, he asked, "Why?"

Silently, Ron handed him the box.

Upon opening it, Harry discovered that it was, indeed, a Muggle pocketwatch. It was gold with a winder at the top and a latch to keep the cover closed.

"I hope you like it." Ron said as Harry tripped the latch and gasped when it opened.

The white, Mother of Pearl watch face had, in place of numbers, alternating emerald and ruby chips imbedded into it.

But that wasn't what stopped him breathing and struck him speechless.

On the inside of the cover was an engraving, in perfect copperplate script.

~

To: Harry James Potter

With all my love, eternally

From: His "Weezy"; Ronald Arthur Weasley

~

"I remembered you saying that your watch broke during the Second Task, so I put a charm on it so it wouldn't ever break. Just be sure to wind it everyday." Ron supplied nervously, waiting for Harry's approval of the gift.

"Ron," he croaked, stopped than cleared his throat. "Ron, I don't know what to say. It's beautiful!"

"Really?"

"Really. I adore it." Harry moved to place the watch out of harm's way on his nightstand, while in the process, crawling into Ron's lap. "Would you like your gift also?" His voice turned sultry as he spoke.

Ron gulped. "What gift is that?"

"Me." He answered softly, carefully, questionally adding, "If you'll have me?"

"Of course, as long as you'll let me keep you." And he brought Harry into a searing kiss.

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As the light of dawn crept into the room, it found the two lovers laying on their sides, face to face.

Even though both were sweat-soaked with limbs entangled, completely content and exhausted from a night of lavish love-making, Harry grinned suddenly.

"What is it?" Ron yawned and blinked, trying not to fall asleep.

"I just remembered about your other gift."

"Huh?"

Harry laughed quietly and removed one arm down to his lover's blanket covered hip, patting it loudly.

"What-" Ron stopped talking when a heavy weight replaced his lover's hand. As he propped himself on an elbow to see what it was, his eyes felt like they were going to fall out his head.

Emerald eyes sparkled in amusement at the look his beloved wore. "I remembered you gave Pig to your family when Errol died last year, so I procured this gorgeous creature for you. I hope you like him; he hasn't a name because I thought you might enjoy that honor."

The creature that currently occupied Ron's hip was actually a rather large and heavy eagle-owl with brown, white and red feathers and piecring amber eyes.

Harry smiled as Ron reached out to stroke the bird's breast feathers, which in turn earned Ron an affectionate finger-nipping. "I think I'll name him Thoth." He answered after awhile.

Harry chuckled a kissed his lover quickly. "He definately looks wise." When he yawned, Ron laughed and pulled Harry back down with him.

"Sleep dear-heart, the rest of the world can wait. Thoth, go to Owlery."

"Where'd you hear that endearment?"

"Believe it or not, I got it from Oliver. I also found out that all of my brothers are either gay or bi and that Perce and Wood have been dating for almost three years. But that can wait also."

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When Harry woke at a quarter to six that evening, he was disappionted to find himself alone. He fumbled for his glasses, which were on the nightstand. His hand instead encountered a letter that was propt against said glasses.

After slipping the cold frames onto his face, he tore into the note.

~

Dear-heart,

Sorry I'm not there when you wake up, but nature and my stomach called and you looked so pretty and content that I couldn't wake you.

Dumbldore came in just as I finished dressing and, before you have a stroke, he knows and congratulates us. He said that so long as it doesn't interfere with our studies, and we both want to, I can stay in this room also. He added that we shouldn't worry about what others think of our relationship because everyone around here is very understanding about these things and a lot of wizards are the same way, Snape included!

I'll see you at dinner because I have homework to finish in the library.

Thank you for the Christmas gifts, by the way, they are most appreciated.

Love, Ron

P.S. I was listening to the Muggle radio at home, recently, and I just remembered a verse that you might enjoy:

' Summer time, the nights are so long

The leaves fall down and so do I into the arms of a friend

Winter nights, my beside is cold

For I am gone

And Spring blossoms you to me '

Gah! See what you do? You make me all mushy!

~R~

~

Harry, grinning like an idiot, jumped out of bed and rushed to get dressed, much to his sore body's displeasure.

He ignored it however and after grabbing his new watch, left his room, too intent on seeing his lover at dinner.

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The End!

Like? Hate? Lemme know. BTW, this is a Prolouge of sorts to this long HP I'm gonna write. There are loose ends and some unexplained things for a reason people! Review or Flame please!