Title: Friend of Mine
Author: Drusilla Williams
Rating: M/R+
Pairing: Harry/Ron, Harry/Crossover and Implied Ron/Hermione
Warnings: Angst
Summary: Set after Boyfriend, Harry and Ron face each other after their falling apart.
Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter. I make no profit from writing this. No copyright infringement intended.
Author's Note: Over at livejournal at the community harryandron, every comment I received begged for a sequel to Boyfriend so here it is. A few quick notes. This is a bit of a crossover work as I took characters from Roswell and placed them in Harry's new life without Ron. This piece could be fine as a stand alone but you really should read Boyfriend first to understand what's happened.
As usual, a song always inspires me, for this chapter, it's Friend of Mine by Eve6. So props to them and enjoy the fic and REVIEW please.
Friend of Mine
Friend of mine stay alive
Don't you leave me here
All alone in the world with a chronic tear
I will always be here, I will always be here
I will always be here for you
Eve6 – Friend of Mine
Chapter One
Harry sat at the kitchen table, a new group of friends surrounding him, a smile on his face as he looked down at his cards, confident of his hand. He eyed the group around him, some shifting uncomfortably in their seats, others sporting the same grin that currently covered Harry's lips.
"Well," Monk started from Harry's right as he looked down at his cards, "I fold. There's no way I'll win with this hand." With that he placed his hand down on the table and began to fiddle with the few chips in front of him, his long dark hair falling in front of his face as if to hide him even though his large old fashioned glasses did it for him.
Fly who sat across from Monk grinned and picked up a few chips, throwing them into the growing pile in front of them. "Well, unlike our poker challenged friend, I'll call and raise you five." At this both George and Steve folded, slapping their cards down on the table and crossing their arms leaving Michael, Fly, and Harry with their cards in their hands.
Michael smirked easily, picking up the number of chips to call and adding five more chips to the pile after that. Harry nodded and fallowed suit, leaning back in his seat, totally relaxed and at ease with his surroundings. Fly raised his eyebrows over at Michael who sipped calmly at his Peach Snapple while Harry tapped his foot, feeling his wand shifting in his pocket.
Things had changed a lot since Ron left. Harry had a new job working as a security guard for a muggle cosmetic lab; the men that surrounded him, his new coworkers. He had picked up his life and started over, away from magic and away from Ron. Ron, who he hadn't seen since he had left. Ron, who he hadn't heard since that message from a year ago. Ron, who currently remained a good memory, kept in a shoebox stashed in his closet on the top shelf out of site.
The others didn't know about Harry's other life, or Ron. They didn't know much about Harry's past at all, much like they didn't know much about Michael's past who had joined them only two weeks ago, much like they didn't know about aliens or vampires or magic.
And as Fly, Michael, and Harry laid down their cards, Harry coming out on top yet again, Harry found that it was okay. Life was okay without Ron.
Catherine bounced in her highchair as Hermione dished out her daughter's food. The small brunette gave Hermione a rather toothy grin before she dug her hands into the spaghetti and began to eat. Ron watched on quietly, smiling at the small child who was only a little under a year old. The reason he had left Harry.
The child slurped at the noodles, the sauce covering the areas surrounding her mouth and her shin, slopping it onto the bib that was wrapped around her neck lightly. "Katy, your fork, use your fork!" Hermione cried softly, picking up the small, plastic, green fork and handing it to her daughter who hurled it at Ron with a giggle.
Ron caught the fork easily, his keeper skills coming in handy as he placed the fork on the table and turned to Hermione. "Let her eat with her hands, love. She's a baby, she'll learn to eat proper later," he stated grinning as he stood up and took a noodle from Catherine's bowl to eat.
"How's she going to learn when you encourage her? She's impressionable you know!" she said throwing her hands up in the air. "Harry wouldn't encourage her. If she had him around, she'd be eating with a fork and speaking words, and bubbling with magic!"
Ron, who had been crossing the kitchen to get a drink from the refrigerator halted at Harry's name and turned slowly, glaring at Hermione. "Don't mention him!"
"Why not? He's my friend too! And it's the truth!" she exclaimed, again trying to force the fork into Catherine's small hands. "It's been a year, Ron. A year since we've seen him or talked to him! He's our friend! Our best friend. Aren't you worried? What if something happened to him? I mean, ever since he left his job at the ministry-"
"Stop it Hermione! If you wanted to find him so bad, you could. You know you could," he growled as he pulled a Firewhiskey from the fridge and proceeded to take a drink from it. "Besides, if you love him so much, you should've asked him for help and not me."
Hermione crossed her arms, glaring at the red head as he looked away. "Well excuse me. I thought you would have loved to be in your child's life! I didn't ask you to leave him!"
"What else could I have done Hermione? Do you know how much that would have killed him? If he had known? If he knew?" he shot back after downing half of the bottle. Catherine threw the fork down yet again with a clatter and began to beat her small fists on the table, yelling "up!" until Ron set down his bottle and picked her up, bouncing her in his arms to keep her occupied.
"What do you mean if he knew? Are you telling me he doesn't know? Harry doesn't know about Catherine?" Hermione asked shocked. Ron shook his head, looking down at his daughter who laughed and grabbed at his long hair, pulling on it softly. "You never told him? I thought for sure, I thought that it was because he knew that he didn't- I mean, it was never like Harry to just stop talking to us, even I knew that was a far stretch, but, he doesn't know?" Again Ron nodded, looking away now, unable to meet either Hermione's or Catherine's eyes. "Oh Merlin Ron, what did you tell him?"
Ron sighed, handing Catherine to Hermione as he grabbed his Firewhiskey and finished the rest. Placing the bottle in the sink and pulling out another from the refrigerator before turning to leave. He paused at the balcony door and looked back at Hermione. "I didn't tell him anything. I packed my things and left. I packed my things, made love to him, and left," he whispered before walking out.
Hermione sank into a chair at the table and tightened her hold on Catherine, tears falling from her eyes as her daughter calmly wiped them away.
Michael tossed the tennis ball up in the air, catching it as he leaned back in his chair, Harry leaning forward on the desk, his chin resting on his crossed arms as he stared at the monitor in front of him. "Slow night, huh?" Michael said, looking at Harry from the corner of his eye. Harry nodded, yawning. "So what do you do when you're not at work or hanging out with us?"
Harry shrugged, keeping his eyes on the monitor as he thought of what he did. Sometimes he visited Hagrid at Hogwarts or went to Diagon Ally to stock up on potions that he kept in the house. He liked to go to Quidditch matches when he could get his hands on tickets and he still kept in contact with Neville from time to time. But otherwise he sat at home and watched the telly or read the Daily Prophet, scanning it for anything on the Weasleys or Hermione or anything war related where no doubt the wizarding world would call on the great Harry Potter to come out of his hiding place and fight for them.
But he wasn't about to tell Michael that. "You know, the usual, sit home and watch the telly, read the paper." Michael nodded as he sat the tennis ball down on the desk and nudged Harry with his elbow.
"If you need another job I could probably get you one at the Crashdown. It doesn't pay much but you get free food," he stated as he looked over at the monitors.
"You mean that diner that looks like it was picked up from Roswell and put in the middle of London?" Michael nodded, frowning slightly. "No thanks mate, I make enough doing this."
"You gotta be to afford your flat. Do you have an in with the head guy or something?" Michael laughed, looking at Harry with a genuine smile. Harry chuckled, shaking his head.
"No, my parents just made sure I was well off before they said hi to death," Harry stated nonchalant like. Michael nodded, shrugging.
"You got lucky. Don't even know my parents," Michael stated turning his attention away from Harry and back to the monitors which were images of empty halls. "Then again I don't think I'd want to know them. What if they ended up being some huge creeps? No thanks. I'm content being oblivious." Harry nodded, standing up and stretching his legs and arms before he grabbed the clipboard so they could do their rounds.
"Well, if it's getting to hard to rent your flat, you can come live with me. Merlin knows it gets lonely," Harry stated, not aware of what he had said as Michael gave him a look.
"You say the weirdest shit, you know that Potter?" Michael stated as he also stood up. Harry shrugged and grinned. "But you know what; I think I'll take you up on that offer."
Harry smiled, knowing that he'd have to try harder to hide his other life but it'd be worth it. Lately it had been getting pretty tempting to take down that shoebox.
Michael moved in a week later, his few items filling up most of the empty space in the apartment and Harry thought it felt like home again. And what was better was that Michael didn't ask questions, just like Harry didn't ask about the strange artifacts or the strange things that happened whenever Michael was around that couldn't be explained by something muggle or magic.
Life was returning to normalcy, more so than it had in a past year and Harry soon realized what he had been missing horribly, friendship. The boys were able to talk about mostly anything and they confided their secrets in each other frequently. It wasn't along before Michael found out Harry was gay and Harry wasn't surprised to see that it didn't bother Michael like it might of any of the other guys. It wasn't long until Harry found out that Michael love Tabasco sauce and almost everything he ate or drank.
And it wasn't long until they got closer to each other and Harry found out one other thing he had been missing horribly, love.
"That prat! That bloody fucking prat! I can't believe him! A year! He's been keeping that from us for a year!" Ron raged, pacing the kitchen angrily as he remembered Neville's horrorstruck face when Ron had advanced on him after finding out that Neville and Harry had been in contact. "And Harry! He kept in touch with him and not us!"
Hermione rolled her eyes as he bounced Catherine on her leg from her seat. "Well you can't blame him can you? After what you did, after what we did. I think he has every right." Ron rounded on Hermione, the tip of his ears burning a bright red. "I hope you're not thinking about what I think you're thinking about. To walk into his life again after all this time would be a big mistake. And besides, from what Neville told us, Harry is happy. You of all people should at least want that for him."
"Of course I want that for him! But he should be happy with me damn it! Not some random muggle who he can't even tell everything too!" Hermione sighed, standing up, bouncing Catherine on her hip.
"That's not true. Plenty of witches and wizards marry muggles and stay married. Harry's happy Ron and you have no right to barge into his life and screw it up. Just let him go, Ron. He let you," she stated causing Ron to stop and think before he slumped into a chair at the table and stare blankly out in front of him. Hermione sighed and pushed his hair out of his face, smiling gently.
"It'll get better Ron, I promise. You just have to let go." Ron shook his head, his eyebrows creasing as he shoved himself away from the table and stood up.
"If he let me go than I want my god damned shirt back!" he growled, storming out of the house and slamming the door behind him, causing Catherine to give out a cry. Hermione groaned, patting Catherine's back and she whispered soothing words, praying to what ever higher power out there that her best friend wouldn't ruin her other best friend's life.
Harry cringed slightly as he shifted slightly on the bed, one hand gripping the mattress as his other gripped Michael's forearm. "You okay?" Michael grunted as he slowly pushed forward, spreading Harry's tight passage even more. Harry nodded, closing his eyes and taking a heavy breath. "Tell me if you want me to stop." Again, Harry nodded and let his head fall back as Michael entered Harry completely. "Alright, I'm all in," he gasped, closing his own eyes as he hovered over Harry. "Wrap your legs around me."
Harry nodded and did so, his body slowly but surely getting used to Michael's length and thickness. After a few moments, he squeezed Michael's hips with his legs, slowly moving his hips. "You can move now," he whispered, feeling Michael nod and then slowly pull out and push back in. Harry gripped Michael's wrists and bit his lip.
"Harry," Michael groaned, pressing his forehead against Harry's as his free hand wrapped around Harry's member, pleasuring him while continuing to thrust in and out, turning his hips to try and hit Harry's prostate. Finally after a few minuets, he was rewarded with Harry's wild gasp.
"Fuck, Michael." Michael twisted his hips again, pushing against Harry's prostate as Harry writhed and wriggled beneath him, his head thrown back in ecstasy, gasps and hot breath escaping his lips which were red and swollen. Michael picked up his pace, thrusting, pushing, pulling, twisting until he felt Harry tense in his arms.
Soon, Harry was spasming around Michael and Michael found himself coming within Harry. Harry came with a cry.
An hour later, Harry and Michael laid in bed next to each other, both sated and unwilling to move from their current positions, wrapped up in each other. Michael, who had never been very forth coming with his emotions, was content to lay in bed with Harry and cuddle, and Harry, who always had to be moving, was content to do just the same.
They knew that their relationship had changed, that they could probably never really get back to how they were before but they also knew that they weren't in love with each other. Both men already had someone to fill that spot in their heart, no matter how one sided it was. And both men were content to fill the emptiness that the other felt even if for a while.
They were silent, happy, but a loud crack from the living room threatened the warmth and sleep that was about to envelope both of them. Harry, who recognized the sound immediately went to sit up but was held down by Michael who pressed his palm against Harry's chest. "Stay," it was a command, a plea but Harry knew that who ever was dumb enough to apparate into his apartment and his new partner would soon clash and destroy what ever resemblance of normal he had come to accommodate.
"No, you stay. I'll check it out," Harry began pulling Michael back to bed before beginning to get up himself. Michael however shook his head, glowering at his new found lover.
"No, if you go out there, I do too." Harry sighed, knowing that nothing would keep Michael where he was, his friend was simply too stubborn and destructive. Harry nodded and went to get out of bed when the door to the bedroom burst open, the last person he ever expected to be standing there, wand at the ready, the tips of his ears already turning as red as his beautiful hair.