It was a little known fact that Charlie Weasley was gay. That was one of the reasons that he had chosen to move to Romania to study dragons when there were perfectly good dragon research centers in Britain. No matter how accepted homosexuality was in the wizarding world, the Weasley children had been raised to believe that being gay was wrong and perverted.

In time, Bill and the twins had broken free from this conditioning, their love for their brother overriding the beliefs of their upbringing. But Percy, Ron and Ginny still stubbornly argued about the wrongness of same-sex relationships. In the muggle world, they would have been labelled homophobes.

Because of this, the fact that his best friend, the Saviour of the wizarding World, was gay had never entered Ron's mind. As far as he was concerned, Harry was going to marry Ginny, he was going to marry Hermione, and they would all live happily ever after.

So the sight before his eyes came as a complete shock to him.

The fiasco with Cho in fifth year had taught Harry a few things. The main lesson that he had learned was that not only was he not interested in Cho any longer; he was not interested in girls in general. The kiss and the date at Madam Pudifoot's had been enough to convince him that there was a high possibility that his jealousy during the Yule Ball had not been directed towards Cedric, but Cho instead.

But five years as Ron's best friend had taught him that his best friend absolutely despised "poufs." He could still remember that conversation:

'Don't you think Bill's the coolest person ever?' Ron asked, looking at Harry, who was sitting on cross-legged on the bed opposite him.

'Nah, Charlie's cooler. Can you imagine working with dragons?' Harry replied naively, unaware that his friend was struggling to keep his temper in check at that question.

'Charlie's a faggot,' Ron replied through gritted teeth. 'There's no way he classifies as even slightly cool.'

And the conversation had ended at that.

Harry knew that he would never be able to tell Ron the truth without losing his friendship. There were very few things that could make Ron change his mind once he had decided on something, and the happiness of his so-called best mate was definitely not one of them.

It was unsurprising that Ron had not noticed Harry pulling away from him following his realization of his sexuality. Ron was only ever concerned with himself. But Harry would do everything possible to dim the hurt that would undoubtedly accompany his sexuality becoming public, and the distance would help with it.

He had never expected to fall into a relationship with this man of all people, but maybe it had been inescapable. Their arguments and rivalry were destined to end in one way or the other, and better in the bedroom than on the field of battle.

He did wish that he could have told Ron himself instead of Ron walking in on them, but that wasn't something that he could change.

Harry met Draco Malfoy in Diagon Alley the first time after Harry's testimony for the Malfoys.

It had been uncomfortable, both of them unsure of where they stood. Should they fall into their old routine of lightly veiled insults, or did the end of the war also mean that the end of the hostilities between them? At the end, they'd simply nodded awkwardly at each other before moving on.

The second meeting had been at Hogwarts, this time forced to share a room with each other. The more Harry pulled away from Ron, the more he seemed drawn to Draco instead.

He would never know what prompted him to speak out that day – the Firewhiskey probably played a part, but he wasn't drunk enough to put all the blame on it. For whatever reason, he had sat down and actually spoken to Draco about everything – the end of the war, the losses he had suffered, Teddy, everything. That had been the turning point in their friendship. Harry opening up to him had cause Draco to become more open about his feelings too.

Harry wouldn't realize why for some time, but it was so much easier to talk to Draco than to Ron and Hermione. They would listen to him and would try to reassure him, but Draco – Draco understood him.

He hadn't realized it then, but all of it – opening up to Draco, their growing friendship – had been leading up to a single epiphany.

As soon as Harry had realized that he had grown closer to Draco than he was to either Ron or Hermione, he knew he had to tell the other boy the truth about his sexuality. He couldn't hide something this important from someone he cared so much about. Besides, Draco had always been good at recognizing when Harry was lying or hiding something from him.

This was made difficult by Harry's epiphany – he was attracted to Draco. Each piece that Draco revealed of himself made Harry fall deeper. It was unavoidable – Draco was the first person who truly understood Harry, and he was bound to find that attractive. If Draco pulled away from him now, he would be heartbroken. At the same time, he had no other option but to proceed with telling him the truth. Losing Draco because he thought Harry didn't trust him to revel the truth would be worse than losing him because Draco couldn't stand the person he was.

'Draco?' he had said, approaching him hesitantly.

'What is it?' he had replied, raising his head from the book in his hands.

He must have noticed the nervous look on Harry's face, because a look of worry had appeared on his face. 'Are you okay?'

'Yeah,' he had replied, offering Draco a weak smile. 'I just have something that I really need to get off my chest. Don't hate me for what I'm about to tell you, please?'

The frown on Draco's face had gotten deeper. 'I could never hate you again. I thought you knew that. What is this about?'

'I – I'm –' Harry's voice had wavered. 'I'm gay,' he finally blurted out.

The frown on Draco's face hadn't changed. 'Is that what you were worried about?' he had asked incredulously.

'Ron's made it very clear that he hates faggots,' Harry had murmured, suddenly embarrassed at his nervousness.

'Weasley is an arsehole,' Draco had replied scathingly. 'Besides, considering I'm attracted to men too, hating you would be rather hypocritical of me, don't you think?'

Harry had simply gaped at that last sentence, unable to believe that Draco was gay too.

It was the recognition that Draco would never abandon him the way Ron would happily do made Harry fall in love with Draco, progressing past his attraction to and crush on the other boy. He would never tell him, of course – there was no way that he would risk his friendship with Draco for anything.

But even the best-laid plans could fail.

Harry climbed into his room to find Draco in tears.

'What happened?' he asked, deeply alarmed. Draco never cried.

Draco silently handed him a letter. It was from his mother, notifying him that his father was extremely ill. Since he was expected to recover, she refused to let him out of Hogwarts to meet him, saying that Lucius did not want Draco to compromise on his education.

Harry silently pulled into his arms, letting him bury his head in his shoulder and cry himself out.

'I know he'll be fine,' Draco said, his voice muffled by Harry's shirt, 'but I can't help worry. What if something happens and I'm not there?'

Draco's tears broke Harry's heart. He could think of nothing that he could tell the boy in his arms that would reassure him, settling for stroking his hair instead. Soon, Draco's sobs became fewer, before stopping completely. Harry was certain that the boy in his arms had fallen asleep.

He tightened his arms around Draco, bending his head to kiss the sleeping boy on his forehead. 'I love you,' he murmured, knowing that this was the only way he would ever confess to Draco, when there was no way for him to hear Harry.

At the sound of Harry's voice, Draco moved restlessly against his chest, before raising his head to look at Harry. 'Did you mean that?' he asked, eyes still shining with unshed tears.

Harry gaped down at him, terrified that he was going to lose his best friend with his answer. Lying was not an option. 'Yes,' he finally answered, closing his eyes in defeat, 'I did.'

Draco simply tugged at Harry, pulling him down onto the bed with him.

'I've waited for you to say that for so long,' Draco said, wonder in his eyes. It was then that Harry noticed that his eyes were shining not only with unshed tears, but also with hope and joy.

'If this had been any other time, I would have kissed you,' he continued, 'but right now, could we just stay like this for some time?' There was a hint of vulnerability in Draco's tone, as though he was afraid he was going to be rejected, that Harry was just playing a prank on him.

Harry did not answer, tightening his arms around Draco as a reply. He buried his face in the other boy's hair, content to hold him like this, surrounded by the vanilla-scent of Draco.

It was like this that Ron found the two boys. The redhead had never had a good grip on his temper, and seeing his best friend in compromising position in bed with that ferret resulted in him erupting in indignation and horror.

'What the FUCK do you think you're doing Harry? Why in Merlin's name are you tangled up with the ferret? Get away from him! It's a good thing that I found you; someone else might have thought that you're a poofter if they saw you like that!'

Harry didn't move from his spot with Malfoy. 'Go away Ron,' he said tiredly. 'This isn't a conversation I want to have right now.'

This simply served to increase Ron's temper. 'What do you mean you don't want to have this conversation right now?' he asked, voice rising with every word. 'MOVE Harry! That slimy Sytherin's done something to you, I'm sure of it! MOVE! I'll handle him!'

This last statement finally got Harry to untangle himself from Draco. He walked towards Ron, who, sure of his victory, did not notice the danger in Harry's eyes.

'Don't you dare hurt a hair on Draco's head, Weasley,' he said, poison dripping from each word. 'If you harm my boyfriend, I won't be held responsible for my actions.'

'Boy –'

'That's right, Weasley,' he continued scathingly, ignoring Ron's gob smacked face. 'Didn't know your best friend was gay, did you? Doesn't say much about you as a friend. But don't worry; I don't want anything to do with you. There's no chance that you're going to "catch the gay" if I'm not around you anymore.'

'You are not a faggot! I'd know if you were!'

'No, no you wouldn't. You were too daft to realize that I've been drifting away from you ever since fourth year. If you'd noticed that, you'd have wondered why, and maybe then you'd have known. But you're a bit too self-centered to think about anything but yourself. I'm never going to get together with you sister, Weasley. You can tell her that. Even if I didn't like men, they type of person she is disgusts me. She's nothing like Draco.' Here his voice softened slightly. 'Draco's so much more accepting than the two of you. Ironic, isn't it? That you're more prejudiced than a boy who was raised to hate practically everything? But unlike you two, Draco's learned how to grow up. I don't expect you to understand this, but whatever our souls our made of, his and mine are the same. Choosing between you and my soul mate? Not a choice at all.

Goodbye, Ronald.'

For:

The Weasleys' Wizarding Wheezes Competition, Category Deflagration Deluxe

The Diagon Alley Challenge, Florean Fortescue's Ice Cream Parlour

Harry Potter Spells Contest, Category Impervius

Wand Wood Competition, Category Pear

Musical Terms Challenge, Category Amorose

Key Signature Competition, Category C Minor

Forbidden Relationships Competition, Romeo/Juliet Divide (oneshot)

The If You Dare Challenge, Prompt 97. Nobody Knows It Like I Do

The OTP Bootcamp Challenge, Prompt 17. Jagged