Warnings: (Whole Story) Adultery/Infidelity, Angst, Violence, Swearing, references to male/male sexual acts.
Total Word Count: 21,180 (This Chapter: 1,450)
Chapter Two
There was a crowd of Slytherins huddled around the top of the stairs down to the dungeons. That couldn't be a good sign. Ron watched from the doorway of The Great Hall.
"Come on!" Hermione snapped sharply, "or we'll be late for Charms."
"What are you looking at?" Harry asked.
Ron jerked his head forward. For a moment the two boys stood frozen in silent assessment with their heads cocked. There were the light sounds of harsh whispers and scuffling. More Slytherins were joining the group, Slytherins of all ages. Their bodies moved in one, co-ordinated ripple towards the centre.
Hermione huffed loudly. When that failed to get her friends' attention she said, "Drop it, boys. You need to learn to relax. War's over. Whatever's going on won't have anything to do with us."
Something sparkled at the heart of the nest of snakes. It might have been greenish, but that might have been Ron's imagination. He'd seen too many hexes thrown in this past year.
"However, Flitwick is taking us through diagnostic charms this lesson and I don't intend to miss any of it."
Ron felt Harry's body soften beside him. He sighed. "You're right, 'Mione. It's probably just an in-House thing."
"You don't need to keep saving everybody." Hermione chuckled lightly as she said it. She moved towards the stairs, confident that her boys would follow her.
"Ron?" Harry asked.
Ron kept his focus on the crowd in silver and green, kept his muscles at full alert. "I don't trust Slytherins," he said.
He slunk back into the doorway, out of sight, as the Entrance Hall cleared. Soon it was just him and them and then it was possible to hear a low noise like a suppressed sob or gasp. It came from their epicentre, from the point around which they circled. Ron was taller than any of them, but he couldn't see through them to work out what was happening.
Then it happened again and this time he was sure – that flash of green light had been real. A muffled human noise followed it and Ron began to march across the marble floor, pulling his wand from his sleeve as he went. Some of the younger ones at the perimeter broke away and scampered off. A lean, dark figure turned to face him.
"Can I help you, Weasley?"
"What's going on?"
"We're all completely saved already, thanks. You don't need to worry about anything here."
Ron raised his wand. It shook slightly with the effort to reign in his temper. "Just answer me, Zabini!" he hissed.
Several others were turning their attention to Ron now. Millicent Bulstrode looked about with an exaggerated head movement before saying, "Only one of you, Weasley."
She was right, of course - he was heavily outnumbered. He was going to have to catch them off-guard. Maybe he could use some kind of surprise attack. He wasn't going to back away now, because he was absolutely certain that they were up to something evil. Why else would they be hiding it?
He decided to go for an unprovoked and disproportionate attack. He hadn't wanted to come back to school anyway; he didn't care if he got expelled.
He thrust his wand out in front of him and yelled, " Confringo! "
The noise and the blast of hot air threw him backwards a few steps. That was nothing to what it did to them. There were flames and showers of falling rubble, crying, screaming and enough of them running out of the way for Ron to finally glimpse what they had been up to. There was a person, cowering on the floor, hiding under a cloak, shaking. An exposed leg was bleeding.
Ron didn't think too hard, he pointed his wand and called out " Accio !" He grabbed a handful of cloak as soon as it was within reach and then ran like hell. The other person ran with him, keeping pace and, pretty soon, snatching the fabric from Ron's grasp. They charged down the steps together and out of the building. It wasn't until they had rounded the corner that Ron turned his head to see who he had rescued.
"Malfoy? What the fuck?"
Malfoy didn't answer, just kept his head down and rocketed forwards, towards the greenhouses. His face was bruised, his left eyelid bled copiously and something gory was happening on his neck. Ron looked over his shoulder. A handful of figures watched them from the front door but none of them were chasing. Ron ran with Malfoy.
There was a Herbology lesson in progress. The pupils were little ones: first years or second years. Madame Sprout was moving among them. None of them seemed to have noticed the two Year Eight boys sprinting across the grass in their direction, hoping to get close enough to a teacher to be protected.
Malfoy slowed down a couple of feet short of the glass walls. He loped to a halt and bent forward, resting his hands on his knees and panting heavily. Ron stilled too. Then Malfoy's knees gave out and he sprawled on the lawn.
"I asked you a question," Ron said. He was barely wheezing. His own fitness impressed him. He must have got a lot of exercise saving the world.
"Get lost, Weasel," Malfoy gasped.
"A simple 'Thank you', would be fine." Ron slid down to a squat. "So, what was that all about?"
"I need your wand."
"I'm not handing you my fucking wand!"
"I want to close up my neck before I die of blood loss."
"You should go to Pomfrey."
"Nosy old bag."
He had a point. Ron pulled his wand out and aimed it. Grey eyes watched him warily. Ron smirked.
"Don't trust me?" he asked.
He ran his wand-tip along the broken skin, his lips moving silently, watching the flesh knit together where he passed it.
"Worried I might attack?" He siphoned off the blood.
"More scared you'll cock it up."
"Twat."
"Mind you don't choke on any slugs." Malfoy pulled a small glass vial from a pocket in his robes. Ron recognised it as dittany.
"Your leg's bleeding too."
Malfoy sighed, dabbing the liquid onto his face. "Go on then."
Ron lifted the hem of the Slytherin robes until he found the source of the blood: a long gash across one soft-skinned, light-haired inner thigh.
"So, what happened to your wand?" he asked as he healed.
"They took it."
Ron nodded at the dittany, which the other boy was now splashing onto his arms. "You come prepared," he observed. "This happened before?"
"You don't fully grasp the concept of 'somebody else's business', do you Weasley? Was it growing up in that overcrowded shack? Is privacy entirely alien to you?"
"Next time I'll let them kill you."
"You wouldn't have been so keen to be the hero if you'd known it was me they were persecuting."
Ron stood to consider that. He shrugged. "Maybe," he conceded. He stared out over the grounds, towards the grey clouds gathering on the horizon, vaguely aware that on the ground below him Malfoy was straightening his robes, restoring his dignity.
"What have they got against you, ferret?" he persisted. "I thought you were their prince."
Malfoy snorted. "Apparently my presence in their House is no longer desirable. It is not compatible with the image they now wish to project. My family connections and previous affiliations are redolent of an out-moded incarnation of the Slytherin ideal." His lip was curled, eyes flashing angrily. "They hope to convince me to leave the school."
"Why don't you?"
"Why should I?" Malfoy rose to standing. He smoothed down his robes and patted his hair flat. "How do I look?" he asked.
"Like a git."
Malfoy's nostrils flared as though he were about to make an insulting retort. He took a deep breath instead and slightly shrugged one shoulder. His face cleared of all expression and he said evenly, "No change there then."
Ron grinned at him. "No comeback? Passing up an opportunity to insult? I think that might be Malfoy for 'Thank you for rescuing me'."
"You? Thinking? Don't hurt yourself." With a raised eyebrow, he turned round and headed back towards the castle.
"Watch your back!" Ron yelled after him. Then he did - he watched that slim, graceful back all the way back to the castle steps; it was as ramrod straight as a ballet dancer's.
Author's Notes: This story was originally written for the "dracobigbang". Thanks to tania_sings, daiseechain , songquake , emansil_08 , deathjunke, stuckinsea and littleenglolita.
