Sorry about the long wait. Hope the long chapter makes up for it. :)


The next morning was filled with the bustle of a castle full of teenagers preparing to go home for the holidays. Ron, however, slept peacefully through the din of panicked packing. He had no reason to get up. He didn't need to pack, he wasn't going anywhere this Christmas. He was staying right where he was, in his bed with Draco to keep him company… and preoccupied.

The aristocrat in the neighboring bed, on the other hand, was a light sleeper, and the noise of Ron's snoring and the others bustling around woke him up more than an hour ago. Giving up on the idea of falling back to sleep, Draco pulled back the curtains of his four poster and let his thin, porcelain legs slip out of his covers.

He rubbed his eyes wearily. "Would it be possible for you people to be any louder?"

Eric slammed his chest shut. "Don't complain, Malfoy. Besides, shouldn't you be up and getting ready with the rest of us?"

"No."

"You're not going home this year?" John, having just packed his best pair of shoes, looked up from his final preparations.

Feeling tired and aggravated now, Draco rubbed his eyes and shook his head. "I'll be home for Christmas, but I'm not leaving with the rest of you people."

"You people?"

"Why not?"

"Because I just want some peace and quiet, and I'm not going to get much of that at home."

Eric glared at Malfoy even more heatedly than normal before leaving the room and heading down to breakfast.

"Why's that?"

Draco just grunted in response to John's continuing inquiries. During the week before the annual Malfoy Christmas party, his father was planning on throwing a few charity galas to help boost their good name. Draco didn't want to be there for them. After all, he had better things to do. He stood, completely ignoring John's question, and threw his pillow into Weasley's bed. "You're snoring."

Ron woke up with a start. Recognizing the plush pillow immediately, as it was thrown at him often, he threw open his hangings and beamed the pillow back at Malfoy who ducked without even having to look.

"Good morning."

Ron glared and smiled at him. "Wha'd you wake me up for?"

Draco turned while finishing the top buttons of his shirt. "I thought you'd want to see your friends off."

Ron thought about that and stretched the sleep out of his muscles. "Yea I guess I could do that." He wanted to see them before they left, but he had been a bit worried about having to tell them he wasn't going with them.

"You not going home either?" All finished with his packing, John straightened up and clamped his trunk shut.

"Naw, thought I'd stay here, see what trouble I can get into this year."

John laughed. "Well, hopefully not too much. See you down stairs."

After the Hufflepuff disappeared and the door closed behind him, Ron smiled and snuck up behind Draco, draping his arms around his waist. "Good morning."

Draco couldn't keep himself from smiling. "Morning… lover."

Ron squeezed lighter and laughed into Draco's neck. He took in a long breath of Draco's sweet aroma before letting out a sigh of contentment.

Draco raised and rested his arms up behind him, around the taller man' shoulders. "Looking forward to this week?"

"Mm hmmm." He ran his fingers over Draco's smooth stomach and pressed himself closer. "You know, the train doesn't leave for another hour or so."

Draco leaned into Ron's caresses. "Is that so?"

Head full of thoughts about the upcoming week, Ron began to let his hands wonder. "We could skip breakfast… stay up here for a while."

Draco took in a quick breath and let his head fall back. "We could do that."

()()()

Only ten minutes before the train was scheduled to leave, Ron ran top speed down to the Hogsmead station. "Harry! Harry!"

Seamus, who was leaning out his window to say goodbye to some friends, pointed towards the front of the train. "Hey Ron, he's a few cars down that way!"

"Thanks! Happy Christmas!" Ron banged on the windows on a number of cars, asking each if Harry Potter was present, before he finally found the right one.

"Ron, there you are! Hurry up and get on! The trains about to leave."

Ron just grinned and shook his head excitedly. "I'm not going!"

Hermione popped out of the window. "You're staying? What ever for!?" Her look of shock and impending need to convince him to come made Ron grateful that he had waited a while before saying his goodbyes.

He looked at Harry, "I'll tell you when you come back. I promise." Just then the train whistle cut off any protests Granger may have had. "It's gonna be big news. Big news!"

Harry grinned and leaned out farther as the train started pulling away. "I look forward to it!"

Ron ran to keep up and waved. "It's gonna be big!"

Hermione shook her head in frustration. "Then why can't you tell us now!"

"I can't, Happy Christmas!" Ron thought he heard them yelling their happy Christmas' back at him over the second train whistle. He stopped running once he reached the end of the platform, but he continued to wave as long as he could see his friends' hands waving back in the distance.

()()()

The first few days of their first week together was filled with nothing but good food and wonton sex. It was tiring, but well worth the effort. They slept in the same bed at night despite Ron's snoring and Draco's violent limbs. They got on better than ever without anyone else there to act up for. It was just the two of them in the Everlux wing of the castle, and it was absolute bliss. They did everything together, got into snow fights, took hand held walks by the lake, and enjoyed private evenings curled up together in front of the common room fire.

The only down side was that, every night, Ron would stir and realize Draco wasn't laying beside him. He would open his eyes to find the pale figure of Malfoy sitting on the edge of the bed, blue smoke curling around him in the darkness as he sat silently staring into the darkness. Ron never let on that he was awake during these times, but it began to worry him more and more.

It wasn't until Friday that Draco told Ron he was leaving to see his parents.

"Well, how the hell are you gonna pull that off?"

Draco smiled. "Slughorn offered to let me use his fireplace. Maybe you should go see your folks too? Stay with them for Christmas?" He sighed and let out a long puff of blue smoke and handed the drug to Ron.

Ron accepted. "How long are you staying with them?"

"Just the two days."

Ron took in a long drag and let it out slowly. "I guess I could surprise them, they'd probably be happy to see me." He handed the cigarette back to Draco.

"Probably." He settled further into Ron's arm and gazed at the fire before them. It was the only light in the common room where they sat on the floor in front of the sofa, and its blinding light was hypnotic.

Ron tucked his finger tips into Draco's shirt and lightly traced circles over his hip and stomach. "You gonna miss me?"

Draco smiled. "Oh I don't think so. I'll be so busy with the Christmas party and opening all my gifts I just don't think I'll have a moment to spare a thought. Ouch!" He smiled, but rubbed the spot where Ron had just pinched him.

"Liar."

"Maybe. What about you, are you going to miss me?"

"Well I'll definitely miss the sex."

Draco hit Ron lightly before standing up. "You want anymore to drink?"

"Yeah, that'd be great."

Draco walked over to the little side table and filled their glasses with spiced bourbon.

"Hey Draco."

"Yes?" He handed Ron his glass.

"What number am I?"

He laughed, "What?"

"How many people have you, you know, before me?"

"Ah." He sipped at his drink. "There was one fellow before you, but that's it."

"No girls?"

Draco smiled. "No."

"I bet Pansy was disappointed."

"Ugh, don't even remind me." He kicked one of Ron's legs out of the way and settled down in front of him.

Ron pulled him back and wrapped his arms around him. "So who was he? Anybody I know?"

"No, no one you know."

Ron waited for further clarification, but after a few moments when none came, he decided not to press any further. Perhaps Draco didn't want to talk about past lovers, but then Draco was a difficult person to read.

"His name was Charlie. I met him during the war." He smiled then. "He was a wild sort of fellow, the sort that brought to mind romantic stories of pirates tamed by the love of a woman. Or rather, a terrified young man. He was filthy and crass, vulgar, always smelled of blood and earth, and tasted like salted gin."

Ron frowned. He didn't like hearing Draco talk about someone else so fondly, but he had asked, and it was all in the past. He was Draco's man now, and that was all that mattered. "Why'd you break up?"

Draco was quiet for a long time again, smoking a few more drags of their cigarette before handing it back to Ron. He leaned forward to drain the last of his bourbon before settling back into the comfort of Ron's arms. "He died."

Ron tried not to, but he could feel himself tense up.

"Not that it would have worked out anyway. He was too much trouble, and a drunk." He laughed then. "He had a temper too. If we weren't making up we were fighting. I didn't mind too much though, I mean, he got it as good as he gave, and I had potions to clear up the bruises." He paused and held Ron's arms and sighed. "He never did anything about his bruises though, and sometimes when we were stuck in some long, arduous meeting, he would touch one of them and smile, and I would know he was thinking about me."

In that moment, it was as if Ron was meeting the real Draco for the first time. Despite their time together, he had never known Draco was capable of being so sentimental. That he could treasure something so simple and charming.

"But then I had to leave for school. It's amazing to think that it only lasted for a summer, that I could have come to … care for him so much in such a sort amount of time."

"How did he die?" Ron knew it was a risk to ask, but his curiosity won out.

"In the war, during the battle here."

"He was a Death Eater?"

"No, he was one of Greyback's men."

"A werewolf?" Ron was shocked. The thought of Draco hiding a gay relationship with a werewolf while being surrounded by people who might have killed him for it was almost too much to imagine.

"Is it that so surprising?"

"Yes."

Draco smiled and intertwined his fingers with Ron's. "I guess it would be."

Ron lightly ran his thumb over Malfoy's fingers. The sound of the crackling fire echoing around them seemed comforting at first, like a soft noise to fill the following silence. But as both of them sat remembering those they had lost, it began to parallel the snaps and sizzles of spells that had blasted all around them in the chaos of the final battle.

"I tried to find him, after Crabbe… I left Goyle tucked away in the old DA room. In the same room… but somehow different… I didn't find Charlie until the end. He was just laying there in the Great Hall with the rest of the gathered dead. Just laying there with no one to morn him. No one to fix his hair or tend to his clothes. How could I? … I couldn't even cry for him … couldn't let anyone know…"

All Ron could do was to hold Draco close when he finally lost his composure. He put the cigarette out in his still full glass of whiskey, and held him, but Draco didn't allow himself to cry for long. He stayed curled up in the other man's lap long after he had calmed himself though, and stayed wrapped safely in Ron's arms until he fell asleep.

And as the fire died down to nothing but glowing embers Ron rested his head on Draco's platinum crown and wondered why it had never occurred to him before. That the enemy, those he had fought so hard to see fall that night, might have also felt the pain of losing someone they loved.

()()()

The following morning, Draco acted as if the night's conversation and his momentary break down had never happened, so Ron did the same. They said their goodbyes, and then said them again in a much less naked or passionate, and a much more polite sort of way in Slughorn's office.

Once Draco disappeared with his things behind a flash of emerald flames, Ron took his share of flu powder and stepped into the hearth. "See you on Monday."

Slughorn beamed back at him. "Happy Christmas."

"Happy Christmas." He threw down the powder, "The Burrow!" and at once he was off through a haze of living rooms until he arrived at his own. "Surprise!"

Everyone jumped up to welcome Ron in for Christmas breakfast. Everyone, of course, except Fred, but Percy did his best to keep everyone in good spirits and busy with his jokes and pranking with George.

Luckily, Hermione, who thought Ron was still at school, never came by the Burrow for the holiday. Her owl, however, knew exactly where Ron was and delivered his gift without difficulty. He had just finished unwrapping the contents exposing the 'Auror's Compendium: A Complete Study Guide' when Harry's voice sounded from the doorway.

"What are you doing here?"

Ron beamed up at him and stood, joined him at the doorway, and pulled him into a crushing hug. "I'm so glad to see you! You're never going to guess what I've been up to." He kept one arm around him and led him into the room.

"Don't you want your gift first?"

"Oh yeah, where is it?"

Harry laughed and pointed out the window where his new owl was soaring towards them over the Weasley farm. "I thought you were going to be at the school."

"So did I," he opened the window for the owl to enter, "I only found out yesterday that Slughorn was letting people use the flu network to see their families for the weekend." He took the parcel from the spotted barn own and fetched some treats from a nearby cupboard. "I sent all my gifts by owl too."

"Yeah, I got mine this morning. Thanks by the way, it was perfect."

"I know." He laughed again, feeling so happy to be able to see Harry on Christmas. "Did you get an Auror's Compendium-"

"From Hermione? Yeah." He smiled and shrugged. "It should at least help with the exams."

Ron shrugged and finished opening the box. Inside was a locket, a beautiful little trinket except for the large gash cutting diagonally across the 'S' engraved on the front. Ron carefully lifted it out of its box and ran his fingers over locket's scar. "Slytherin's locket."

"I convinced Kingsley to let us keep them. I gave Hermione Hufflepuff's cup. I kept Riddle's Diary."

"Wow… Harry, thanks." He looped the chain around his neck and gazed down at his treasure. "This thing was such a huge pain in the ass."

Harry burst out laughing and Ron couldn't stop himself from joining in.

"Thanks Harry, this really means a lot."

Harry shrugged and smiled. "Happy Christmas. Now, what's this big deal you were going to tell me about?"

"Oh," Ron stood, "That. Well, before I even start," he ran a hand through his hair trying to think of the best way to break the news to his best friend that he was, in the most literal sense, sleeping with the enemy. "I think it would be best if you sat down for this one, mate."