Iris: Chapter Nine:

(Heard it on the) Grapevine

Warnings: Sexual content, homosexual relationships, intolerant!Ron, adult language, bad faux British accents (I can only assume)... are you even reading this?

HP doesn't belong to me. Neither does tATu. Blah blah blah blah blah.

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Hermione slapped Ron's face hard, and finally her boyfriend came to. She decided against reminding him of precisely why he'd fainted, and instead dragged him by the wrist to McGonagall's classroom, a sack full of squirming rats clutched in her hand.

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Harry and Draco walked sluggishly back to the castle, Draco toting the backpack that held the mugworm. They hadn't spoken since Harry returned from his little confessionary with Hermione.

This wasn't a comfortable silence, and they both knew it.

"Harry, this is a fucking disaster. What do you think it will do for my reputation if everyone finds out that I've been shagging my 'arch nemesis'?"

"You aren't my arch nemesis. Voldemort is."

"God, Harry, I'm trying to have a fucking conversation with you."

"Sorry."

"Anyway, knowing Weasley, it won't take long for this to get out to his family, and then undoubtedly to the rest of the school. This was a fucking mistake. I knew it." Draco ran a pale hand through his hair, exhaling loudly.

"No, no, Draco, please... we can work it out..." Harry's voice faded as he realized the futility of his efforts. He knew Draco because he knew himself; and he knew that both of them were incredibly stubborn.

The remaining distance passed in a sad, pensive silence, Harry fruitlessly searching for reasons to avoid the breakup and Draco fruitlessly searching for excuses as to why he and Harry were not only dirty, but sported noticeable hickeys.

Snape greeted them with his usual enthusiasm, snatching the jar from Draco and shooing them off with his hands. Draco turned towards the Slytherin dungeon while Harry continued climbing those tortuous stairs. He sent one last glance towards Draco, their eyes connecting and full of regret for a fleeting moment before Draco's froze over into the expression Harry was too familiar with.

"Later, Potter," spat Draco, sadness roughening his voice as tears threatened to fall. He swallowed the sobs, the saline too close to his cheekbone(1), and managed to bring back up his pride, his family image, and a familiar hatred for Harry.

Harry rushed up the stairs, his face threatening to give his mental state away. He rubbed an arm covered in scratchy wool over his eyes.

Back in the dungeon, Severus Snape was still trying to digest the red marks on the boys' necks, the two hours they'd unnecessarily taken to get the stupid worm, and his dinner, the latter being mutually exclusive with the first.

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As Harry trudged into the common room, he noted dimly that everyone was at dinner. He simply continued up to his bed and buried his face in a soft pillow. He didn't have any appetite anyway.

Several hours later, he awoke to Ron's furious screaming echoing from the common room, and Hermione's fruitless efforts to silence her boyfriend.

He didn't move. He didn't move until he was sure he could keep a straight face, and even then it was only to go to the bathroom.

Later that night, Ron only looked at him in vague, mixed fascination and disgust, torn between concern for his heartbroken best friend and disdain for the behaviors Harry had chosen.

Hermione snuck out to the library in the middle of the night, searching through old remedies, finally happening upon the recipe she was looking for in a book of cures for menstrual ailments. She heaved a deep breath as she read the title: "TERMINATING PREGNANCY."

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(1) lyric mostly stolen from Something Corporate - Down. Very good song. nods

Well that's the end of that chapter... kicks self what has it been, 3 years? I doubt anyone remembers this story.
R/R please.
EW (same initials as Endless Waltz... i.e. Gundam Wing? Coincidence? I think not! runs off to play matchmaker with 1, 2, 3, and 4... of course not all at the same time)