A/N See the Voice of Alexian review for replies to last chapter's reviews.

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Beta by Kristine Thorne

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Chapter Summary – Ron and Draco wake up on the sofa together, how will their day progress from there?

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Chapter Thirty Six – Home Alone Day Three

When Ron woke up the next morning daylight was already streaming in through the window and it made him squint in discomfort. He wasn't even sure that it was still morning but it made him feel better to think so. His head hurt a bit and his mouth was dry with smoke and too much Indian takeaway and he had a bit of a bad head, although despite this he felt quite happy. He felt almost like a normal young man and didn't feel as restricted as he often did even with Harry for a companion instead of Hermione.

Ron tried to struggle into a sitting position and take a stretch before he tackled ordering the coffee. It was then that he remembered about the thing that he should not have forgotten about, there were four feet under the duvet and two of them definitely weren't his.

Ron peered over the duvet and found Draco curled up under the other half of the covers peacefully and soundly asleep. He lay with one hand underneath his head, with his blond hair tousled around him; only a thumb in his mouth would have completed the almost angelic scene. Angelic?! Ron shook his head briskly and then wished that he hadn't.

He should get up, Ron thought, he had no idea what Draco was going to think of their arrangement in the daylight and he really needed some coffee. He needed a sympathetic and non-judgemental healer too but Hogwarts didn't have one of those. He imagined hands on his head; the fingertips gently massaging his scalp and sending warmth and healing through his skull and into his brain, melting the headache away and making him feel bright and fresh again.

"You awake?" A voice close to Ron asked sleepily, he hadn't realised that he had closed his eyes.

Ron instantly felt a bit nervous, it wasn't as if they had ended up lying side by side or anything but their current relative positions might be interpreted as unusual.

"Yes," Ron answered opening his eyes to look at Draco.

Draco hadn't moved, he had merely woken up and stayed curled up on the sofa, he seemed happy enough.

"I was just going to order coffee," Ron added.

"I'll have one," Draco said going into a stretch, which reminded Ron of the animagus pet cat idea, he smiled to himself.

"How's your head?" He asked Draco.

"About twice as big and twice as heavy as it should be," Draco answered, "You?"

"Same," Ron admitted, "I could make it go away," He offered.

Draco looked at Ron warily, "Have you done it before?" He asked.

"No," Ron had to admit, "But I've taken away sickness and puffy eyes and I've got a book."

"You've got a book!? Let me decide whether it's bad enough to risk it."

Ron reached down for his Psychic Healing textbook and had a flick through it, "It's one of the very simplest ones to do, I won't harm you."

"You're really into this aren't you? I had better get a warning printed in The Daily Prophet."

"Fine, keep your headache," Ron said huffily.

"I'll let you as long as you let me try it on you," Draco suggested.

"How daft do I look?" Ron responded thus demonstrating how much trust he had in the young man.

"You don't really want me to answer that," Draco answered, "Oh, go on, I promise I won't do anything weird to you on purpose."

Ron was swayed by how keen he was to practise and learn, "Fine, but I go first."

"Whatever."

Ron hesitated.

"Come on," Draco prompted, "Before my head explodes."

Ron knelt on the floor beside Draco and he had to be credited with making it easier on him by closing his eyes and resting back with his head on the cushion he had used while sleeping. Ron reached over and wriggled his fingers through Draco's hair till they were touching his scalp.

Ron had already read the relevant chapter several times and it had been one of the things he had wanted to try but it was so weird to be doing it to Draco of all people. With his hands on Draco's scalp one of his arms was consequently lightly resting on Draco's chest, he could feel the rise and fall as he breathed in and out beneath him. Ron took a deep breath and began to transmit the warmth and healing before he succeeded in losing his nerve completely. Gradually it was as if Draco was melting in his hands as the ache eased away, Ron presumed that he mustn't be doing too badly.

"Hmm," Draco said eventually as if disappointed, "That wasn't bad, you next."

Glad to have robbed Draco out of criticizing him he sat with his back to the sofa and read out the instructions to him from his textbook.

Draco's hands were suddenly on Ron's head, he was surprised, he at least expected Draco let him finish reading the passage out of the book first. He was about to think about protesting and shaking Draco off till he was ready when the warmth started. Ron had never performed this kind of healing before and he had never had a reason to receive it either, the only times that he had a headache had been when there was nobody sympathetic or skilled enough to offer it.

Draco wasn't skilled but he was one of the few people who had the nerve to have a go anyway. Or so Ron initially thought, Draco's fingers moved over his scalp and the headache was soon a distant memory, the soothing feeling was indescribable, Ron didn't want it to stop. The headache had been banished away so quickly and yet the healing went on, the feelings flooded his brain and he did not have anything he had ever experienced before to compare it with.

"Wow!" Ron said without thinking as soon as Draco's hands released him and he began to come back to his senses, feeling more refreshed than he had ever felt from a night's sleep.

Draco grinned, "Well one of us paid attention in class, I covered all this last year but you wouldn't know that because you weren't there because your OWL potions grade wasn't high enough," He pointed out.

Ron scowled and tried to hold onto the pleasant feeling that he had had in his head until a sober Draco had begun to talk, "I did it without any of Severus' help though," He responded, "What was that other thing anyway?"

"What other thing? Where's this coffee then?" Draco chose to demand rather than acknowledge that Ron have at least been his equal.

Ron smiled to himself and went to the fire to get their coffee.

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Draco and Ron managed to spend the afternoon playing chess again and the hours passed quite pleasantly. Between the two of them they managed to complete the crossword in the Daily Prophet and after a few drinks they fell asleep for a while lying on a sofa each.

Ron ordered from the takeaway again, a selection of curries including a vindaloo, Ron wanted to up the stakes and see how much Draco could take. The empty cartons still lay around the sofas from the night before and the ashtrays on the coffee table were full of ash but Ron knew that he had plenty of time to tidy up since Harry had said that they would be gone for four days at least, unless he called them back earlier.

Ron knew that Severus was bound to be impressed with him, he was determined that he wasn't going to call them back at all and he was getting on well enough with Draco to assume that there would now be no more trouble on that front either.

There was still the problem regarding Severus' healing instructions though and by the late afternoon Draco had decided to ignore them completely and have a walk around the living room while they were waiting for their evening meal to arrive. Ron had found that at some point while he was taking a bath, Draco had been through to the bedroom and retrieved the crutch. Ron hoped that after everything Draco wasn't just doing it to get him into trouble.

"If Severus said that you had to stay in bed you could at least just stay sat on the sofa," Ron tried to insist.

"He said that I should try to walk to build my strength up," Draco argued.

"He said that before the latest blackout," Ron countered using Draco's word for the event, since he appeared to be unaware of what actually happened during a seizure and Ron didn't want to be the one to tell him, "His last instructions were to stay in bed."

"Did he say why? I can manage," Draco insisted.

"No, he didn't say," Ron had to admit.

Draco shrugged and continued to walk, "Don't you get bored being stuck in here all day?" He asked, "Don't you want to go find Hermione or something? Don't you want to go for a walk, just along the corridors maybe?"

"No, I don't." Ron replied snappily.

"We've never been friends but you're talking to me and you're not talking to Hermione," Draco observed.

"That's right," Ron snapped.

"She must be nearly due."

"More than a month to go," Ron replied.

"I never thought you lot wouldn't stick together, not Harry obviously, but you and Hermione," Draco continued.

"Why not Harry?"

"You'll never be friends with Harry again, not properly, not now that he has become Kin with Severus," Draco asserted.

"What do you know about anything?" Ron snapped, "I am friends with Harry."

"Are you? What happened the other day? I annoyed Harry, you defended him and agreed to deal with me and Harry ran upstairs," Draco continued.

"So?"

"Severus found out and we were left without a home."

"What exactly is your point?"

"What happened to Harry?" Draco asked.

Ron suddenly felt very glum and was reluctant to admit that Draco had a point, "He got a present."

"Exactly," Draco replied, to his credit he refrained from looking smug about it.

"It was fine here before... Harry did manage to persuade Severus to let us stay after all, he is my friend."

"Before I turned up? Do you like being Harry and Severus' pet until they have two babies to look after instead? Because I don't."

"It's not like that," Ron tried to insist but he was feeling decidedly low in spirits. He wondered what would happen to his living arrangements once the babies were due and he could see very well that neither he nor Draco fitted very well into the picture at all. Even before that, Ron knew, he was supposed to have a job as head of House for the students which would require that he lived closer to the 'action' as it were.

At that point their dinner arrived with the apparating owl service and the room began to fill with the smell of Muggle curry and pilau rice. The discussion was forgotten for a while as Draco came to sit down on the sofa for his dinner. Ron laid all the dishes out on the coffee table and got them some plates.

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Unfortunately for Ron when Draco had finished his dinner he got back up and began to pace around the room again. With one leg probably being slightly shorter after being badly broken, and the curse making the other leg drag slightly, it was more like a limping hobble than an actual 'pace', but Ron could still see his own life ebbing away with every step. Ron knew that he had to stop Draco soon or Severus was going to have an excuse to kill him after all.

"Why don't we play another game of chess?" Ron suggested, "Or we could have a drink or a smoke."

"I don't want to play any more chess," Draco protested, "I want to go somewhere, in any case walking around seems to be helping, I feel better than I did before."

"How about a book? You could get a book," Ron continued trying to persuade. It was all right for Draco, Ron thought, if anything happened to him it wouldn't be his neck on the line.

"A book?!" Draco responded, "I never thought I would hear a recommendation like that coming from you!"

"Well don't get a book then, just come over here and sit down," Ron persisted.

"What's up there?" Draco asked pointing up the stone staircase, which led to the attic.

"It's just the attic," Ron replied.

"What is up there?" Draco persisted.

"Nothing, I don't think," Ron replied.

"Nothing? There has to be something or why bother building it," Draco continued to argue.

"Don't you dare go up there," Ron warned.

Draco grinned, "Oh come on, come with me, then you can make sure that nothing happens."

Ron knew that he wasn't going to be able to dissuade Draco and so he had no choice but to agree. Draco went up first holding onto the banister with one hand and using the crutch with the other. Ron followed using the walker and when he got to the top he was a bit pleased to find that Draco was a little out of breath.

Draco looked around the attic, there really wasn't much there. Ron had known this, Harry and Severus had some future uses for the room planned but they hadn't done anything with it yet. Draco looked understandably disappointed but he didn't say anything, he just turned to go down the stairs again.

Ron went down the stairs in front of him, knowing that Draco would follow, as he descended he felt a hand rest on the posterior edge of the walker as Draco used it help himself get down the stairs too. When they reached the bottom Draco didn't let go of the walker and Ron had to assume that he was feeling a bit tired. Ron began to make his way over to the sofa so that they could both have a sit down, he was rather glad that it hadn't taken much to wear Draco out.

"Ron?" Draco said before they had got half way across the room.

Ron turned immediately trying his best not to turn the walker as well, he recognised the tone in Draco's voice. He was intending to have a go at Draco till he saw the look on his face. He had gone pale and looked a little dazed as if he was finding it difficult to focus.

"Lower down onto the floor before you fall," Ron said firmly beginning to lower himself down as well so that the walker would come down too.

They both got down onto their knees before Draco fell into Ron's arms. Ron struggled with the weight of Draco in an unconscious state but managed to get him lying down. Unfortunately for Ron he had ended up lying down too and was pinned down with Draco on top of him.

"You bloody idiot," Ron chastised the unconscious Slytherin.

Ron was considering moving Draco onto his back when the seizure began to make its presence felt and he found that he was reluctant to do anything with him in that state. The tremors gripped his body and Ron just held him, using one hand to brush his hair away from his face.

It went on for longer this time, Ron was sure of it, maybe it seemed longer because he was very much on his own, he tried to convince himself because he didn't want it to be worse. He managed to forget about the vomiting until it was too late and they'd just been having curry. Ron knew he should have found it repulsive but he was far too concerned about everything else, he felt the warmth spreading over his chest and felt it trickling down onto the floor, he recognised the smell but he did nothing more than wrinkle his nose. The tremors continued and Ron had to consider calling Severus back after all, if he could get out from underneath Draco that was.

Ron knew what Severus had done the last time though and he could do all those things well enough, he found that he felt quite determined to see this responsibility through no matter what. He was worried though, the only thing he couldn't do was use the medicloak or levitate Draco very far and he couldn't stay on the floor. Ron continued to hold onto Draco as the tremors still continued and he found himself rubbing circles on the young man's back with his hand, uncertain as to what good it could do. Ron had a feeling that he was doing it to try and calm himself more than anything.

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Hermione sat in the potion's classroom office reading over a particularly fascinating potions text, which for some reason she wasn't finding particularly fascinating. Her back ached and she felt like a beached whale, although she would have found the strength within herself to kill anybody else who made that observation. The baby had been making his presence known and it would appear that he was already in training to take over as the next Gryffindor beater and was practising day and night. Although considering his parentage, Hermione thought, perhaps labelling him as a future Gryffindor was being a little too optimistic.

Hermione's eyes glanced over to the map that lay spread out on her desk and she frowned at it, Ron was still up in the Headmaster's quarters. When she had heard that Harry and Severus were going away for a few days she had been certain that it wouldn't be long before Ron came wandering over to Gryffindor. She had been wrong of course; he had remained with Draco of all people.

On the first day she had observed that Draco remained in bed and she had assumed that Ron must have had to look after him, that had amused her quite a lot. But then after that first day they had both been moving around the living room and that was obviously not the case anymore. She was very annoyed and not just a little bit upset, Ron would rather be with Draco now? She could not bear to believe it.

Hermione glanced at her map again and then looked more closely. Ron and Draco were yet again together in the living room but they were not on one of the sofas. From the position of the feet they appeared to be standing in the middle of the room and very close together at that. Hermione kept on watching and they didn't move, she kept watching for some time and still they didn't move.

Hermione pulled herself to her feet and folded the map up with irritation. She still had the password to the Headmaster's quarters and whatever Draco and Ron were up to they were soon going to be receiving a surprise guest.

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When the tremors ceased Ron lay still with Draco held in his arms, uncertain as to what point he should attempt to move him. He needed to get some potions for when he became able to swallow them but knew also that the uncontrolled jarring to his body would cause the pain to increase. Ron sensed the pain levels again through the hand laid on Draco's back and found that they were increasing already anyway.

Ron heard the door through to the office open and looked up. He was surprised to see Hermione standing in the doorway looking bigger than he remembered but then he was looking at her from an unusual angle. He was not as surprised as Hermione appeared to be, staring back at him lying on the floor with Draco sprawled out on top of him.

"This isn't exactly as it looks," Ron managed to say but he wasn't sure why he should be concerned with what Hermione thought.

"I should hope not," Hermione replied coming into the room without waiting for an invite, she looked around the room with obvious disapproval at what she saw, "What are you doing exactly?"

"Draco has seizures and he fell on me, I need to turn him over onto his back but I'm a bit stuck, you couldn't help could you?" Ron asked.

Hermione didn't really look like she wanted to help at all, "The sight of you pinned to the floor is quite amusing actually."

"Hermione, please," Ron persisted hardly believing that he was actually pleading, "He's ill, he can't stay like this, I have to get the potions."

Hermione came nearer; she took out her wand and began to levitate Draco. Ron knew better than to interrupt her, and as he felt the weight lift off him he wriggled out from underneath Draco and then turned him over while he was still being held up off the floor.

Hermione lowered Draco gently down onto the floor but then seemed to be experiencing discomfort and began to rub her enlarged belly with her hand.

Ron was horrified, "That isn't what I think it is, is it?" He asked.

Hermione looked at him, her expression changing to irritation, "I'm not in labour if that's what you mean," She snapped, "He's kicking me, I can't keep my concentration long enough to levitate Draco into bed, not till this little monster goes to sleep anyway."

"He'll be fine on the sofa, can you manage that?" Ron asked, not really wanting to talk about the baby.

"Yes, I can manage that," Hermione snapped.

Ron told Hermione which potions he needed and she went to get those. Then Ron went to get the padded mattress and other bedding things from the bedroom while Hermione kept an eye on Draco.

Ron was keen to get Draco more comfortable before he woke up and Hermione managed to levitate him onto the mattress successfully once they had got the temporary bed made up. He pulled the blankets up to Draco's chin and then laid out the potions in order on the coffee table.

They waited in silence until Ron noticed Draco make a small movement of his head indicating that he was coming around enough to take the potions. Ron lifted Draco's head a bit and told him to drink. He was surprised when Hermione came closer and began to hand him the potions one by one. When all the potions had been administered Ron lay Draco down again and took his hand, he sensed until the pain levels reduced significantly and Draco fell asleep again.

Ron could tell that Hermione was watching him and he suddenly thought about something, "Why did you come up here?" He asked.

Hermione shrugged, "Cup of tea, cup of coffee."

Ron doubted that it was really true, but it didn't matter to him, "Want a cup of tea now?" He asked, "You shouldn't be having coffee."

"Fine," Hermione agreed not too unpleasantly, "But not until you get rid of THAT."

Ron looked down at himself and realised what Hermione meant, he pulled his jumper and shirt off and threw them out of the way. Hermione then used a cleaning charm to clean the small area of carpet that had been messed up and Draco.

She didn't automatically do it for Ron too and he wasn't about to ask. He decided that he would probably have another bath later anyway.

Ron got himself a coffee and a tea for Hermione. Because of Draco they had to sit on the same sofa together but Hermione respectfully sat at one end when Ron sat down at the other. They turned towards each other but it wasn't a warm and easy arrangement.

"Draco's looking better than he did the last time I saw him, he's put on quite a bit of weight," Hermione began.

"Severus has made him a potion but it doesn't work as well as we hoped it would. The curse has Lucius's character running right through it, as soon as he seems to be getting better it makes a fight for him, he has had two seizures so far, both occurring as soon as he tackles stairs. When he was lying in bed he had none."

"He didn't break anything did he? Did you check?" Hermione said bossily.

Ron briefly contemplated that it hadn't taken her long before she began to order him around again, "I broke his fall rather successfully."

"Yes, I quite imagine that you did," Hermione replied with a smile, looking pointedly at his overweight body.

"Can you send me some more pain potion up from the hospital wing if you happen to be passing?" Ron said instead of responding to Hermione's extremely cheap shot at him.

Ron finished his coffee and Hermione finished her tea. Although it had been a lot more civil an experience than Ron had expected it to be, still had fallen far short of fun.

Hermione soon announced that she was going and Ron felt quite happy about it, despite the fact that he was going to be on his own with Draco again. If he needed anything he might now be in a position to ask Hermione for it through the fire, but he didn't feel particularly inclined to have her hanging around.

When Hermione had gone Ron returned to Draco's side. Kneeling down on the floor he took Draco's hand and began to sense the pain levels again, they were already on their way back up.

Ron went through to the potions room and brought back the entire pain potion stock, he didn't want to have to keep going backwards and forwards. He would need to administer another dose soon and if the frequency was going to be the same for a while then it was going to be a very long night.

Once he had the potions lined up on the coffee table Ron also ordered a very large mug of coffee.

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Draco woke every two hours, though it was hardly waking in the proper sense. When the pain levels increased to a certain point he would begin to stir and mumble incoherently and become aware enough to be told to swallow a potion. Once he began to feel more comfortable again he fell back into oblivion.

Ron had to stay awake the whole time; with a two-hour interval he couldn't even nap for a while in case he was needed sooner. The coffee only helped a bit and as the night wore on he found he was using the walker a lot, wandering around the room just to keep going. When he wasn't doing that he would return to Draco's side and hold his hand, knowing that he couldn't really do anything else more useful.

After a number of hours Ron was surprised to see a house elf appear in the room with a small box. Ron took the box and when the house elf had disappeared again he opened it. It was a potions box and inside were two neat rows of pain potion phials. Inside was a small piece of parchment, a note from Hermione. Ron smiled at the message, 'couldn't sleep, so this batch is fresh –Hermione', it was probably true that she couldn't sleep but it was still the sweetest thing she had done for him in a long time.

Ron returned to Draco's side and the smile faded from his face as the concern returned. Even though Ron knew that his perception of time couldn't have been accurate he was still sure that the latest attack had lasted much longer than the first one. He had to wonder if a curse that acted on the nervous system as this one did, might not restrict itself to affecting movement but might begin to attack other functions too.

Ron made the decision right there, when Severus and Harry returned he was going to carry on with the duties that he had been performing over the past few days. He was going to give Severus all the time that he needed to come up with a more effective potion for Draco. He went to the desk and got a piece of parchment on which to write a note to Hermione. He began by thanking her very graciously for the potions and then asked that, if she found that she couldn't sleep again, she wouldn't mind researching the subject of nerve regeneration. He then posted the note to her through the fire, sending it to the potions office so that she would find it in the morning and not spend the rest of the current night in the library.

Eventually as the sun began to rise again Draco began to waken and he seemed to be a bit more coherent. It had been three hours since the last potion this time and Ron could only hope that their ordeal was coming to a conclusion. Ron got Draco to drink another pain potion and then he watched him fall asleep again.

Ron sat by Draco's side on the floor; he reached a hand up and stroked the long blonde hair away from his face. Ron had had to lift his head to drink the potion and in the process of slipping his hand out from beneath Draco's head as he finished he had messed his hair up. Ron was amazed by how soft Draco's hair was when it wasn't slicked back like it had been when they were both at school. Maybe that had been why the Slytherin had slicked it back, soft fluffy hair was not something a wizard had when they were trying to be tough and live up to family expectations of Death Eater allegiances. Ron continued to run his fingers through Draco's hair savouring the feeling of it over and over.

Ron didn't see the corner of Draco's mouth twitch a little in a strongly suppressed smile, "Hey Weasel," He said suddenly surprising Ron, "I'm not your pet cat yet you know."

Draco opened his eyes and looked sleepily up at Ron.

Ron pulled his hand away and panicked over how he was going to reply, "I thought that you were asleep," Ron quickly mumbled.

"Evidently," Draco replied but without his usual venom.

Draco was still tired and ill, he still looked pale, but Ron rather thought that wasn't why he hadn't been annoyed by the incident, or was it just wishful thinking. His wishful thinking was also making him believe that Draco was amused, "I was worried," Ron mumbled on, unable to stop himself from digging his hole deeper rather than clambering out of it.

"About me? I am touched," Draco continued.

Ron noticed that the words were not drenched in sarcasm like they should have been, maybe it was just that he was too tired after all, "Yeah," He replied, "Well, Severus would have killed me if you'd been hurt."

Draco closed his eyes again, "I suppose he would, but it was just a blackout."

"And you've never fallen down the stairs during one of those have you?" Ron chastised lightly.

Ron waited a lot longer before he took Draco's hand again to check the pain levels. Draco was definitely asleep when he at last did it and the pain potion seemed to be holding up nicely, the levels had hardly increased at all. Ron actually thought that he could risk getting some sleep if he waited a little while longer to make sure that everything would be all right.

Ron crawled through to Draco's bedroom and returned with some more blankets, he laid them over the sleeping young man, making sure that his arms were underneath, so that he wouldn't get cold. He pulled his own duvet over onto the other sofa and prepared to crawl underneath it.

The sun was making the sky glow in rich colours on the horizon, Ron knew that he had to get to sleep before it became too light or he might never get any rest for a while. He crawled under the duvet after he had removed his pants and then he buried his head underneath it to keep out most of the light, with Draco so close he was sure that he would now be able to wake him with just a shout.

Ron was asleep almost as soon as his head hit the pillow.

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TBC Soon

Chapter Thirty-Seven – Harry and Sev return home with Will, but what will they find and what have they done with the things in the freezer?