Penname: Page of Cups
Email: AndromedanPrincess@hotmail.com
Title: Everything Changes
Pairing: Ron Weasley/Draco Malfoy
Rating: R
Summary: Draco watches Ron during Potions class.
Thanks to everyone who read and/or reviewed. Thanks to those who read and don't review. Just . . . thanks.
Disclaimer in first two chapters. If you don't yet know this is boy on boy love, then it's your own fault if you experience emotional scarring, or come upon something traumatic.
Chapter Three: Aphrodisiac
Dropping his bag on a desk in the front of the room, Draco sat down and leaned back into his chair. Checking his wristwatch, he smirked and counted down the seconds until Snape billowed to the front of the room and began to take roll. Thirty seconds later, the door to the Potions class flew open to reveal Potter and Weasley, both out of breath, bursting into the room. If Draco weren't so sure that Harry was straight, he would have thought of some nasty comment to make regarding their disheveled states and late arrival. Snape sneered at them, said something about Potter thinking he was above Hogwarts rules, and took thirty points away from Gryffindor all before starting the lesson. To Draco, this had to be the best beginning of any class in a long time.
"Peeves," he heard Ron hiss, probably to the jumped up Mudblood, Granger. Draco nodded. He knew. Peeves had Draco's promise for a word of good standing with the Bloody Baron so long as he ensured Potter and Weasley would be late to class. Not his best work but seeing Gryffindor lose points was always good fun.
"Today we'll be working on the Rapports Excite Potion," said Snape, sounding like he wanted to be anywhere but in this class. "Can anyone tell me what this potion is for?"
Frowning at Snape, Draco went over the curriculum in his head for this year. Nowhere did this potion click into place. Granger, however, seemed to know as she, very slowly, raised her hand. Snape, sneering, called on her and she tinted pink as she looked around the classroom.
"It's used as a sexual stimulant," she said, quickly and quietly so that Draco barely caught her words.
"Wait," said that Irish wanker, Finnigan, "we're making an aphrodisiac?" Granger turned even pinker. "Cool."
"Professor Dumbledore," said Snape, cutting them off, "has insisted that you learn how to make this potion. It's a new advancement and, for some reason that I am not aware of, has been added to your curriculum. It will be immediately followed by a birth control potion. I don't choose the potions; I only make you learn them."
Draco sniggered, hiding his face behind his hand and not wanting to upset his Head of House. This was too funny, seventh years learning to make an aphrodisiac potion only to be followed by a birth control potion. It was times like this that Draco wondered just what exactly Dumbledore was smoking and made him wish that the headmaster would spread the wealth. It was times like this that made Lucius Malfoy breathe deeply, shake his head, and insist that if he were still a school governor, the man wouldn't be working there next year. In the back of his mind, Draco thought it would be very funny if Neville Longbottom managed to make this potion correctly.
"I am putting you into pairs," said Snape. "Same sex, pairs, Mr. Finnigan, so don't get that idea into your head. The list of ingredients is on the board. Miss Parkinson will be around with the instructions."
As Pansy came up to retrieve the stack of parchments, Snape informed her that she would be paired with Granger. Draco would feel sympathy for her if he liked Pansy at all but he had a bit of a grudge against her since the fourth year when she tried to feel him up during the Yule Ball. Draco got around but he preferred the male end of the spectrum. It hadn't really surprised him when it happened, either. When he found himself coveting Weasley, however; that was a different pursuit.
"Mr. Malfoy, I trust you are still with us?" said Snape, causing Draco's head to snap up. He scowled at his professor before remembering what a stupid thing that is to do around Snape. Had he just kept his inbred Malfoy tendencies to himself, he would have probably gotten off with working with Crabbe or Goyle, but the scowl seemed to infuriate Snape. "Mr. Malfoy, I think you'll be working with Mr. Weasley."
Why today of all days? Any other day Snape would have stuck him with Potter, thinking it was the ultimate punishment, but Draco's frequent fights with Weasley lately were causing him to be his partner in a lot of classes. Everyone from Snape to McGonagall seemed to think they needed to work together. He supposed the headmaster was behind the whole charade, chuckling at his misery and eating some foolish, muggle sweet.
"I'm no happier about this than you are, Malfoy," said Weasley, noticing Draco's scowl as he sat down beside him. "Do you think I'd actually want to make an aphrodisiac with you? I just hope Snape doesn't decide to test it."
Draco couldn't help but hope that Snape would do just that.
Weasley took the parchment from Pansy and went up to collect their ingredients. Draco watched him as he moved, his perfect body moving in those imperfect robes. Part of Draco often thought this was treason, putting a specimen like Weasley in tattered rags that only the poorest of the poor could call robes. Everything about Weasley was tempting from his hair to his freckles to the pale ankles that were just barely visible beneath his too small robes.
Returning, Weasley and Draco set about to start the potion, a project that was going to take close to a month to finish. Had he been more coherent to the potion, Draco would have thought this was not the easiest way to go about acquiring an aphrodisiac. Instead of focusing on the lesson, Draco's eyes were fixed on Weasley's pale, freckled wrists and his long, slender fingers, moving with grace as they worked on the potion. Draco was willing to bet Weasley played the piano, and if he didn't, he really should.
"Are you going to help me with this or not, Malfoy?" said Weasley, glaring at him.
"I think you're doing just fine on your own."
"I'm not doing this all by myself, Malfoy."
"But you play the part of my servant so well."
"I'm not your servant," seethed Weasley. "This is every bit as much my potion as it is yours."
"Perhaps we should look into joint custody when the assignment is over," drawled Draco, smirking. Weasley scowled at him and went back to stirring the potion.
Standing, Draco stood by Weasley and reached across him for the parchment, brushing his fingers across Weasley's and letting them linger a little longer than they should have. Snatching the parchment, Draco looked it over without really seeing it. Best to do the seduction slow, he thought. If he was determined to have Weasley, the hardest task would be not to scare him off too early.
"What do I have to add next?" asked Weasley, glancing at the parchment in Draco's hands.
Instead of answering, Draco decided to lean over Weasley again to retrieve the spiders. He knew Weasley didn't like them, anyway, which was really rather cute and made him all the more attractive. Making sure to allow his breath to ghost over Weasley's neck, Draco pulled back with the ingredients and added the spiders. A smirk spread over his lips. Weasley's breath had certainly hitched at that.
"I could have done that," said Weasley, sounding annoyed. Draco bet it had more to do with his seduction tactics than the fact he added the spiders first.
"But you wanted me to help with the Potion so badly," said Draco. "I'm complying with your request. Make up your bloody mind, Weasley."
"If you want to add the ingredients, you can ask for them instead of leaning over me like that. It's rude and uncomfortable."
"I wouldn't ask you for water if I were dying of thirst," said Draco, smirking. "Your family probably couldn't afford to give it to me anyway."
"Malfoy, do you realize we aren't thirteen anymore?" said Weasley, frowning.
"Excuse me?"
"Do you realize we aren't thirteen anymore? Sometimes I don't think that you do. You keep going on and on, fighting with me like we're third year kids. We're practically adults now and all you can do is fight a child's fight." Weasley gave off a heavy sigh that sounded mildly irritated. "I don't want to do this anymore, Malfoy."
"Who put a bright idea like that in your head, Weasley? Was it Granger? I doubt you could come up with such a concept on you own and that's rich coming from you. Wasn't it just last week you told me my family all belonged in Azkaban before trying to rip my throat out?"
"You deserved it," mumbled Weasley.
"That was a very adult comment of you, Weasley," said Draco, dryly. "I can't keep up with you anymore. You're far too mature for me." Rolling his eyes, Draco returned the spiders to where they had been sitting, focusing on the lingering contact once again. He could feel the tension building in Weasley and if only he could force it in a direction of lust rather than anger . . . Draco could feel his entire body shudder at the thought.
Weasley was now stirring the potion and Draco sat back down in his chair, staring up at Weasley and watching him work. It was some time in the sixth year, probably in September, when he started to fancy Weasley. He had grown over the summer and turned up at Hogwarts looking more like a man than the boy who had left at the end of fifth year. His hair had gotten darker to that deep, coppery color Draco loved, and it made his blue eyes seem that much brighter. The freckles on his body were the first detail Draco noticed after taking in the entire package. He found himself with the urge to taste every single freckle on that body, wondering where they all went and wanting to know them all.
The thoughts had instantly disgusted Draco. It wasn't a problem with his sexuality. Draco had figured that out when he didn't want Pansy's hands all over him at the Yule Ball. His parents already knew and Draco received a severe beating for it from Lucius but there had been nothing more to it. It wasn't the sexual thoughts, either. Draco was accustomed to sex. He lost his virginity at fourteen and his first boyfriend had been a Slytherin two years ahead of him, a seventh year when Draco was in fifth. That had also been his last boyfriend. He found relationships unfulfilling and soon was only in it for the sex, the lust, and the release.
The real problem Draco had dealing with this sudden arousal at the sight of Weasley was just that. It was Weasley. He tried to get away from it but it kept coming back to Weasley. Everything came back to Weasley. For a year now, Draco had been turning around his intentions, getting Weasley angry on the sole fact that it got him off. If he wasn't shagging Weasley, he was going to piss him off time and time again. Certain subjects, like his financial standing, got to Weasley more than others, and those were the ones he tried to focus on. When he was shagging someone, he was usually thinking of Weasley, and was thankful that he had only slipped once by calling Weasley's name mid-orgasm. The Ravenclaw, who was also screaming, thankfully hadn't heard.
It inevitably all came down to one thing, and that preyed on his mind as Draco watched Weasley stirring their potion, his face set in concentration. He just had to have Weasley. After analyzing this strange turn of what had to be displaced emotions, he came to the conclusion that it was pure lust driving him to this. Weasley was so pure, so untainted, that all he had probably ever done was kiss. There were times when Draco thought that you didn't want to shag senseless people that you despise. A nagging voice kept telling him there was a fine line between hate and - not love - but something. Lust, maybe. Draco was incapable of love. He knew he was treading that line dangerously but it was only lust. It was a desire to steal Weasley's innocence, to break him and make him hurt. It was only sex and it was nothing beyond that, but for all that is good, he did want Weasley beneath him.
"What's next, Malfoy?" said Weasley, discontinuing the stirring and breaking Draco's nasty thoughts.
Crossing his legs and trying to think of unsexy thoughts like Potter, Draco looked over the parchment. "We let it sit for ten minutes and then we have to stir it twenty times counterclockwise. After that, we're done for today. It has to sit until the next class."
"Okay," said Weasley. Going to sit, Draco smirked as he kicked Weasley's chair away and causing the gorgeous object of his indiscretion to land on the floor in a heap. "Grow up, Malfoy," seethed Weasley, standing up and grabbing his chair.
"But Weasley, what ever would you do without me?" said Draco, pinching the back of Weasley's knee as he readjusted his chair. Weasley gave a small yelp and Draco raised his eyebrows, appreciating the way Weasley's arse seemed to involuntarily clench upon feeling the sharp sting.
"What did you just do?" demanded Weasley, holding on to his chair and sitting down before he could be assaulted again.
"I thought I saw something on your robes but it was just a worn spot. I should have known. They must be older than you are," observed Draco with a smirk.
Scowling, Weasley said, "Are you going to do anything other than torment me? Something useful, that is? Like helping with the potion?"
"I am doing something useful. I'm keeping you in line. And I don't need to work on the potion, thanks. I'm not the kind of person who needs an aphrodisiac to get my lovers turned on."
Weasley turned the deepest shade of red that Draco had possibly ever seen him turn, his attention wavering away from Draco and glancing over to where Granger and Pansy looked ready to kill each other. Softly chuckling at his embarrassment, Draco laid a hand on Weasley's forearm.
"I'm sorry, Weasley. Haven't you ever heard of sex?"
"I know what sex is," said Weasley, sharply.
"You're such a picture of innocence, aren't you?"
"Sod off, Malfoy."
Draco nodded, still snickering. Weasley had better be innocent. Draco was counting on it. He wanted it to be hard, rough, and he wanted Weasley begging and coming and screaming for more. Shifting in hair chair, Draco tried to mentally will away the tightening he could feel coming into his groin. Damning Snape for setting them up as partners, Draco read over the parchment and tried to concentrate on the ingredients. Running over alternate names and uses, Draco started going down the list. He hated the effect that someone like Weasley, poor and pathetic, could have on his body.
~*~
Glancing over at Malfoy, Ron saw that he was staring at their instructions, apparently very engrossed in them for someone who had been such a sodding prat only moments ago. Malfoy never ceased to confuse Ron, though Harry would jokingly say that everyone confused Ron. One minute he was the purest incarnate of evil, scowling or glaring menacingly, and saying something nasty about his family. The next moment, Malfoy was smirking, still throwing out insults but in more of a way that Fred and George insulted him. Sometimes he expected Malfoy to clobber him over the head with a large, stuffed animal and call him Ronniekins. Then, and this was more recently, there were things like the arched eyebrow and Draco's eyes scanning his body. Ways that Seamus often said looked like Malfoy was checking him out. Ron squirmed at the thought and snuck a peek at Malfoy.
Meeting gray eyes, Ron tried to look away but found that he couldn't. This was a prime example. Why was Malfoy staring at him like that? This wasn't the first time that Ron had caught Malfoy staring at him and no matter how hard he tried to figure it out, Malfoy remained one big mystery to him. He never brought up Ginny when they were fighting, something Ron expected him to do within days after it happened like he had mentioned Cedric to Harry. There were times when Ron couldn't remember why he hated Malfoy so much. There were times when he almost liked Malfoy. Then there were times when he abhorred him with so much passion that it fully consumed him.
Blinking long and hard, Malfoy turned away and said, his voice cracking, "We've got to stir the potion."
"Right," said Ron, standing. "How many times?"
"I'll do it," said Malfoy, brushing his fingers across Ron's hand and starting to stir the potion. The back of Ron's hand felt like it was tingling, his nerves going crazy from one simple brush of Malfoy's touch. He thought he must be going crazy. Earlier he had thought Malfoy's breath brushed across his neck. Actually, it probably had and Ron was just sick for thinking it was something more than Malfoy converting oxygen into carbon dioxide. The small touches were driving him mad.
Ron's breath hitched as Malfoy's eyes landed on him, his hand still stirring their potion. Neither one spoke, just staring at each other and waiting for something, thought neither knew what it was. Forcing himself to breathe, Ron vaguely wondered when Malfoy had started to have such an effect on him and what it could possibly mean. Seamus kept saying that Malfoy was trying to seduce him, and though Ron thought it was ridiculous, it stirred a strange feeling in the pit of his stomach. Now he was thinking that Malfoy was purposely touching him? He needed to take some time away from Seamus if he wanted to regain his sanity. It didn't seem to be a good thing that Ron was imagining Malfoy touching him.
"We're done," said Malfoy. "All we have to do is put our cauldron on the project table."
"Oh. All right."
Ron returned their unused ingredients as Malfoy moved their cauldron over to the project table where everyone kept their potions brewing while they weren't in class. Snape hadn't yet dismissed them so they returned to their table, sitting down beside each other and avoiding words.
Strange as it was, the thing Ron kept coming back to and which bothered him the most was how he had lost so much control of himself when Malfoy alluded to his virginity. It was no secret that Malfoy got around; he had more lovers in the course of the past year than Ron knew how to keep track of. Anyone who wanted to get laid with no strings attached could go to Malfoy be they male or female. Ron had been disgusted upon first learning it, vowing that he was never going to fall into Malfoy's trap. Harry had laughed and said he didn't think it was going to be a problem.
Why had he gone so red when Malfoy insinuated that Ron was a virgin? What was wrong with being a virgin? It wasn't like he hadn't done anything before. Perhaps it had something to do with Malfoy and his extensive knowledge (if you listened to rumors) on the subject.
"What are you doing this weekend?" said Malfoy.
"Er - why?"
"Just trying to make pleasant conversation. I'm bored and I'm tired of listening to myself think."
"Oh. Well - er - I don't know. Probably the same as always. I'll do some homework when Hermione bothers me about it, go watch some of Harry's Quidditch practice. I don't usually know until the weekend is here."
Snorting, Malfoy said, "That is pathetic. Following Granger's orders and following around Potter? You need to find a new way to spend your weekends."
"No one asked you for your opinion, Malfoy," Ron sneered.
"That's it for today," interrupted Snape. "Clean up if you haven't done so already and then you may go."
"Finally," muttered Ron, grabbing his bag and glaring at Malfoy before storming out of the classroom.
"What did you do to him, Malfoy?" asked Harry, not waiting around for an answer before he left with Hermione in search of Ron.
Slumping into his chair, Draco watched the doorway. "Why is it always my fault?"
Just a bit of a classified…
Am looking for all things Draco/Ron. Any stories, links, fanlistings . . . anything you want to pass my way, because this is just the best pairing (not slash pairing, simply pairing) for the fandom, in my eyes. Thanks.
If you want to be notified of updates, email me at AndromedanPrincess@hotmail.com and let me know that you want to be on the Everything Changes list.