Title: Betrayal
By: PepperjackCandy
Rating: PG13
Disclaimer: You recognize it? It's J.K. Rowling's. Except the song lyrics. Which, apparently, come from the song "Love the One You're With," by Stephen Stills (finally found it here: Top-40 Hits of 1930-1998).

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Ron could feel himself losing Harry. Every day, his best friend was a little more distracted than he'd been the day before, and Ron knew the cause of it - Draco Malfoy.

He'd seen the way Harry looked at Draco, and he'd seen how, in unguarded moments, Draco watched Harry. It was just a matter of time until Draco and Harry saw what Ron saw between them. Unless Ron could stop it.

Once Draco and Harry stopped trying to hide their attraction to one another, Ron got desperate. And he acted.

At dinner one night, Ron slipped some sleeping potion into Harry's pumpkin juice. After Harry had retreated to bed, Ron opened Harry's trunk. They'd been roommates for six years by then, and had never kept secrets from one another, so Ron knew the password that opened his trunk. And with Harry asleep, and no-one else in the room, he could speak, and work, freely, with no-one ever the wiser.

He took out Harry's bottle of emerald-green ink, a sheet of parchment, and his eagle-quill pen, a gift from Cho when they'd dated briefly the year before.

His hands shaking nervously, he wrote, You don't know me, but I've been watching you for a long time, and I'm very attracted to you. Please meet me Wednesday night at 11:00 at the top of the Astronomy Tower. I'll be waiting.

He quickly put the bottle of ink and quill back into Harry's trunk, performed the locking spell, and took the parchment to the owlery, where he tied it to the leg of one of the school owls to be delivered to Draco.

Now he just had to wait.

Wednesday night, Ron was as nervous as if he was waiting for a real date. But of course, that was ridiculous. He wasn't the slightest bit attracted to Malfoy. This was all about keeping Harry to himself. All he was feeling was . . . what was the Muggle term? Stage-fright?

They went down to the library to study, and at 10:30, he asked Hermione, "'Mione, I completely forgot something I have to do. Could you ask Harry to meet me at the top of the Astronomy Tower at 11:30?"

"Why don't you ask him yourself? He's only just over . . ."

"'Mione? Please?" He gave her his best pleading look, which always worked on his mother.

And it worked on Hermione, too. "All right." She sighed.

"Thanks, 'Mione. I owe you several." With a manic grin, Ron headed off to the Astronomy Tower.

His heart was pounding in his ribcage when he got there. He tried to tell himself that it didn't matter. If Draco showed up, then he was interested in Harry, and Ron was doing the right thing. If Draco didn't show up, then he had no interest in Harry, and Ron had nothing to worry about.

He could hear the clock on the clock tower tolling 11:00 and retreated into a darkened corner of the Tower, to wait Draco's arrival.

No sooner had the clock stopped pealing than he heard footsteps coming up the stairs.

"Hello?" Malfoy's voice carried across the room.

Smirking in triumph, Ron responded, quietly. "I was hoping you'd show up." He turned to face Malfoy and his heart skipped a beat. Malfoy was devastatingly handsome in the moonlight, his pale face flushed with anticipation. But he wasn't there for Malfoy. He was there for Harry.

Ron stepped into the light.

"Weasley?!?"

"You were expecting someone else?" Ron feigned disappointment.

"Well, yes . . . I was expecting you to be Potter."

"Oh." Ron said in a disappointed tone. "I thought you knew."

"Knew what?"

"Harry. And Cho. They're back together. He's always loved her, you know."

Draco nodded sadly. "I guess I was foolish to hope . . ."

Ron interrupted him. "There's an old Muggle song I heard once when my Dad was playing with a Muggle radio. It goes something to the effect of 'If you can't be with the one you love, love the one you're with.'" Ron found himself very nearly meaning those words as he spoke them.

Draco's gray eyes looked deeply into Ron's. "There's a certain wisdom to that. . ." He stepped forward, grabbing Ron and pressing his mouth to the redhead's.

Ron felt like he was drowning. This is Malfoy, he argued with himself as arousal washed over him. You're doing this for Harry. You *love* Harry.

Yet, when Draco slowly lowered him to the ground, Ron went willingly. And when Draco lifted his mouth from Ron's to start working on Ron's robe buttons, Ron moaned in disappointment.

Ron's moans turned to ones of pleasure when Draco kissed him again, long and lingeringly, then moved his mouth down to Ron's neck.

"Has anyone ever counted your freckles?" Draco groaned as he nuzzled Ron's skin.

He was so swept up in the moment, that he truly was surprised when he heard Harry's voice. "Ron? Draco? Oh, my God . . ."

Ron and Draco sprung apart, Ron's arousal disappearing in a moment.

"Harry! No! It's not . . ." Draco protested futilely.

For Harry couldn't hear him. Wiping away the tears at the betrayal of his love and his best friend, Harry had already run from the room.