Body Warnings and Disclaimers: please refer to chapters one and/or seven. thanx.

Get It Together And Listen

"Ron!"

"What?"

"You've got an owl down here. Just arrived."

"From who?"

"Looks like Hedwig. Must be from Harry."

Wow. It had been a while since Harry had owled me. He'd been busy with Malfoy (the bleeding sod) and getting settled into his new house. Without a doubt, I was glad to hear from him, but things hadn't been the same since he told us about... well, you know. The fact that he was gay didn't bother me, really. It was his choice for a partner that irritated the living piss out of me. I mean, of all people, why did he have to choose Draco fucking Malfoy? Why not, say, Seamus? Hell, he could have been doing Percy and I would have been okay. Well, maybe not okay, but it still would have been better. Nevertheless, I was still excited when I read the letter that was written in his familiar loopy green writing.

Ron!

Hello! How are you? How's life at the Burrow? The

house is finally starting to feel like home and Sirius

finally hired a guy to fix the hole in the roof. He tried

to fix it with magick, but it didn't seem to want to

hold. But anyhow, you really must come and stay

before the holidays are over. Hermione's coming,

so you just have to. And I promise Draco will be

good. We've already talked about it, so I promise

it will be okay. Besides, he really does want to get

to know you. Tell me you're coming, I told Hedwig

to stay until you do. Great! See you soon!

Luv ya,

Harry

'Malfoy wants to get to know me?' Yeah, right! I was reasonably positive that Harry just threw that in for good measure. But I did have to go, and besides, I really did miss Harry. Even if he was with that... that... that poxy, sodding.... AAHHH! But then, Hermione was going to be there, too.

***

It was raining when I arrived. 'Very appropriate,' I thought to myself. Going to my mum's funeral would have been a more cheerful prospect than spending a week with Draco Malfoy. And there he was, sitting there on the sofa with Harry and Hermione as though this were the most natural position to be in. So what if he lived there, too? I stepped out of the fireplace and brushed my robe off, though it didn't do much good.

"Goodness, Harry, has that chimney ever been cleaned properly?" I asked crossly.

"Sorry," he replied, going red.

"Ron!" Hermione squealed, running up and throwing her arms around me. She finally let me go and just stood there beaming. Extremely awkward silence was falling over the room. "Hey, Harry, why don't you show me where your kitchen is? Perhaps some tea might do Ron some good," she said, pulling him out of the sitting room to leave me alone with Malfoy.

"Hi," he said so softly that I almost didn't hear it. The fact that he was looking directly at me made it that much more difficult for me to ignore him. Ass.

"Hello." Damn that was cold. So cold, in fact, that he dropped his head to stare at the floor. 'What's that?' Oh, dear, I was actually feeling a pang of *gulp* guilt. "Um, yeah. So... uh... so how's it going, then?"

He stared up at me looking thoroughly shocked. "Uhh, fine, thanks. And yourself?"

"Peachy."

Being alone with him was driving me slowly insane. I wondered how long they were going to leave us alone for. Five more minutes of this and I was going t-

"You know, Ron, I think I owe you an apology," he said, totally interrupting my train of thought.

"WHAT?" I cried, totally taken aback. My first shock was that he used my first name. And he APOLOGIZED? What the hell was his point? Couldn't we just be happy hating each other?

"I said, 'You know, Ron, I think I owe you an apology.'"

"Really?"

"I was speaking in English. You do understand English, don't you?" For the first time in all the time I had known Draco Malfoy he was teasing without any malicious intent.

"Yes, thank you, I do. I just wasn't sure that you did."

He laughed at me. Honestly, genuinely laughed and not at my expense. I was starting to seriously freak out. And where the hell were Harry and Hermione?

"Anyhow, as I was trying to say before, I think I owe you an apology." At that point he looked back down at the ground. "For... well, for being such an ass to you for so long, and all. I know it's a bit late, but... better late than never, right?" He looked at me rather beseechingly.

Degenerative twat. Had to be the good guy, he just had to be. All I wanted was to comfortably hate the motherfucker for the rest of my life. Now it was going to be impossible, what with him actually being a decent person, and all. "Yeah, I guess you're right," I sighed.

"You accept it, then?" he asked hopefully.

Admittedly, he was throwing me into a right state of shock that wasn't altogether unappealing. This was an entirely different Draco Malfoy than the one I knew and hated. He looked the same and he smelled the same and his voice was the same. But the tension that used to surround him was totally absent. It was like he had taken off his costume and I was seeing him in his real skin for the first time. And the worst part about it was that I liked it.

"Yeah. Thanks, Malfoy."

"Please don't call me that." Tears were actually welling up in his eyes and he was wringing his hands in a gesture of absolute tension and misery. He was starting to scare me but I sat down next to him anyway.

"Draco, then. Thanks."

Instantaneously he flipped back to a normal human being. Harry and Hermione chose that moment to come back into the room with their stupid tea. That tea that had forced me into accepting an apology from Draco Malfoy.

As we sat there I wondered, and not for the first time, exactly what his gyp was. I'd gotten a fragmented story from Harry and my dad collectively over the last two months, but there were still a lot of holes. I knew that he had been taken from his house because of Lucius being caught being a Death Eater. Whatever that meant... And then there was his mum's obituary in the Daily Prophet. How he wound up living with Harry and his two godfathers, I didn't know. But there was still something very wrong with him, and it wasn't just that his mother died.

Later that evening we were all sitting in the grass out the back of the house when I figured out what it was that Harry saw in Draco. Hermione and I were playing a game of exploding snap; Harry was laying with his head in Draco's lap, being pet. Draco's eyes were closed and there was a smile plastered on his face. It occurred to me that they actually looked right together. Like they were really happy. The afternoon was one of the best I'd had in a long time. I got to spend it with my two best friends and another whom I was rapidly becoming fond of.

Draco actually fit in with us. It wasn't awkward like I had expected it to be. He acted as though we had all been doing this since the beginning of time, and damned if I didn't start to believe it myself. He conversed with us and played with us and just sat silent with us. Whatever animosity that used to keep us apart had completely vanished without a trace. The arrogance that used to ooze from his pores was gone. Superiority was replaced with equality. He didn't seem to consider himself just Harry's boyfriend. He seemed to consider himself one of Harry's friends, and therefore, one of our friends, as well.

"Hey, Harry? You got any music?" Hermione asked.

"Yeah, I think I might be able to come up with something," he said, getting up. Draco jumped up instead and went off into the house. "No, I think he might be able to come up with something."

A few moments later he came back with an odd little contraption I'd never seen before. It was only about an inch high and kind of round. There were several buttons on the one side of it and a few holes in the sides, though for what, I had no idea.

"Oi! Is that a CD player?" Hermione asked.

Blushing, he said, "Uh, yeah, actually."

"Where are the speakers?"

"Don't need speakers," he replied setting it on a stump in-between him and I.

"How do you hear it, then?" She was obviously as puzzled as I.

He grinned and tapped it with his wand. Immediately the air was full of instruments I'd never heard before and the voice started not long afterwards. "Like it?"

"That's great!" she laughed. "How did you do that?"

"It's charmed so that it doesn't need a power source or physical speakers. It'll just play until you tap it again," he explained and demonstrated. "The controls all still work, but since its got no battery, it can't wear out. And it won't skip, either."

"What sort of charm did you use?" She was enthralled now. Damn him. And Harry was just sitting there beaming, absolutely beaming. It was disgusting.

"There's a stillness spell that keeps it from skipping, but the rest I just made up," he said as though it were nothing at all.

"You made it up? You mean you wrote the spells yourself?"

"Yeah."

"Wooow," she replied, totally awestruck.

"Oh, come on. I'm sure you could do it, if you really wanted to. It just takes a little creativity and patience. I mean, you're pretty smart, and all," he laughed. The rest of started laughing along with him.

"What the hell is this music, Draco?" I asked.

"The band's called Blur. Why? Do you not like it?"

"No, I like it just fine, I just never heard such a thing before."

"How do you know Muggle music?" Hermione asked, puzzled once again.

"My mother, actually." The grin on his face faded. "She used to love Muggle music. She would play it all the time for me."

"What was her favourite?" she asked.

Much to my surprise, the grin returned and he tapped the player again. He took out the shiny little disc and replaced it with another. When he tapped it again, the music was totally different.

Hermione grinned insanely. "Peter Murphy? He's one of my favourites, too."

Harry had scooted closer to me and picked up the cards that Mione'd thrown aside. She and Draco were now totally absorbed in playing with their contraption. He was showing her how he'd worked the charms out and all the rest whilst Harry and I played cards.

"You know, I think I like him."

He looked up at me with a wonderfully stunned expression. "You... for real?"

"Yeah, he's really not such an ass as he makes himself out to be." He seemed content with that answer so I had to add, "And he makes a wonderful girlfriend for you, too."

He glared at me, then replaced it with a grin. "He really is great, isn't he?"

"As much as I wish I could deny it, I just can't. I think he's good for you."

"Thanks, Ron. That means a lot to me."

"Actually, I think he's good for Mione, too." We both looked up to see them talking and laughing, though at what neither of us knew.

"You know, I think you're right. I did find the perfect girlfriend, didn't I?"

"That, you did." And we were overcome with laughter.

"You two are having way too much fun over there," Hermione's voice barely audibly came through the music and torrents of laughter.

"S... sorry, love. We'll... knock it... off," I gasped, trying to catch my breath. It was no good. We were a lost cause.

Out of the clear blue sky, Draco jumped up, pulling Hermione with him. "Will you, really?"

"Yeah, really," she laughed.

"Yeah, really, what?" I asked.

"She's gonna teach me how to use make-up!" he said, grinning. All I could do was raise an eye brow. "What?"

"Nothing, I just never would have pegged you for that sort of thing."

"Really?" Cocking his head he sounded almost surprised.

"Well, now that you mention it, you would look pretty in... say... black eyeliner and green shadow. Very Back-To-School-Slytherin," I replied, trying to keep a straight face. Though nothing about this scenario was even remotely straight.

"Ooh, I like it, I like it! Can you?"

"I can do lots of things," she laughed in return.

"Great!" And he dragged her into the house after him.

"Strange one, that," I told Harry.

He happily sighed, "Yeah, he is, isn't he?"

"But not half as strange as you are."

"Hmm. Perhaps.... Hey, Ron?"

"Hey what?"

"Thanks for giving him a chance and everything."

"Hey, you'd do the same for me."

He nodded and a dreamy smile appeared at the corners of his mouth. This had been a very odd day, indeed. My best friend was in love with our former worst enemy. He was in love. And I could see why. Mione also loved him, and that was quite apparent. Draco was a great person, though why he chose not to be that way for so many years was beyond me. Well, I suppose it was a good thing after all that I chose to get it together and listen. Weird.

*****

I like it. I know it's awful, but it's just so damn happy. And before I catch a bunch of hell for it, No, Ron is NOT gay. At least not here. Give me a break, please. Luv ya! Cheers!