GHOSTS
I
Queer

***

Special.
That was all it boiled down to.
That was all anything ever meant, in the end.
He wasn't asking for perfection.
He wasn't even asking for fame.
But to just once in his life step out from the shadows...
All Ron Weasley ever wanted was to be special.

***

"Oh hi Ron, sorry, I hadn't noticed you." And it had been -Hermione-. Not that he needed her to notice him, or cared that she just short of draped herself over Harry, it was just that one of his best friend's failure to notice him stung.
When Malfoy said it — "People only notice you because you're Potter's friend; you're no one, Weasley, -no-one-." — he hadn't cared, because itwas Malfoy, and Malfoy was a prick and nothing he said had any worth. But when Hermione proved him right — that hurt.
Of course, he wasn't -in- their Advanced Arithmancy class, so when Harry caught up to Hermione in the halls to ask about last night's assignment, he hadn't had much to say.
But even still....

***

And this summer. Mum hardly approved of Weasley's Wizard Wheezes, but she was still quite proud of Fred and George. Not that Ron wasn't proud of them too, or looking forward to the job they promised — and meant, this time — after he graduated Hogwartss this year, just that he wondered why they couldn't have paid a little more attention to -him-.
After all, he thought bitterly, it's not every day you have a third son to become Head Boy.
So they were proud. Damn proud.
But ... it had been done before.

***

"You want -what-?"
"In the owlery, tonight at eight. Be there." With that, Malfoy turned and walked — swished, nearly — away, nose in the air, giving no indication the conversation had even taken place.
Of course, "I want to talk to you" wasn't much of a conversation, but then, he doubted Malfoy was much of a conversationalist.

***

Seven-thirty. From the looks Malfoy had been giving him all day, combined with the seemingly innocuous comments from the past month, suddenly looked at in a new light, he had a pretty good idea why Malfoy wanted to talk to him.
He weighed his options.
Bill was off working for Gringotts.
Charlie lived with dragons.
Percy was quickly making his way up the ladder of success in the Ministy of Magic.
The twins owned the largest, most successful mail-order joke company in the wizarding world.
Ginny was the only girl in the family, a bloody genius and had half the boys in school after her.
There was only one thing left for him to do, really.

***

"So what's this about, Malfoy?"
Their eyes locked, and Ron walked forward, closing the distance between them.
"Are you queer?"
"I think you know the answer to that." He pressed his lips against Malfoy's, and melted into the embrace.

***