Ritual Disclaimer: This belongs to Joanne Katherine Rowling, otherwise known as Supreme Author of All, who is my personal close friend (I'm not lying, really I'm not!). Ritual Warning: As I said in the summary, this is SLASH. Two boys who are 'special friends' in a non- platonic way. All homophobics, whether they realize it or not, shall run away. Shoo! But if you must flame, please do it w/o cursing me, questioning my sexuality, or writing 'U' and 'R' instead of 'you' and 'are'. Thanks. Ritualistic Congratulations: To my dear friend Stan, who has finally read Harry Potter, and although he denies that Draco and Harry would go well together, he does think that Snape is pretty damned cool.

As Ron took Pansy's hand in his own, he tried to tell himself that no, it did not feel like tofu, and who cared if it did anyway? It wasn't her fault if she 'glowed' like a horse. And besides, it would be over soon. That, in fact was Ron's mantra as they walked towards the Great Hall, suffering the stares and whispers of their fellow pupils. He glanced down at Pansy's pug- like face, and shuddered. This was almost as bad as the time he'd had to throw up slugs. However Ron was not the only one enduring what was fast becoming dry heaves. While Pansy had to admit that Ron was a fine specimen of a man, with his thick arm muscles, and bright red hair (and you know what they say about tall men.) he wasn't Draco. And therefore not up to her phenomenally high standards. In Pansy's mind, the only human worth her attention was blond haired, gray eyed, and currently kissing Harry Potter like there was no tomorrow.

Draco wrenched himself away from Harry's lips with an audible gasp. It struck him that if they were both late for breakfast, and then walked into the Great Hall, even the stupidest of Hufflepuffs might be able to put two and two together, and said as much to Harry. They grabbed their robes and checked them for any interesting stains, and when none were found (thank goodness, as that would have been hard to explain to the house-elves in charge of the laundry) they raced out of the room and down to breakfast. They were careening down a rather narrow hallway that forced those using it to walk in single file, when Draco suddenly stopped short, and Harry came crashing into him, so that they both fell down, with Harry on top. "Remind you of anything?" he asked mischievously, but rather then hitting him, like Draco always did when he said something remotely suggestive, Draco just turned even whiter (his complexion now resembled that of a sheet of paper) and pointed one trembling finger at Ron and Pansy who were staring slack- jawed at their disheveled friends. Suddenly light dawned, and Ron was filled with a terrible idea. "You two are.are.." And he fainted dead away. Pansy screamed as Ron's weight fell against her thigh. She had no idea what was going on (a rather unsurprising fact) but she had enough presence of mind to realize that this was a Very Big Deal. Harry had rushed over to where his best friend had fallen, and was slapping him about the face in the hopes of waking him up. While Ron's face was getting quite a bit pinker (so that it clashed horribly with his hair), he was stubbornly remaining in Dreamland, so Harry pulled out his vial of smelling salts (he'd started keeping them around after the third time he and Draco had made out, as he had discovered that kissing the spot between Draco's ear and neck made the other boy feel quite faint) and waved them under Ron's nose a few times. Ron made a face of pure disgust, sneezed violently three or four times, and sat up quickly, banging his head with Harry's. Rubbing his forehead, where a bruise was rapidly forming he stared in horror at Harry and Draco's clasped hands and cried, "You mean - the two of you are . are . but I thought - what about me?" And Ron broke into tears. Of course Harry was horrified - all his worst thoughts had proved to be true. He didn't know what to do . how could he explain to Ron that while he was very attractive in his own way, his freckles were rather . off? Luckily Draco, ever the Slytherin, and therefore inordinately clever, walked up to Ron, placed his hand on the redhead's shoulder and said, 'Don't worry darling, you don't swing that way, remember?' Ron's face brightened remarkably. 'Oh that's right!' he exclaimed, sitting up, 'I like girls! Duh!' Suddenly light dawned on Pansy. "You mean - the two of you are ." and she looked from Harry's face to Draco's a few times, "you're gay???" "Er ... well . yes," Draco said, rather shamefacedly, but secretly pleased. She was finally out of his hair! But not half a second later all of his hopes were dashed. "Why Draco, I've never heard of anything so . so . sexy!" she cried, clapping her hands together, "Draco dearest, considering all we've shared -" at that Draco muttered something under his breath that sounded particularly cruel, and Harry elbowed him in the stomach, "would you at least let me watch?"

There were no words. Draco just shook his head, took Harry's hand, and walked away.

Now, it must be known that at this point Hermione was rather confused. Her two best friends were late for breakfast by a full half hour, and considering that they were two healthy, relatively normal teenage boys, this was rather odd. As she looked around the Great Hall she realized that not only were Harry and Ron missing, but so were Draco and Pansy Parkinson. Now Pansy's absence could be explained by the fact that wherever Draco was, she was too, but then, where was Draco? All of a sudden the very subject of her thoughts entered the room with a look of confusion, amusement, and disgust decorating his delicate features. Just two steps behind him was Harry, with a similar expression. They appeared to be unaware of the fact that their sudden late appearance to breakfast together was the cause of many whispered conversations amongst their fellow students. They stopped short of Gryffindor table, and spoke quietly to one another, and then Draco walked on to his seat next to Zabini, while Harry moved towards Hermione. When he sat down she said harshly, 'where the heck is Ron?' 'Huh?' was Harry's witty response, as he reached for a piece of toast. 'You remember Ron. Red hair, freckles, gargantuan?' she replied, snatching the toast from Harry's hand. 'Oh yeah, he's with Pansy,' and unaware of the distress he'd just caused in his dear friend, he began to eat nine or ten slices of bacon (it really was good that he played Quidditch, or else he might soon begin to resemble our dear friend Dudley).

Draco meanwhile was forced to put up with Blaise Zabini's accusations that he'd done something horrible to Zabini's 'beautiful' Pansy. While Draco had tried to explain over and over again that the only way he could be persuaded to touch Pansy was if there was an Imperius curse involved, Zabini was too much in love with the girl to realize that some people (and in fact, the rest of the school) might think that she was somewhat less then desirable. They were coming perilously close to fisticuffs when Pansy and Ron arrived on the scene, instigating just as much, if not more conversation from their fellow students. However Pansy and Ron were quite aware of the commotion they were making, and while Pansy reveled in it, preening like a debutante at a ball, Ron blushed a hideous crimson for the second time, and trying to become as inconspicuous as possible (a task that was doomed to defeat if we consider that Ron was 6'3, had flaming red curls, and was white everywhere that he wasn't freckled) made his way to sit next to Harry. "Why didn't you tell me that you were seeing Draco?' he hissed sharply, while poking Harry with one of his long, thick fingers, 'That's disgusting!' Although Ron was trying to be quiet and to attract as little attention as possible, this hope was soon destroyed as Hermione heard what he was saying and shrilly cried 'You're seeing WHOM?' Covering his face in his hands, Harry muttered, 'Draco Malfoy' and waited for the storm to descend.

A/N Well that seems as good a place as any to end this little chapter of our tale. I'm sorry I haven't updated in . oh god it must be close to a year now. I have been . well there are no real excuses are there? Suffice it to say I hit a massive, massive writer's block, went through a hell of a lot of stress (broke up with my boyfriend, fell in love with someone who lives 700 miles away, etc) and finally calmed down enough to write this. Although I fear that my former audience has ceased to care about the plights of poor little Draco and his sweet lover Harry, I hope I'll find a new one with this chapter. Either way the next chapter shall be the last (or at least I think so). Shalom Chaverim!! (Goodbye friends in Hebrew).