~*~ By the time Ron got back to the common room, he was not in a pleasant mood. Harry had Quidditch practice, so Ron was looking forward to being able to merely sit on his bed and glower at the wall. That, however, was not exactly the case, as Fred, George, and Lee surrounded him the minute he walked into the common room. And they were grinning. Ron, in return, groaned.

"What do you want?" Ron asked, exasperation in his voice.

"We want to know what's up with you." Said Fred.

"Why you dress up like girls," George continued.

"And scream a lot,"

"And why, why oh why, you hang out with Draco."

Ron blanched.

"Why do I what?" He stammered.

Fred grinned. "Just kidding, Ronnie-poo! You may not be bright, but you have more brains than to hang out with *that* git."

"We only really wanted to know why you were in a dress." George added.

"As we thought it was possibly the funniest thing we've ever seen." Lee chirped.

"Uh. Uh." Ron's face was slowly going from paper white, to a very deep maroon.

"Watch out Ron, or you'll match Mum's sweaters next!" Fred sniggered.

"Come on, you can tell us! We're your brothers!" George said, added a light punch into Ron's shoulder for emphasis.

"It was. uh. Hermione dared me." That, Ron noted to himself, was the worst lie ever.

The three other boys just laughed, and Ron found he *did* in fact match his maroon sweater.

"What are you guys laughing about?" Asked Hermione, who was walking down the stairs. All four of them turned, and while three grinned, the forth one looked as if he would die.

"Hello, Hermione!" Fred chirped merrily.

"Hullo, Fred." She replied, giving him a weird, lopsided look. George put an arm around Ron's shoulders.

"Just looking after ickle Ronnie-kins!" He said, then laughed and disappeared through the portrait hole, swiftly followed by Fred and Lee. Ron, just as he was about to make his own escape, heard Hermione's voice behind him.

"What was that about?"

"Nothing." Ron said quickly.

"You don't have to lie to me, Ron." Hermione said, her voice suddenly very quiet, "I know that something is up."

Oh, dear lord no.

"No, there's not! I'm fine, really."

"No you aren't. I'm going to ask a question, and you are going to answer it truthfully. Understand?"

Ron squirmed.

"Why did you wear a dress on Halloween?"

"I . . . I . . . uh . . . well . . ." He paused, let out a long slow breath, and allowed doom to come. "Malfoy ordered it." He said quietly.

Hermione let out a sudden, barking laugh. That was, until she realised her friend was being serious.

"Draco? You're serious? He asked you to go in a dress and you did?"

"Yesss.."

"Why?"

"I didn't really have much of a choice." He said slowly, feeling like he was trying to battle something in molasses. In January. In acid-based molasses.

"You didn't have much of a choice?" Hermione's voice was rising in pitch, and Ron waved his arms frantically to try to calm her down. "If that prat is giving you problems, Ron, by god I'll go have a word with him myself! Harry and I can't let you - -"

"No!" Ron cried, his voice sounding more like a squeal. "You can't tell Harry. And you can't do anything. I can sort this out for myself. If you get involved, it'll only make it worse."

"But I can help you! Why don't you just tell me what is going on?"

Ron was exasperated. "I caaaan't." He moaned.

"Ron, why? Just tell me!"

Ron looked at her for a moment, and gauged her face. She was worried, and her worry made him feel guilty. Maybe I can tell her something . . . Ron thought to himself, and sighed. She already knew most of it, just not all.

"Malfoy, he . . . He found out who I was seeing when I was under that potion."

"What, me?"

"WHAT?"

"Oh, Harry told me."

"He told? He promised he wouldn't!"

"I'm sorry, Ron . . ."

"No, no, it's fine. I lied, anyway. I didn't see you. If I did, Malfoy probably wouldn't care."

He let the silence hang in the air a moment.

"If you didn't see me," Hermione said slowly, "Who did you see?"

Ron turned fire-engine red, and when he answered, his voice was so low and so small that Hermione almost thought she didn't hear it.

"Harry . . ."

Hermione's eyes widened.

"Har - - - does that mean - - - are you -?"

"Yes." Ron said, more firmly and with more conviction than he felt. In fact, he felt more like jell-o. An icky, dribbling, melting square of Jell- O.

Hermione's hand went to her mouth slowly. "Oh, Ron . . . I didn't - I never - Why didn't you tell us?"

Ron gave her a look that plainly said 'Why do you think I never told you?'

"But . . . How did Draco find out?"

Ron didn't answer.

"You didn't . . . He didn't look like Harry, did he?"

Silence.

"Oh, Ron!" Hermione cried, and threw her arms around him, startling the red head so much that he fell backwards onto the ground.

"What are you going to do?" She asked, "We could . . . We should tell Harry . . ."

"NO." Ron said immediately. "If I wanted Harry to know, I would have let Draco tell him long ago. Harry's my best friend and I . . . I don't want to ruin that."

"Then what are you going to do?"

"I have to meet Malfoy tomorrow . . . I'll figure out what to do before then . . ."

"Ron, was the dress thing the only thing he made you do?"

There was a pause.

"No. The Nuff tree thing . . . And he . . . He . . ." He couldn't bring himself to say it.

"He what?"

"He . . . Oh, you know. He . . . uh . . . snogged me."

"He what?"

"I didn't want him too!" Ron cried in defence, until he saw that Hermione was grinning. "Oh dear . . . What are you thinking?"

"If he snogged you, then he must have a reason, right? You know, a romantic reason."

Ron blanched. He decided not to mention the cut on his lip.

Hermione's eyes were alight, and it scared Ron slightly.

"If he has intentions like that, Ron, we can turn them around on him!! Do you own any leather pants?"

"Oh, dear god . . . Hermione . . ."

"You, my dear Ron, and going to give him exactly what he wants, and prove it's exactly the wrong thing form him."

This, Ron thought, would get ugly.

~*~