Rating: Uhm, this chapter is rather tame, probably PG for mild cursing.

Pairing: Ron/Draco (I SWEAR, it's coming), Ron/Hermione (yep)

Spoilers: None

Disclaimer: If I owned Ron Weasley or Draco Malfoy, I wouldn't have them locked in my closet. Same goes for the other characters.

Author's note: This is SLASH. OK, well, it's only vaguely (very vaguely) implied in this particular chapter, but it WILL be slash. If you don't like m/m, then this isn't the story for you. Go find an epic saga or something. Have a nice day!

THE DAILY PROPHET

Chapter 4

Foiled Plans and Magical Creatures

"Can you believe that we've less than a year before we're all out on our own and away from Hogwarts?" Hermione asked with a small sigh as she, Harry, and Ron stood outside Zonko's Joke Shop in Hogsmeade. "It's so sad when things end."

"Well...school will end, but at least we'll all still be friends," Ron said hastily, suddenly feeling panic clench his stomach. He hadn't given one thought to what would happen between the three best friends after their school days were over.

"Oh, of course we'll all still be friends, Ron," Hermione said soothingly, obviously sensing her friend's sudden distress. "I just meant that we won't be seeing quite so much of each other. You know, all day, seven days a week." The corners of her mouth tipped up slightly, but her eyes were sad and rather wistful. "Late night adventures, sneaking around under invisibility cloaks…"

"Right." Ron nodded and gave her a weak smile. He wondered if he should just get off his arse and ask her out already. She was pointing out how little time they had left, and if he waited too long...

"What do you think butterflies taste like?" Harry asked suddenly, staring off into space. He turned to look at his two best friends and blinked innocently.

"I...don't know, Harry," he replied, glancing at Hermione for help. She just shrugged helplessly.

"I bet they taste like butter. It only makes sense, right, mate?" Harry grinned, patting Ron on the back, and walked quickly into the joke shop. Ron stared, open-mouthed, after his friend. Harry had been acting strangely quite often lately, but he got the sudden feeling that Harry had left him and Hermione alone for a reason just now.

Ron turned his attention back to Hermione, and he chuckled. "We can't separate after Hogwarts..who'll look after Harry?"

She bit back a chuckle. "Honestly, Ron, it's not funny." She brought her hand to her mouth and muffled a giggle. "He's our friend," she mumbled, "we should be more concerned."

"I *am* concerned! You're the one snickering like you've gone mad!" Ron said in mock indignance, and it only served to make Hermione burst into loud, pealing laughter. Ron watched her face turn red, saw her try and stifle her laughter, and couldn't remember ever feeling happier to be around his female best friend. *Now ask her...* "Say, Hermione..."

"Yes?" Suddenly there wasn't a trace of laughter in the girl's voice now. She took a step closer to Ron and peered up into his face expectantly. "What is it, then?"

"Well, I...You know, I just don't want things to screech to a halt when we leave Hogwarts." He cleared his throat, and tried to feign nonchalance. "So I was wondering..."

"Yes??" Hermione prompted, eyes wide, hands flexing nervously.

"I think he's trying to ask you on a date, Mudblood," came a drawl from the doorway of Zonko's.

Draco Malfoy strutted out and put his hands on his hips, tilted his head to one side, and smirked malevolently at the pair of them. Ron was suddenly reminded of an overstuffed peacock, watching the Slytherin try to puff his chest out importantly. "Go away, Malfoy, this doesn't concern you," Ron said coolly.

"Oh, but it does. I just can't stand by and watch this atrocity happen. I mean, I understand it's hard for you to find someone who'll have you, what with your being a filthy Weasley, but honestly. Granger? You'd do better to ask out Potter." Draco shook his hair out of his eyes. "And everyone knows you'd rather do that, anyway."

Ron advanced on Draco slowly, and made sure he was staring down into his pale face before speaking again. "I believe I asked you to go away," he said, silently praying his face wasn't as red as he thought it was.

"As terrified as I am, and let me make it clear to you that I'm practically frozen in fright as you can plainly see," Draco muttered sarcastically, stepping closer to Ron until their chests were touching, "I don't have to do anything you tell me to do. I don't answer to filthy Muggle-lovers such as yourself."

"I'm not fighting you," Ron said, smiling broadly when the other boy's face fell quite obviously. "Honestly, Malfoy. Grow up." He stepped back and watched as his enemy clenched his fists. Draco was getting those ugly red blotches on his face, the kind he got when he was really pissed. It was something the redhead had got used to seeing the last few weeks, and he never tired of it.

Hermione walked over and stood next to Ron, putting her hand on the elbow of his robes and tugging. "Come on, let's go find Harry," she said quietly, shooting daggers at Draco with her eyes. She walked quickly inside.

"You're so good at following orders, Weasley, aren't you?" Draco's voice made Ron's entire body freeze before he could follow Hermione into the shop, and he turned to face the blonde, biting back a growl. Draco seemed to find encouragement at this, and raised his voice in a nearly pitch perfect imitation of Hermione's voice. " 'Come here, Ron. Sit here, Ron. Eat this, Ron. Watch this, Ron. Sit here and wait forever for me, Ron, while I fawn over Harry, won't you?' "

"Stop it," Ron said between clenched teeth. He wasn't going to give in, he wasn't. They were just words, he reminded himself, no need to get worked up after he'd done so well lately.

"Stop what? Speaking the truth? That Mudblood's got you by the goolies and you know it--" Draco's words were cut off as Hermione stuck her head out of the shop door at that particular moment and sighed very loudly.

"Come on, Ron! Get inside!" Her bushy hair disappeared inside once more and Ron glared at Draco, who held his hand toward the door.

"You see? Perfect example. She orders you around and you take it. In fact, right now, I'm willing to bet that you're dying to get in there, in hopes of some pathetic reward from her. Perhaps a snog or a bit of a bang in an alleyway-- "

"You don't know what the hell you're talking about, Malfoy," Ron said sharply.

"I'm sure I don't," Draco replied airily, shrugging. Both boys stood staring at each other for a long moment; Ron's face angrily calm and Draco's face graced with a triumphant half-smile. Ron's eyes narrowed further as Draco's two goons came lumbering behind the silver-haired prat.

"Hey, Malfoy, why did you run from us at the edge of the village?" Crabbe grunted, staring down at his friend. "What were you--"

"Crabbe," Goyle muttered, jutting his chin in the Ron's direction, and suddenly both boys' eyes were on the redhead.

"Aaaah," Crabbe suddenly said, a grin quickly spreading on his face. "Sorry, Malfoy, we should probably leave the two of you alone."

Ron was utterly bewildered. He wasn't sure if he even wanted to know why Crabbe and Goyle were grinning like they'd just been told the N.E.W.T.s were cancelled, but on the positive side, Malfoy's smile was gone. His already alabaster face lost any hint of color, and his mouth dropped open in a rather unattractive gape.

"You--what--you--I'll--Crabbe--you--" Malfoy spluttered. He glanced at Ron quickly. "I--I--"

It was Ron's turn to smile now. "My, my, Malfoy, all that squeaking and sputtering. If I didn't know any better, I'd say you'd turned back into a ferret."

"You---" Draco took several deep breaths and tried to calm down, but when he finally spoke, he could only manage a very choppy "Shut up, Weasley."

"Oh, that smarts," Ron said sarcastically. He noticed Crabbe and Goyle had turned to walk away and thought he heard one of them mumble something about "privacy" and "attraction". Well, that was odd, but as he was sure Hermione would be extremely upset if he didn't come in soon, he pushed it out of his mind. "Well, it's been fun, Malfoy, but I'm going inside. Feel free to, you know, go along your merry way. Or jump from a bridge. Entirely up to you." He spun on a heel and walked into the small, stuffy shop, bumping into Harry and Hermione.

"Good of you to finally join us," Hermione said testily, her eyes narrowed. "What did you and Malfoy have to say that could've taken that long?"

"Oh, you know," Ron said breezily, barely supressing his victorious smile, "insults and all that. Nothing important."

*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

"Come on, Draco, we've got Care of Magical Creatures next," Vincent Crabbe called mid-day Monday, over the sounds of Goyle singing a very stupid (in Draco's opinion) wizarding love song with stupid lyrics about stupid fate and stupid destiny and stupid love.

Draco squashed a chocolate frog in his hand. Everything about love was stupid.

"You are the one witch," Goyle warbled in an incredibly off key falsetto, "the one witch I wouldn't switch…baby my wand's on fire…"

"Shut up, Goyle, I'm actually in pain here!" Draco said, leaning back into the pillows on his squashy bed. "And I'm not going to Care of Magical Creatures. I'd rather stay indoors when it's raining, thank you very much."

"Are you sure it's the rain you're avoiding?" Crabbe asked from his bed, where he was shoving books into his bag. "You never told us what happened on Saturday after we left."

"There was nothing to tell," Draco snapped, sitting up straight and glaring over at his acquaintance with all the hatred he could muster. "And you're fortunate I didn't hex your legs or nose or lips off after your performance outside Zonko's, you know. It was very lucky for you that I had an arm cramp and didn't feel like wasting any energy on raising my wand to you." At the words 'arm cramp', Goyle burst into a guffaw, but quickly stifled it at Crabbe's look. Draco continued. "As it is, I decided to just owl Father and tell him you two weren't cooperating with me lately—"

"Now see here, Malfoy," Goyle said without any trace of the humor he'd felt earlier showing on his face, "if you get me in trouble—"

"Relax," Draco said softly, a sneer appearing on his face, "I was just joking. I haven't done it yet. But I won't hesitate the next time…. do you understand me? I don't know why I've become so charitable towards the two of you lately, but don't expect it to happen again."

Crabbe and Goyle exchanged annoyed looks, and heaved their bags over their shoulders. "So you're really not coming to class?" Goyle asked. "What'll we tell Hagrid?"

"Tell the great dirty oaf I was suffocated by a Lethifold. I really could care less, don't make excuses for me, just go if you're going." He waved them off and turned over on the bed, closing his eyes when he heard the door slam behind them. Head buried in his pillows, he began to think about why he wasn't going to class. So I won't have to face Weasley, he thought, then pushed himself up into a sitting position again. Afraid to face Weasley? Draco Malfoy? Hardly. And, after the redhead had been so smug at Hogsmeade, he definitely deserved to suffer at his hands (he pretended not to notice how hot his face was when he thought of his hands on Weasley). No, he tried to convince himself, I just don't want to hear Hagrid drone on in his dead common voice about whatever creature he's making us study today.

He groaned and spoke aloud. "But if I don't go, Weasley will think he's the kittens' mittens for one more day, and I definitely can't have that." Reprimanding himself for using the term 'kittens mittens', he stood and dressed quickly, then swiped hair out of his eyes, knowing he looked decent enough for Hagrid's lesson. He stuffed a book into his bag, along with a copy of that day's Daily Prophet, and swished out of the room. He ran all the way to Hagrid's hut, stopping just after sighting the tiny shack to prop his hands on his knees and catch his breath. Thank goodness it hadn't rained very long earlier, or mud would've splashed all over his robes, and that just wouldn't have done.

He could hear Hagrid's booming voice before he even saw the large man, talking about a three week assignment they would be expected to take part in.

"There y'are, Malfoy. Yeh're late," Hagrid stated the obvious when Draco arrived. "I've already partnered everyone off, yeh'll have to work alone."

Draco surveyed the site. Hagrid was right, everyone was paired off, working with small, furry little beige creatures. Draco winced when he noticed that Crabbe and Goyle were making funny little cooing noises at their particular little fluffy furball. He scanned the rest of the class. Brown and Patil working together. Bulstrode and Parkinson working together. Finnigan and Thomas, Longbottom and…Zabini?? Draco suddenly spotted something he didn't like.

"Hagrid, they're working together, there are three of them," Draco blurted, pointing at Ron, Harry, and Hermione, who were all huddled over their creature. Hermione was stroking it and Ron was leaned over, his hand on her shoulder, whispering something to his two friends.

"So they are," Hagrid grunted, turning to look at the three of them. "Harry, Ron, Hermione…Would one of yeh like ter come an' work with Malfoy?" He flashed them an almost apologetic smile, and Draco wanted to kick his half-giant shins (he couldn't have kicked higher if he wanted to) until he yelped in pain. If that clumsy groundskeeper should've been apologetic to anyone, it should've been him.

The three Gryffindors exchanged looks, but remained silent.

Draco shrugged, keeping calm. "On second thought, the prospect of working with one of them makes my skin crawl, so I'll just work alone, thanks." He tried to keep his eyes from wandering to Ron's face as he spoke.

"All right, go get a Flouzle from the crate, then, "Hagrid nodded. "Reach righ' in there, they're gentle, don' worry."

"I wasn't worried," Draco snapped, walking a few paces to the crate and looking down at the lone Flouzle remaining. It looked like a cross between a cat and a mouse, and it squeaked happily when it looked as though he might get to leave the crate. Draco outwardly let out a disgusted sigh, but inwardly thought the Flouzle was incredibly cute, and rolled up his sleeve before reaching his arm into the crate. His arm bumped into another arm, and Draco's eyes flew to the side. "What the hell are you doing, Weasley?" His voice cracked, but he pushed on, trying to ignore it. "Get back to your group, this is my creature."

"Actually, this is our creature," Ron said casually, pushing Draco's arm to the side and fetching the wiggling lump of fur, which began purring immediately. "We're partners."

A/N: Wheeeeeeeeeeee! Uhm, ok. I'd like to thank anyone and everyone who has reviewed this story so far (especially scythe_fire, who actually checked back and demanded more..LOL). Flouzles are made up simply because I've misplaced my copy of "Fantastic Beasts" and needed to have a creature. Thanks to Jaime, who was "indignant on Ron's behalf". Thanks to all the people on the S.S. Prince and Pauper over at FA (all 8 of you…LOL) for helping and being supportive, even when you weren't aware you were doing so.

I fully realize this chapter was sort of…weird. But I promise (and I really mean it this time) that we'll get to the good stuff soon, and it'll make more sense.