Ron lay in bed that night wondering what had made him gawk so heavily at Draco's bare chest. Everything Draco had ever done in his life had been in direct cruelty towards himself and his family, but for a brief moment in the hospital wing Ron's heart felt as if it had opened slightly to Draco. And Draco made no attempt to strike at Ron while he was walking towards him. Maybe he didn't hate Draco as much as he thought? And maybe just maybe Draco wasn't as vile as everyone had thought? He closed his eyes and dozed off before he could contemplate anymore.
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
The empty hospital wing walls felt as if they were closing in on Draco, as he carefully tossed and turned from on side to another in the uncomfortable hospital bed. The way Ron had looked at him earlier that day first with so much hate and contempt in the dungeons, then with near passion as he rushed towards him, arms outstretched, just hours before. Draco wasn't sure what to think of Ron. He knew he had been awful to him for their entire time at Hogwarts, but it was because he secretly feared him. Yes, Draco Malfoy feared someone. Not because he was scared that Ron would hurt him, but because he knew that Ron was the only person bright enough to figure him out, his little secret. Draco had never told anyone about his personal life, nor his love life, but there was a reason why he constantly went from one woman to another. The reason was that he wasn't attracted to them in the least. He knew there was something different about him since he was a child; that difference being that he was attracted to men.
No one knew it, and he wanted to make sure that no one would ever find out. His father, he was sure would disown him. His mother didn't seem to care enough about anything to worry about him. He did have one downfall though, and if you haven't guessed it yet, I'm sure you won't be surprised. Draco loved red hair. There was a reason why he treated the Weasley family with such despises. It was because he knew that if he didn't block his feelings for them then they would surely consume him. And again, if his father found out he had fallen in love with an unwealthy Weasley, he would never be able to look him in the face again.
Draco tossed for a few more moments before he decided that he would never get to sleep with so much on his mind. He looked down at his watch, 2am, no one would be up at this hour. He could walk off his thoughts without being bothered by anyone. He stood up, walked towards the door, took a good look around to make sure that there was no one within site, and jutted out of the doorway and down the hall.
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
Ron awoke in a cold sweat, sitting up. He looked at his clock, it was almost two in the morning. He felt wide-awake. He slid his legs off of the side of the bed and rested his feet on the floor. Rising out of the bed as quietly as possible to avoid waking the others in his room, he moved towards the door and entered the Gryffindor common room.
He plopped himself down in a common room chair that was in front of the fire. He let the fire warm him for a few moments before deciding he would take a brief walk around the school. It after all was much too late to have anyone concerned with his actions, he hoped. Maybe he could even venture down to the hospital wing and see how Draco was doing. He didn't know why, but he had a strange urge to watch his chest rise and fall as he slept. He knew he was risking getting points taken away from Gryffindor if he was caught but he just couldn't sit still, and he knew he wouldn't be able to fall back asleep now that his mind was set on visiting the hospital wing.
Ron walked into the hallway, and towards the main staircase. He walked up two levels and had reached the top of the stairs to the hospital wing level when he suddenly felt silly. What would he say to Draco if he woke up when he walked into the room? It hadn't occurred to him how stupid he would look walking into the hospital wing to go visit Draco. Actually if he was caught Draco would probably think he had come up there to pick another fight. He spun around, deciding that going to see Draco was thoroughly a stupid idea, only to realize that the staircase was just about to move. His right foot was on the top step, and his left was still on the platform when the stairs suddenly shifted under him. He turned quickly, grabbing onto the side of the platform trying to right himself. The staircase slid out from under his feet and he lost grip on the side of the platform. His hands slid down the side and he struggled to hold his grip on the edge of the platform.
"HELP!!" Ron began to scream. "SOMEONE. HELP ME!! HEEEELP!!" He kicked his legs trying to right himself, but he hung midair as another staircase came into view. He couldn't believe his luck. Of all the times he had come to near death in his 6 years of friendship with the famous Harry Potter, he was now about to be killed by a moving staircase. "HELP!! HELP ME!!" He continued to yell as the staircase came closer.
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
Draco rounded a corner and was near the main staircase when he suddenly heard a call for help. The voice sounded familiar, but he couldn't quite place it. If he responded to the call he'd risk being caught out of bed after hours, but it couldn't hurt to look at what was happening, could it? He jogged towards where the scream had come from.
"HELP! HELP ME PLEASE!" The voice called.
Draco listened. "Where are you?!" He called out.
"I'm over here! By the staircase! Help me!!"
Draco rushed towards the voice. "I'm coming!"
"Hurry!!" Ron looked over, it was just a matter of moments before the staircase came back and crushed him.
Draco rounded the corner to see Ron dangling from the edge of where the staircase should have been as an approaching set of stairs was about to crush him. He ran forward and squatted down, extending his hand and yanking Ron up onto the platform just in time. The new set of stairs connected with the platform, nearly crushing Ron's legs. Draco had fallen backwards onto the floor, and Ron had landed partially on top of him. Ron lifted his head, and pushed himself up with his right arm.
"Thank" Ron gasped for breath, beads of sweat arising on the surface of his skin. His already fair skin was now almost white as a ghost from fright. Draco looked up at Ron as he lay atop of him. Suddenly reality gripped Ron, and he jumped up off of Draco. "What were you doing out of the hospital wing!?" Ron questioned.
"I couldn't sleep, I decided to go for a walk and besides what are YOU doing out of bed! And in this wing! You could have been killed but" Draco coughed. His head was filled with emotions of how sad he would be if Ron had been killed, but he couldn't let Ron know that he felt that way. "but IT WOULD HAVE SERVED YOU RIGHT!!" Draco shouted. Ron was taken aback by this comment. He almost thought for a second Draco was worried about him dying, but he was wrong.
"I don't know what your problem is Draco! I haven't done anything to you! In fact I was I was" Ron stopped. He had almost admitted that he was out of bed because he was worried about him.
"Well? You were what?" Draco waited for his answer.
"I was sleepwalking!" Ron said, feeling stupid that he couldn't come up with a better excuse.
"Right Weasley, sleepwalking right up to the hospital wing. Coming to attack me while I was incapacitated eh? I know how you think! You just wanted to get a last in on me, beat me while I'm down."
"That is NOT how I think!" Ron retorted.
"Yeah right, because you care about me sooo much"
Suddenly there was a shout down the hall. "Hey! Who's there! Who's up at this time!?"
Draco and Ron looked at one another, eyes widened. That's all they needed was to get in trouble again. They weren't sure how many detentions with one another they could make it through together.
"I'm going back to the hospital wing, you better get going back to your common room!" Draco ran quickly down the hall.
Ron turned and looked at the stairs for a moment. Dare he have another encounter with them? He took a deep breath and did a little leap onto the staircase, skipping down them three steps at a time until he reached the first level. He ran the entire length of the hallway until he reached the Gryffindor portrait, opened it and slipped inside. Ron fell into the wall once he made it into the common room. He breathed in deeply, feeling a rush of relief come over him. He stayed still against the wall for a minute or two before slowly making his way up the stairs to his room. Unbelievably, Draco Malfoy had just saved his life.
* * * * *
Hannah: Thanks for the comments, I'll send you an email about the next chapter.
Elf Princess Bloom: mmm nakie Draco goodness... you won't be disappointed I
promise.
Awkwardness: I decided to do a Ron/Draco slash because frankly (besides the
fact that they're my two favorite characters) Ron/Draco slashes are rare to
come by!
Hi: Yay, thankies!