After that, Ron didn't even let Draco get anywhere near him. That didn't really surprise Draco. What surprised Draco was that that was all Ron did – avoid him. If it had been him, he'd have his father suing the Weasleys, Hogwarts, and probably the Ministry – just for good measure – in seconds. He'd have been screaming 'rape' before Ron could blink. There was no way in Hell he'd let Ron catch him twice – twice – and say nothing about it. And from everything he'd observed, that was exactly what he'd have expected Ron to do. Ron's lack of reaction was puzzling.

Ron had no reason – no reason­ – not to tell anyone. Not unless there was something about him thatDraco didn't know. And if it was motivating his actions towards Draco, Draco most definitely wanted to know about it. But try as he might, Draco couldn't come up with anything.

Assuming Ron hated him as he appeared to, he'd have told in seconds. If, but some strange twist of fate Ron was actually already attracted to him and the hatred really had been disguising other feelings, he'd have been screaming 'rape' in seconds just out of habit. Not to mention that Draco would've thought that if he already had a crush on him, Ron would have reacted at least a little when Draco had him pinned to the floor in the locker room. If Ron had enjoyed the kissing a little more than he'd expected, his reaction should have been to push Draco away screaming 'rape' just to avoid dealing with the sudden realization.

And that pretty much covered all the bases. Either Ron had always hated him and still did, Ron had always liked him and still did, or he'd hated Draco but now he realized he was attracted to Draco. There were no other possibilities. Draco didn't generally like the words "no other possibilities." There were always other possibilities – just ones that either you didn't like or you hadn't thought of yet (ignoring the fact that those were the only two possible possibilities he was willing to consider when it came to the number of possibilities there were in which case, the statement was false, because there were only two possibilities and he'd listed them… which still left the statement false, because he'd still listed all the possibilities, unless… never mind, this wasn't getting him anything but a headache). The point was that Draco didn't like accepting that he knew all the possibilities. And since none of the possibilities he'd already come up with fit, he had to assume that there was another that he simply hadn't thought of yet.

But no matter how hard he thought about it, Draco couldn't come up with anything.




Almost a week after the incident in the locker room, Draco was thoroughly sick and tired of watching Ron and waiting for an opportunity to present itself. The boy never went anywhere alone. He even seemed to be going to the bathroom in his dormitory, since Draco hadn't seen him go once since the incident in the locker room. Before, Draco had been extremely reluctant to catch him when he went to the bathroom – something about that just felt wrong in some really fundamental way. At this point, Draco was ready to seize any chance he was given.

Except that Ron wasn't giving him any. And it wasn't like he could just walk up to the boy – surrounded by Harry and Hermione and the rest of his friends as he always was now – and ask to talk to him alone. They'd ask questions and Draco would get in trouble. And they'd put more pressure on Ron to tell him shove it and make Draco's job that much more difficult.

But Draco wasn't going to give up – even if he had to wait until after they'd graduated from Hogwarts. No, he'd accepted Pansy's challenge, and he was going to see it through and only Ron's death would stop him (assuming he was unable to pursue Ron in Heaven or wherever they went).

It was after dinner that day that Draco finally managed to catch Ron. He followed Ron and Hermione into the library. They sat down at a table at the back of the library, hidden from most of the room by bookshelves and Draco took a seat just near enough to hear their conversation. He wasn't sure where Harry was, but that didn't matter. He wasn't here. Hermione was babbling about their homework, not saying anything important, and Draco easily tuned her out. After about an hour of her chattering away about something, a young first year walked hesitantly up to her.

"C-c-could you h-help me w-with my homework?"

If the kid had come up to Draco, Draco'd have told him to go stuff it – even if the brat had been a Slytherin (not that a Slytherin would ever be that pathetic). But Hermione wasn't Draco and she simply smiled and got up to go help him. Sap.

Oh well, at least this left Ron alone.

Draco waited until she vanished and then got up, moving to sit down across from Ron. Ron looked up briefly, saw Draco, tensed, and looked back at his work. For a minute, Draco just sat there, considering how to proceed. Then he carefully moved his foot over to touch Ron's leg. Feeling his foot, Ron shot him a startled glared before turning back to his books, flushing hotly.

Blushing was good, right?

Well, at least he wasn't screaming for someone to pull the crazed rapist off of him. That had to be good. Perplexing, but good.

Slowly, Draco began to move his foot up and down Ron's leg, smiling as his flush deepened. He tried moving his foot higher, until he reached Ron's knee. Ron kept blushing, but otherwise didn't react. Draco tried slipping his foot along the inside of Ron's thigh.

"Malfoy," the boy hissed, glaring at him. He was, if possible, an even darker shade of red.

"Mmm?"

Ron gave him a disgusted look and turned back to his work.

Okay, so maybe he could push this just a little further. Draco brought back his foot and Ron seemed to relax a little. But Draco merely slipped off his shoe and returned his foot to Ron's leg, sliding up over his ankles, up to his knees, pushing apart his upper legs so he could slide his foot along the inside of his thigh again. …just a little further and…

"Malfoy!" Ron hissed again.

"Yes?"

"What the hell do you think you're doing?"

Draco smiled sweetly at him. "I should think that would be obvious, Weas–Ron." The name sounded strange on his lips and Draco realized that while he had gotten used to thinking of him as Ron, he'd never actually said the name before.

Ron swallowed and looked back at his homework. Did he honestly think that Draco would just get bored and give up? Ah well, Draco might as well get his attention again. He moved his foot a little further along Ron's thigh… closer… closer…

"Ow!" Ron had stomped, hard, on his other foot. Shit. He pulled his foot back.

"Shhh."

Draco blinked at that. Ron wanted him to be quiet? Ron wanted him to be quiet. Ron was being quiet. Ron wasn't telling anyone… Ron didn't want anyone to find out about this (hence the not telling anyone… keen observation skill, there). Now that Draco thought about it, when they were in the locker room, the thing that had silenced him best was the suggestion of someone else finding them. Interesting… But why didn't Ron want anyone finding out about this? It wasn't like Ron had anything to be ashamed of. He wasn't doing anything. Draco was the one doing inappropriate things, not Ron.

Draco considered trying again, but when he did, he found that Ron had crossed his legs. Oh well, time to try a new tactic.

"So, what are you working on?" Draco asked, shoving his shoe back on.

Ron ignored him, so Draco pushed the textbooks out of the way and looked at the assignment. Care of Magical Creatures. Draco'd finished his essay days ago.

Ron grabbed one of the books back. "You lost my place!"

Draco smirked. "Sorry. You know, that's not due for another two days, right?"

Ron ignored him, so Draco tried again.

"How much more do you have to do?"

Silence.

"You want some help?"

More silence.

Around that point, Draco ran out of patience. Anyways, he had no idea when Hermione would be coming back and he didn't want her to catch them. Especially if Ron was so desperate not to get caught. So he got up and walked around the table, sitting down next to Ron and casually brushing his hand against Ron's hip.

Ron closed his eyes, tensing at the contact. Draco looked over his shoulder at what he was writing. He hadn't gotten very far – only two, short paragraphs.

"Are you sure you don't want some help?"

"I can do it on my own, Malfoy."

"You know, you're kind of cute when you're mad."

Now Ron glared at him. Well, at least he was looking. Draco reached out to brush his fingers over Ron's scowling lips. Ron snapped his head back so fast he almost fell over.

"Look Malfoy, you may be gay, but I am not. So just leave it, okay?"

"So maybe you're bi."

"No."

"Aren't you the least bit curious?"

"No."

"Not even a little?"

"No." And with that firm denial, Ron grabbed his books and got up, hurrying out of the library as fast as he could without attracting attention and leaving Draco not much closer to achieving his goal than he'd been this morning.

A/N: Kashiaga: Here the update... Master of the flames: Thanks :P Stars-n-moons91: Thanks... I hope this makes more sense than the last chapter. You kind of forced me to think about Ron's motivation a little more, which definatly helped a lot. So thanks a ton!! :D

And anyone who notices and points out gramatical errors in any of my writing, I'll love you forever! (though plot continuity, characterization and so on are great too...)