By the time Harry made it back to the common room, he had decided that he was going to stay at Malfoy Manor over Christmas. But he wasn't going to pretend he wasn't Ron's friend just for Draco's parents' benefit. They would either have to accept him as he was – Ron included – or not. Ron had been his friend long before Draco had become his boyfriend, and whatever else they might have done, the Weasleys had all but adopted him into their family the day they had met. He couldn't simply deny them anymore than he could deny that he went to Hogwarts.

Harry sat down between Ron and Hermione in the common room. Ron shifted away from him.

"Where were you?" Hermione asked him.

"Talking to Dumbledore. I wanted to ask him if it would be safe for me to go to Malfoy Manor for Christmas. With Sirius Black on the loose and all…"

"And what did he say?"

Harry sighed. "He said that Malfoy Manor was probably the safest place for me other than Hogwarts."

"What? He's nuts!" Ron cried, before remembering that he wasn't talking to Harry.

"He said that since Sirius Black wouldn't know where I was, it might even be safer."

"Isn't he worried about them hurting you, even if Sirius can't get you?" Hermione asked.

Harry shrugged. "He said they wouldn't."

"Hmm… I guess it wouldn't look very good for them to hurt you while you were at their house."

"I guess so…"

Hermione nodded. "So are you going?"

"Yeah."

"What?" Ron asked.

"I'm going," Harry told him.

"But you always stay at Hogwarts over Christmas."

"Because I never have anywhere else to go. This year I do."

Ron glared at him and Hermione sighed. "Ron, they're dating. Of course they're going to be spending Christmas together."

Ron turned to glare at her for a moment before looking back at Harry. "Just don't forget who your friends are," Ron spat at him. "I'm going down to dinner."

With that, he left the room, leaving Harry and Hermione staring after him.




During dinner, Draco watched Harry intently. For once, he wasn't particularly concerned with what his housemates thought. All he cared about was catching Harry when he left dinner.

Harry was facing away from him – not a good sign. He didn't seem to be talking to anyone and his posture was more slouched than usual. More bad signs. Draco had hardly thought about Harry's housemates since Harry had assured him that they were okay with Harry dating Draco. But it seemed that Harry was no more done dealing with his friends than Draco was.

Draco wondered what exactly Harry was fighting with them about. Maybe that was why he was avoiding Draco – because his friends wanted him to. If that were the problem, Draco wasn't entirely sure what he could do about it. But he had to at least talk to him.

When Harry got up to leave dinner, Draco immediately got up to follow him. But just before he reached the door, Blaise stepped in front of him.

"Hey Draco, could you help me out?"

"Later."

"Why not now? You don't seem busy to me."

"Blaise–"

"What? In a rush to meet your boyfriend?"

"Yes. Now let me go meet him."

"I'm sure he can wait. So can you help me out?"

"No."

"Come on, I just want some help with my transfiguration homework. It won't take that long. Or are you going to choose that stuck up Gryffindor over your own house?"

Draco closed his eyes, suppressing his temptation to say 'yes.' But most of his table was listening now, and that would cause more problems than it solved.

"What do you need help with?"

Blaise gave him a slightly triumphant smile. "I don't remember. Sorry."

Draco resisted the sudden urge to throttle the boy. "Okay," he said as calmly as he could and left. But by that time Harry had already vanished.

Frustrated, Draco returned to his common room to finish his homework.


Harry closed his eyes as he sank down on his bed. He was getting royally tired of Ron not talking to him. Why did Ron have to make such a big deal out of everything? Why was it such a big deal that Harry was dating Draco or that he was going to Malfoy Manor for Christmas? Why did it even matter? It wasn't like it changed anything. He was still Harry Potter, the boy who had been Ron's best friend since they were eleven years old. Why should who Harry chose to date change that?

Why couldn't Ron just accept this? It wasn't like he had to live with being gay or being in love with Draco Malfoy – all Ron had to do was keep being friends with Harry. But it seemed that that was more than he could manage.

Ron didn't have to cope with his friends' reactions, or try to deal with the Dursleys… Oh god, Harry didn't even want to think about how the Durleys would react when they learned that Harry was gay. If Ron, his best friend couldn't even cope with it, what would the Dursleys do?

The possibilities were endless – anything from disowning him to locking him up until he 'learned the error of his ways' to trying to beat it out of him. There were a million ways they could react, a million things they could do to him because of it. And none of them were anything even remotely resembling good.

Harry firmly pushed his thoughts about the Dursleys aside. He'd deal with that when the time came. Now his problem was Ron.

But what could he do about Ron? What was he supposed to say? 'I'm sorry I'm dating Draco. I'll try to be more considerate of your feelings next time I'm falling in love.' But he wasn't sorry he was dating Draco. In fact, he thought it was probably among the best things he'd ever done – right up there with befriending Ron and Hermione in his first year. Why couldn't Ron just see how happy he was with Draco? Why couldn't Ron just let it go?

Why, why, why? Why was he in this mess in the first place? Why did he have to be gay and in love with Draco? Why did he have to be Harry Potter, the Boy-Who-Fucking-Lived? Why did Sirius Black – his fucking godfather – have to be after him? Why did his parents have to be dead? Why? Why him? Why couldn't he just have a normal, happy life? Why couldn't Ron just accept that? Why couldn't Draco understand that Ron was his friend, his best friend, and that Harry would never, never deny that?

Why?

The door opened and Harry looked up to see Ron enter the room.

Harry got out of bed, walking over to his friend. Please let him listen to me… "Hey."

Ron ignored him, walking over to his own bed to look for his pajamas.

"Ron, please just listen to me. Please?"

Ron didn't say anything.

"God, Ron, I don't even know what you're so mad about. Why won't you talk to me? Is it that I'm gay? Or that I'm dating Draco? Why is that such a big deal? Come on Ron, you're my best friend. At least tell me why you're mad at me…"

Ron spun around. "Why I'm mad at you? You really don't know? Because you're dating that fucking prick Malfoy! One minute you'd sooner break his neck than look at him and the next minute you're dating the bastard. His parents were Death Eaters, for God's sake – they worked for the guy who killed your parents! And you're dating him. You don't even care that they're the bad guys. You're going to their house for Christmas, so you can be with your boyfriend. They murdered your parents and you're dating their son, and you're asking me what's wrong?" Ron stared at him for a moment, fists clenched. "It's like I don't even know you anymore."

Harry stared back at him. What could he say? How could show Ron that it really wasn't a big deal? How could he get Ron back without dumping Draco? "Ron, I–"

But Ron just stalked out of the room, leaving Harry feeling very much alone.

A/N: Well, I'm going to be seeing PoA again tonight, so I'll probably come back with enough inspiration to start about six more stories... And with luck I'll be able to channel that inspiration into this fic. :D Though I think PoA had more Remus/Sirius than anything else... (accept Remus/Harry, but I don't really like teacher/student relationships like that) Actually, I think my favorite HP pairings are probably Narcissa/Lily, Remus/Sirius, and Dumbledor/Voldemort (not that I've been able to find much of that on the web... I wonder why?) But H/D is a lot of fun to write...
Right... now to thank everyone for reviewing: THANKS!!! Luv ya'll dearly (I'd love you more if you could find me a photo of Tom Felton making out with Daniel Radcliffe...)
Makai Dragon: Well I wouldn't want you to feel unappreciated. :P And thanks for reviewing again... Orange: As soon as I write more, I'll e-mail it to you. Fire Tempest and Kashiaga: Thanks