After updating a lot of unfinished stories, and accidentally starting a whole new story (of which I'm still debating continuing…I think I'll just keep it where it is, "He's Not Your King…", the outing one) I give you another chapter of this, yay!

Thanks to my reviewers, without you guys I wouldn't bother continuing this!

Genuine- Sincere thanks and hugs go to you, my god your review made me laugh for five whole minutes. It did, however, put some things into perspective…I actually planned this chapter (go me) and mentioning the Quidditch pitch gave me inspiration for my other random fic I did, which I previously stated.

I Heart DM 11- as always, you are super awesome. I'm glad the timing with your well-needed fix was good as I had enough to supply it to you. Thank you for the marriage proposal as well as the rape one; I'd be honored to take part in both.

mintapotter- another loyal review, mucho thankies and I will supply, being your humble servant.

MackenzieRain- your use of 'truly' so much was too cute…I'm so so so humbled though –blushes- I'm so glad you like this story!

Catt- I hope you don't go too insane now that there's another chappy…but then again, if it's a good kind of insane…I say live it up!

Dianashirly- I do intend on actually making a plot…I think? It should get to that point. I found the "I mean, who doesn't" particularly amusing.

It made me think, do I write Ron and Draco fics for Ron? Or Draco? Which do you guys personally prefer? I honestly don't know…

Mind you, I do have the rest of this bit planned (this is the first time I actually planned a chapter…but it was too long to put in one so it will be two). It might be what you expect...or maybe the opposite. Also, I didn't feel like writing this much and then typing it all again…this took long enough to type! I'm practically falling asleep on the keyboard, don't mind any mistakes…

Cassie x

Chapter 29

Being his fashionably late self, the anxious Slytherins awaited Draco's entrance in the Great Hall.

"Oh Draco, are you alright?" "We were so worried!" "Why did it take you so long to come back to the dorms?" "What did Pomfrey say?" were a few of the concerns Draco picked up from the barrage of fretting friends. Included in that group were Gregory and Vincent, which was less than a subtle change; just the day before he was tripped and called a un-PC slur centering around his homosexuality by the two.

Putting his hands up to attest the interrogation, everyone crowded around the blonde when he sat down. He had gone straight up to bed after he returned from the showers and thus, caused a house-wide epidemic of panic, set off by the worrisome Quidditch players who didn't see Draco come back to practice. Not bothering to go to Madam Pomfrey and inquire her about his whereabouts, they were about to split up and search for him before one noticed the blonde tuft of hair barely peeking out from under the silver covers, fast asleep.

"So what did Pomfrey say?" Pansy urged, offering Draco whatever was closest to her.

Waving it off, Draco reassured his friend, "There's nothing to worry about…I just have quite a bruise on my hip," as he smiled. He felt safe with that response because he indeed wasn't lying about the injury. Ron seemingly was particularly rough with him last night; the 4 red streaks on either side of the front of his hip were surrounded by a soft purple and blue. Draco took the extra time this morning in the shower to examine it, as it took him by surprise when washing off.

"Draco…?" the repeated request snapped the blonde out of his thought cloud. "How long were you there for?" another Slytherin, a fellow Quidditch player, inquired; the rest were still worried about the boy's upkeep.

"Oh about…45 minutes or so," he calculated, trying to not miss a step in his actions last night. "I was really exhausted by the fall out…" he suggested, hoping it would quell the assault he was getting.

It worked, as a collective 'oh' was elicited from the sated Slytherins. Many "glad to know you're alright/okay/not hurt badly," were exclaimed and things relatively calmed down.

That is, until Pansy spotted an owl coming their way and morphed into the giggling buffoon mood. "Oooh Draco, another tasty offer I presume?" she marveled as the letter dropped in front of him. "I hope your hip will be alright for the lucky boy later," she ogled the envelope and winked at the blonde.

Upon opening the letter and noticing the handwriting, he scowled and replied, "Don't think so," even before reading over the short and curt message.

"Meet me sometime to talk…if you're not too 'distracted' –RW"

"Well that's a shame," Pansy hummed between bites, not noticing the harsh treatment the parchment received after being taken in.

Grabbing a scrap in his pocket, his eyes scanned the Gryffindor table and he glowered at the author. Ron seemed to be stuck in the middle of an awkward position, per usual.

"Gods 'Moine, so what if I didn't do one assign…" the brunette was cut off by yet another scoff from his girlfriend.

"This was for McGonagall. You do realize she can cut out your practice time for your precious Quidditch? And no Transfiguration work and it's an automatic detention…you know this!" the Gryffindor girl scolded Harry.

"She wouldn't take up our practice time…" he assured Hermione, "She's fair but not stupid! We're facing the Slytherins next…"

"Should be an interesting game," Ron nodded, trying to veer the conversation away from the petty bickering.

Nevertheless, Hermione completely ignored the redhead who was placed in between herself and her sparring partner. "What was so important that you decided to focus on instead?" Hermione's saccharine question more than hinted that she was still fuming.

"Well me and Ron were up most of the night, after he got back from spying on the Slytherins' game…" he filled her in.

It was mainly Ron who did the talking, frustrated as ever. On top of his venting about everything including boys, he had to spend an extra half hour deferring Harry from "Beating the shit out of that Ferret" to "What about threatening?" to "Just a word? Please?" and eventually to keeping his mouth shut entirely or else getting his gossip connection severed from the redhead.

"Okay…well this wasn't your fault, Ron," she quickly dismissed her friend, something that shocked Ron, as he was always blamed for something, "because you had more than enough time to do this," she began bickering again, point accusatorily at Harry.

And cue in Ron's short attention span. Tuning out Hermione's rants and useless squabbling and scolding, his eyes searched the rest of his table. A few seats down on the opposite side sat Seamus with his boyfriend. Watching their interaction, serving the other their food, laughing, and constantly smiling at one another made him dreamily sigh.

He definitely wanted that, but instead his thoughts came to the facts; his only "relationships" were forged…forged again, but with a boy that sent him 3 letters just this morning, desperately seeking a reason as to why Ron shut the door in his face and if he still wanted to meet later on…and the last, which wasn't forged, but was with a shallow, narcissistic bastard who wanted nothing to do with him.

Even though he vented most of his concerns last night to his best friend, the one that he could not be consoled on was simply, "why?". He wanted to get that answer straight from the source and that's why he owled the source. The response took Ron by surprise because he was still too busy ignoring the fight with the people to his immediate left and right and staring off into the distance, wrapping his attention around his thoughts.

The sloppy scribbled response from Draco simply said, "I've already expressed how I feel and I just don't care about how you feel," and that was the end of it.

Glowering at the letter and with plans already formulating, the redhead crumpled up the parchment. He tuned back into the argument, to shift his anger and his urge to look at Draco, that hadn't skipped a beat while Ron received his note; the two simply leaned behind him to dispute some more.

"Yes but still the detention…you do realize what tonight is…" Hermione hinted, raising an accusatory eyebrow.

The deer in headlights look sprung upon Harry's face. Hermione kept all sorts of odd "landmark anniversaries" and Harry lost count at how long it'd been since the 3 month, 3 week, and 3 day one…he just always smiled and nodded so he could reap the benefits and keep her happy.

Staring quickly down at his plate to fix his winning smile, Harry replied, "Oh of course," and beamed at Hermione. "Don't worry about the detention. McGonagall never keeps me the whole time, and once she's finished with me, I'm all yours."

The declaration had Hermione sighing and smiling back; all was fine with the golden couple. Snapping back into familiarity, "Will you be my partner for the potions project?" Harry sweetly asked, sheepishly smiling.

Rolling her eyes, Hermione agreed, "Of course…just don't put me up with all the research like last time."

"Oh I won't," his false promise was only noted by Ron, Hermione smiled and leaned over him to kiss the brunette.

Pushing apart the two when the kissing started getting intense (they were right in front of him anyways) Ron cocked an eyebrow and inquired, "What project?"

"Word is Snape's assigning one on some exotic potions. It's supposed to be worth a lot of points," Hermione informed the redhead, "Sort of a punishment for all of the fighting that's been going on lately between us and the Slytherins."

Making a silent 'oh' expression and nodding, Ron stood up. "Well, we better head down before we can by any means be counted as late," he suggested.

His two friends acquiesced and Harry quickly grabbed Hermione by the waist and pulled her close for the walk. Ron caught a fleeting glimpse at the blonde Slytherin, scowling intently at him as he left.

"Neville…quit arguing with Vincent…" Snape demanded; the third time a Gryffindor has been scolded for messing with a Slytherin this period. Another potions class was in session, and yet another lab was to be completed.

Ron ensured maximum attention would be drawn to him today as he positioned himself at the table in front of Draco's. As to not be so obvious, however, he placed himself on the opposite side, near Pansy. Casually being a klutz and 'spilling' some water on his robes gave him the excuse to shuck it off, showing underneath the tightest pair of trousers he owned.

Draco was quite uncomfortable with his two supposed enemies being nearby; he hoped Pansy wouldn't, for the fourth time, bring up the hip 'injury'. He couldn't help but tune her out as usual, but today he had a reason, Ron kept dropping things, announcing his actions to Harry with a laugh, and bending over to pick them back up.

Part of him believed that the Gryffindor was too angered, wounded, or anxious by his relative presence and that was the cause, but the other part wasn't as fooled, supposing that Ron simply wanted his attention…which he was frequently getting.

By the end of the period, Ron had dropped his ginger root six times and Draco cut his finger while slicing his root twice. Pansy soon took control of the potion, figuring Draco must have been still shaken up from the accident last night.

This lack of responsibility freed him to unite with Blaise, who was sitting at the table next to him, and bug Harry in as many ways that were conceived possible. When Blaise gave up and Draco began to tease Harry about Hermione is when the brunette finally turned around, placing his hands on Draco's table and looking the Slytherin square in the eye.

"Listen…you shouldn't be the one making snide remarks about relationships because I have plenty remarks about yours. Shove it up your arse and shut up or the whole school will know about your private life, just as you've succeeded in detailing everyone with mine," he warned sternly. This was his way to threaten the boy without Ron protesting.

Draco, gob smacked, looked to his right, at the back of Ron's head, and quickly resumed staring at Harry's challenging glare. Catching the side-glance, satisfied, Harry turned back around with a short nod.

Draco looked back at Ron, who was occupying himself with absentminded stirring. Not only did he miss the entire confrontation or back his friend up, but also he's acted like that the whole period, the blonde noticed. He appeared totally unattached and uninterested, not in an apathetic way, but just inattentive to Draco, which was a change from his typical disposition.

The next one to talk in the period was a very upset professor. "To save all of us, mainly myself, some convenience by not issuing more detentions, I will instead make this next project bicameral, if you'd like to call it that. No Gryffindor can work with another Gryffindor, and the same goes with the Slytherins. You may pick your partner but they must be from a different house and you will see me so I know who you're working with," Snape ordered.

A collection of small sighs escaped the class and most hung their heads in annoyance. Harry out and out banged his head on the table when the realization occurred that he would actually have to do work. Acquaintances got together, like Daphne and Seamus, Hermione and Millicent, and eventually people started mingling.

Ron slid past Harry and took a left in the aisle. Strolling over to Blaise, he leaned over his table from the side, giving Draco a sight to take in, his elbows rested in front of the Slytherin and his hip jutting out. "So Blaise…you and me?" he simply offered, shrugging nonchalantly.

"Alright, whatever," the indifferent brunette complied, "When do you want to work on it?"

Ron put on a pensive face, appearing to scan his schedule, but he already had this all planned out; it was what he was focusing on the whole period. "Are you free tonight? I bet we'll have some other project assigned and I just want to get this over with. Let's meet up…at your dorm, I'll be nice," Ron offered, putting of a 'Well, I'm as miffed and annoyed as you are' front.

Blaise shrugged, "Come at 4, I have Quidditch at 6."

Ron simply nodded and repeated, "4 it is," before shifting his weight onto his hip nearest the table and turning back around exaggeratingly.

A quick glance was directed at Draco but he was already chatting with Pansy, mainly grumbling about the project. Bending down one more time to retrieve his robe again, Ron slapped his palm next to Pansy on the table, jolting her attention, and proceeded to do the same to the last 2 tables in the row before making his way to Snape's desk.

The confidence that radiated from the redhead was automatically transmitted as weakness to Draco, but he had no idea just how strong Ron felt about the 'study session' tonight.