I don't really have anything to say this time around, so on with the chapter!
Disclaimer: still applies, so you won't have to see it anymore. Yay!
Warnings: little more slashiness, and some angry Harry.
Chapter 7 - Concert Night Isn't Always a Happy Night
Saturday took its sweet time rolling around. In the four days prior to it, Harry had struggled through the nightmares twice more, failed a Chemistry test, forgotten his History essay, still not managed to break things off with Cho, gotten into another argument with his parents concerning him seeking help, and been avoided like the plague by Ron. All in all, he was quite glad that the concert night had finally rolled around. He was glad he would have some distraction from the confusing mess his life had become.
He wiped the fog away from the mirror as he looked into it. He studied his reflection. There was no answer for why things were getting out of control found in his reflection. Just Harry. He sighed and began dressing. He dreaded the car ride with Ron if that week had been any indication of his friend's behavior. Harry hated being ignored. Ron was being silly about the whole thing. After all, he had been the one to kiss Harry. Not the other way around. Harry should have been the one offended and disgusted and doing the ignoring. 'You can't do that,' his mind reasoned with him. 'You enjoyed it. You loved every bit of it. You fag...'
He had been a jumbled, confused mess ever since that afternoon. Yes, he had enjoyed it. He had enjoyed it very much. The whole thing had changed his perspective on his best friend, and now Ron was suddenly a new person in his eyes. He was something different, something wonderful, something... desireable. Harry could not deny these strong feelings for his red-headed friend. Still, he was a jumbled miss. What about all of his encounters with Cho, that he had enjoyed? None of it made sense.
"I'm gonna get through this," he whispered to his reflection, then left the bathroom and headed downstairs.
When Harry told his parents he was going and reached the front door, Hermione was already parked at the curb. He opened the door to come face to face with Ron. His friend looked at him, mouth hanging open with no words. Harry shivered. It had been the first time Ron had looked at him in days. He saw the little smoldering in Ron's brown eyes as they met his own. They stared at one another, and knew they were both remembering every detail about their encounter.
Neither one knew how long they stood there staring. It must have been too long, for Ginny leaned over Hermione and beeped on the horn impaitently. Ron's ears were flaming red to give testiment to his embarrassment.
"Let's get going," he muttered.
Harry followed him to the car and into the backseat. The girls smiled from the front seat. Harry smiled back, willing the butterflies in his stomach to die a quick death so that he could have peace. All of his sense were on hyperdrive, and he was painfully aware of Ron's presence beside him. He nearly jumped out of his skin when Ron's hand brushed his. Ron merely muttered "sorry" and scooted against the door on his side. Harry silently scolded himself for being such a git.
Ginny was the first person out of the car when they arrived. She, for all intents and purposes, dragged poor Hermione by the hand into the crowd at the ticket line, leaving the boys in her wake. Flogging Molly was Ginny's absolute favorite band. They trailed up to the ticket booth at a slightly slower pace than Ginny had chosen. Harry handed his ticket to the young man behind the counter, who winked flirtatiously at him. He blushed deeply, waiting for Ron, who was glaring daggers at the man. The look on the man's face clearer showed his relief that there was a pane of glass between himself and the grumpy redhead.
"Come on," growled Ron, going to find Ginny and Hermione. Harry tagged along behind him, feeling slightly angry. Ron had completely ignored him for the past few days. Then some random guy shows an interest in Harry and Ron gets all... jealous? Harry felt like throwing up his arms in resignation. People were too complicated for him to figure out.
The girls, or mostly Ginny, had muscled their way a mere five feet away from the stage when Harry and Ron caught up with them. Ginny was practically bouncing around in her excitement. The opening band was warming up on stage. The feeling of thousands of people packed into one place, all of them excited and anxious, was giving Harry a little buzz. He started loosening up, his body started swaying with the music. The feeling was contagious, and it felt so good.
The opening band, The Weird Sisters, finished their set and took a bow. The four cheered along with the rest of the crowd. The members of Flogging Molly filed on stage to a mass of screaming, shouting, jumping fans. Ginny was no exception to this. Ron held his ears as he moved away from his younger sister. The music started up, and all of Harry's cares faded away.
His eyes scanned the crowd as he moved. A flash of black hair caught his eyes. He froze in place. Cho was there, with some guy, and he had looked just in time to see the two of them kissing admist the mass of moving bodies. His insides went cold. Anger was bubbling low in his stomach, slowly creeping through him. He had just seen his girlfriend kissing Cedric Diggory, captain of the swim team and all around popular guy. He felt like he was going to be sick.
Ron was holding his shoulder, mouth close to his ear so Harry could hear him. His breath ghosted against Harry's skin, causing everything in his body to come alive and attune to Ron. He swallowed hard.
"What's wrong!"
"Cho's here," Harry said in Ron's ear. He was so close to Ron's soft skin... He wanted to kiss it, to pay homage to it with his tongue.
"I thought she wasn't coming!"
"Not with me, anyway!"
Harry pointed the pair out to Ron. For a second, he looked as if he wanted to go over and thrash the two, but he did not. He just turned sympathetic eyes on Harry. His hand gave Harry's shoulder a tight squeeze. Harry did not want to hear him say he was sorry about Cho.
He cut Ron off before he could start. "I... I wanna just ignore it, and dance, okay?"
Ron nodded at him. Harry stayed until before the last song. Giving an excuse to Hermione and money for some concert swag, Harry pushed his way out. He could hear Ron calling after him, but just kept going. He started walking faster when he heard Ron catching up to him. Soon, he was running towards Hermione's car.
"Harry, stop!"
"Leave me alone, Ron!"
"Harry, why won't you stop!"
Harry kept running. Ron sure had some nerve... Strangely, Harry was not angry at Cho. In fact, he was glad he finally had a good reason to break up with her. Other than that, he had no feeling about the whole thing. It was Ron he was upset with. Ron, who had given him the best snogging of his life then ignored him and now was playing the concerned game. For the first time in his life, he wished his friend would just go away and leave him alone.
Ron caught Harry by his arm, and wheeled him around. Harry tried to push Ron off but Ron would not be deterred. He pushed Harry back against the side of Hermione's car. Harry struggled against him. Ron pinned Harry between his body and the car. Harry went completely still.
"What's wrong with you, Harry," Ron panted, out of breath and feeling light-headed being able to feel every bit of Harry against himself.
"You," Harry shouted. "You're what's wrong with me, Ron! You've got me running in complete circles and I can't stand it anymore! One minute, you're kissing me and then the next, you're ignoring me. Then, you're all concerned about my feelings! Just leave me alone!"
He just stared at Harry in astonishment. Harry felt tears brimming in his eyes. Ron reached up as they spilled onto his cheeks and wiped them away with tender care. Harry continued to look into Ron's eyes, his own reflecting the confusion he was feeling. Ron's hand stroked his cheek. He began to relax. He was deep in those brown eyes now.
"It's okay," Ron reassured him in a whisper. He was moving slowly closer to Harry with his lips. Harry's heart kicked into overdrive, his eyes slid closed. He would not have believed that it was happening again if he did not feel Ron's breath moving over his face.
Ron's lips pushed against Harry's, tentative and soft and soothing. The feeling calmed Harry's screaming mind. He did not think anymore. He sucked in a breath of surprise as he felt a tongue sweeping at his bottom lip, and Ron took the opportunity to plunge into Harry's mouth. Harry rubbed against Ron's tongue with his own. Ron had his hands on Harry's hips, squeezing gently. Harry moaned at the sensation of it all. He arched closer to Ron's body.
Ron removed his mouth from Harry's. Harry groaned in disappointment. He was soon pacified, however, as Ron found his neck and began lapping over it. Harry moaned again as Ron found a particularlly sensitive spot. Ron latched on, alternating between licking and kissing then biting and sucking, and ground his hips against Harry's. Harry tangled his fingers in the flaming hair at the nape of Ron's neck and tugged lightly on it, gaining a groan of pleasure from his companion. It was undeniable that he wanted Ron right then, and Ron wanted him right back.
"Fuck..." he whispered in a voice that seemed too husky to be his own. "Ron... want you... bad..."
"Want you too, Harry," Ron said against his neck, his voice hot and heavy. "But we can't... We're in the middle of a parking lot."
"Don't care," Harry said. "Just fuck me already."
Instead of obliging his request, Ron backed away from Harry, running his hands through his hair and taking deep breaths. Harry laid, panting, back against Hermione's car still. He could feel the anger rising in him again. It was the second time Ron had gotten him turned on then called off. He glared at his friend.
"That's twice now, you know," he said, not bothering to keep his temper out of his voice. "Gonna try for three? Or are you going to just ignore me some more? Are you taking the mickey out of me, Ron? Is it all just a big game?"
"It's not like that, Harry."
"Oh, really? Then how is it, Ron? Huh?"
Ron turned to face him. He was trying to be calm, Harry could tell. He just did not care. He wanted to get a rise out of Ron. He wanted his friend to yell and scream at him. He needed to yell and scream back. He needed to vent his emotions, and Ron was just a good an outlet as any; he was, afterall, the cause of Harry's frustration the past few days.
"I'm just... confused, Harry. I'm confused by all this. I mean, one day you're my best mate, and then the next day, I'm snogging the life outta you and humping your leg. I don't know what's going on with me!"
"And you think I'm perfectly okay with it? That it's not weird at all for me? I had a girlfriend, Ron!"
"Fine piece of work she turned out to be."
"That's not the subject, here --"
"What's going on with you two?"
They turned at the sound of Hermione's voice. The two of them were looking at them with twin confused looks. Hermione handed Harry a t-shirt and a bag of band stuff and the leftover change. Harry looked over at Ron. His ears were turning red and he would not meet Harry's eyes. Harry glared at him.
"Nothing," Harry said.
"But --" Hermione started, but then fell quiet as Ginny placed a hand on her arm. The young redhead simply nodded in the negative, then climbed in the car. Hermione let the subject go, following Ginny's lead. Harry got into the backseat. He did not look at Ron as he slid in on the other side. The car ride home was quiet, save for Ginny giving her rendentition of the entire concert song for song. Hermione joined in at times, smiling over at Ginny. Harry just sat on his side to stew and let Ron do the same.
Hermione pulled to a stop at the curb in front of Harry's house. She and Ginny turned around to bid him goodnight, which he returned as politely as his temper would let him. Without a word to Ron, he got out and headed into his home. It was nearing on midnight, and his parents and Jason were sleeping, so he resisted the urge to start throwing things around once he reached his room.
He finally managed to calm down some hours later. He sat on his bed, looking at his cellular phone on his desk. He wanted to call Ron. Perhaps shout at him some more. But another part of him wanted to call Ron over. He needed to feel those lips on his again. He groaned and flopped onto his bed, pulling a pillow over his head. Ronald Weasley would be the death of him if things kept going the way they were...
Author's Response
renrenfreak16: Okay, I won't stop writing. Even if I'd like being called Fizgig. Heeheehee.