AN: I really have nothing else to say other than this chapter is full of emotional crap, which I'm not real sure if I like but hey I think it's a good chapter. So here you go. Hope you like it
Disclaimer: I am not J.K. Rowling, and I don't own the rights to Harry Potter sadly enough.
------------------------------------
Draco woke up drowsily in the hospital wing the next day. He tried to sit up but found himself too light-headed. He looked to the sides and saw flowers and chocolates all around him; then he saw the bright red hair in the bed next to him. He was about to say something to see if the other boy was awake, but someone's excited scream distracted him. He quickly turned back to the doorway to find the dark-haired girl he hated so much was running towards him with more chocolates in hand.
"Draco, oh what joy, you're awake. I was so afraid that you'd been hurt so badly you were never going to wake up." Draco settled into his bed as Pansy placed the chocolates next to him. "How are you feeling? Are you okay? Do you hurt anywhere?" Pansy continued ecstatically.
"Madam Pomfrey!" Draco jumped at the new voice. The nurse immediately ran into the room and past Draco's bed.
"What is it, Mr. Weasley? Are you in pain? You nearly gave me a heart attack." The woman said out of breath.
"Either tell Malfoy's guest to shut her mouth, or get out, her voice is making my head spin."
"Shut up Weasel, you're just jealous Draco has someone visiting him."
"No, I just hate the sound of your voice, and looking at you makes me sicker than I already am." Ron said hatefully. Draco was a little stunned at his rival's harshness. Pansy looked at him for support.
"Miss Parkinson, I do think it's time for you to leave, Mr. Weasley and Mr. Malfoy are both still in need of care, and since both are awake, it's best they don't get riled to easily, so off you go." Madam Pomfrey pushed the young Slytherin out of the wing leaving Draco and Ron alone again.
"I never thought I would thank you for anything Weasel, but—"
"Shut up. I didn't do it for you; I can't stand the sound of her voice." Ron looked over at the blonde, who was quite taken aback. "Why do you even allow her near you? I know you hate her."
"How the hell would I know why I do what I do?" Draco sat up quickly, but was forced to lie back down when his head spun out of control.
"Don't overexert yourself. Pomfrey will scold you for hours and I don't want to hear it."
"Piss off. When the bloody hell did you get so aggressive?"
"I'm not aggressive, I'm tired."
"Tired? You haven't done anything in here."
"We've been in here for three days, I want out. I'm tired of sitting in this bed doing nothing."
"You would rather leave and go and do schoolwork?"
"No. I just want out of here."
Madam Pomfrey entered the room again and both boys quieted themselves. She eyed them carefully, but walked into her office without a word. Draco looked back over at Ron, who was staring out the windows across the way. The boy's bed wasn't surrounded by noxious flowers and chocolate; Draco was sure all of his were from Pansy, and he wasn't that big a fan of flowers anyway, and she should've known that. Although he did like chocolate, he was a little afraid of what was in them, so he considered Ron lucky that he was covered in gifts.
"Why are we still here anyway?" Draco asked turning his attention to the windows as well.
"They want to make sure we don't have any head trauma. Dumbledore is bringing an actual healer to check us out later today." The redhead answered without looking away from the windows.
"How much later?"
"Why are you all of a sudden ready to get out of here?"
"Like you, I don't really want to spend so much time here, it's boring."
"No, I don't know when he's coming."
Draco sighed heavily. He looked past Ron at the office towards the end. When he didn't see any movement he pushed his covers off and swung his feet off the bed and stretched upward. Ron looked over at him curious. Draco turned to see the Gryffindor staring at him. Draco smirked mischievously, Ron's eyebrows raised. Draco stood up from the bed and began walking around his bed.
Draco walked towards Ron's bed causing Ron to sit up more. Draco sat at the end of the redhead's bed. "Come on Weasel, even you don't want to stay here, at least get up and walk around."
"Quit calling me Weasel, ferret boy."
"Don't call me that."
"Then don't call me Weasel."
"You know, I was actually trying to be decent with you and now I remember why I never am. You're impossible." Ron rolled his eyes as Draco finished his statement. Draco stood up and walked away from Ron's bed.
"MR. MALFOY, get in bed." Draco turned around and saw Madam Pomfrey coming out of her office. The boy groaned but crawled back in the bed and laid back down.
The woman left the wing for a moment, only to return with medicine in hand for the two boys. Madam Pomfrey came and stopped at Draco's bed. He saw the cup of liquid in her hand and nervously drunk the disgusting potion, as she turned around to Ron, Draco began to contort his face out of disgust. Ron really didn't want to take whatever the woman held, but reluctantly took it anyway. After he finished his and Madam Pomfrey walked away he held the same expression as Draco had.
Madam Pomfrey returned to her office. "That has got to be the grossest thing I have ever tasted." Draco said lying against his pillows.
Ron was about to say something when the hospital doors opened. Harry walked into the wing and down to the two beds at the end of the hall. Draco sat up furiously. Ron looked over at him.
"No. No. No. If I couldn't have visitors neither can you." Draco said pointing at Harry, who was now at Ron's bedside.
"You wanted your visitor gone too. Harry's not got some annoying voice that no one can stand, and he's not shrouding me with gifts and kissy love."
"Shut up. You don't know anything about Pansy and I, and I don't care if I wanted her gone as well, he's not staying." Draco eyed the new visitor angrily. "I'll call for Madam Pomfrey like you did."
"How about I call her and we can bring back Pansy, so you won't have anything to fuss about?"
"I don't want that girl here, and I don't want him here either." Ron stared at the blonde, he saw Draco was really upset that Harry was in the room, he figured it was from the fact that Draco really couldn't stand Harry, but he wasn't real sure why the other boy seemed so hurt by the visitor.
Madam Pomfrey had heard the commotion outside and returned to find the new visitor, but no one saying anything. She walked down to the end to see who was there; she realized it was Harry when she was right behind him.
"Mr. Potter, I have already shooed off Miss Parkinson this morning for being here. The boys can't have any visitors that rile them. They should be released tomorrow morning so you can see them, or in your case, Mr. Weasley, tomorrow." Madam Pomfrey pushed the raven-haired boy out of the hospital wing.
Ron watched helplessly as Harry was pushed out. He turned back angrily at Draco, to find him wiping away what looked like a tear. The blonde was hunched up with his arms crossed and his covers all the way up to his chest.
Ron was about to say something when Madam Pomfrey returned to the wing with Dumbledore and some man. Both boys quickly sat up and waited for the headmaster to bring the man that would release them into school life again and away from each other.
The man first looked at Ron, because he was closest to him, and after five minutes of Ron being tapped by a wand and touched by the man he said Ron could be released tomorrow morning. Then he moved on to Draco and did the same thing to him and said he was also able to be released tomorrow morning. He then turned to Dumbledore, who smiled and walked the man back out of the hospital wing talking to him, leaving Madam Pomfrey with the boys.
"See there boys, tomorrow morning and you will be released. And if I were either of you, I would pay more attention to whose coming at you when playing Quidditch." The boys nodded and she left. Ron looked over at Draco again; the blonde was his normal composed self, nothing like he had been just 10 minutes before.
"Draco, were you—"
"Shut it. I want to go back to exactly the way things were, so don't talk to me unless you want to be insulted." Draco said lying down and covering himself.
Ron didn't say anything else for the rest of the night and the night went slowly.
----------------------------
The next morning Ron woke up to find Draco's bed empty and Harry waiting for him to wake up. "Ready to go to class?" Harry asked jokingly. Ron smiled and got out of bed. He closed his curtains and changed into his school uniform and walked out. Harry handed him his book bag and they walked off towards the dungeons, unfortunately Ron's first day back at class was going to be spent in Potions.
They entered the dungeon and took their seats. The bell rang and Snape entered the room. "Now, yesterday you all paired up for your projects, however, not all of you are paired." Snape stared at Draco then turned his attention to Ron. "I hate to do this to you Draco, but the only other person that isn't paired is the person you spent the past three days in the hospital with. So Malfoy, you are paired with Weasley, you can get the instructions from someone else. Now, get in your pairs and discuss what you are going to do."
Ron turned to Harry. "You are supposed to create your own potion for whatever means you want, basically." Harry walked over to the table with Hermione and Ron knew Draco wasn't going to get up, so he got up and walked into the Slytherin section of the class and took a seat next to the blonde.
Snape walked into his office and came back with a million different items floating behind him. Draco and Ron looked at each other then turned away quickly. Snape came by and put a big book on each table, of different types of potions and different versions already made. Draco pulled the book closer to him.
"Draco, I am so sorry you have to be paired with him." Pansy had walked up to their table. "I tried to get Snape to let me be your partner, but he said it was unsure of when you'd be out so he wouldn't let me."
"Parkinson, take your seat and get working." Snape yelled from across the room.
Draco leaned back in the chair with the book in front of him. "I want anything that will get her away from me."
"Like an anti-love potion?"
"Yeah." Ron leaned on the table and waited for Draco to continue. "Here's something." Draco pushed the book over to Ron, who looked down at the page and saw this was going to take a long time.
"You know this is going to do take almost a month? Is there a time limit?"
"Before the end of the year, Weasley." Snape said from behind him Ron jumped, but Draco took the book back.
"I don't care how long it takes; I want her to go away. And in a month it will be Valentine's Day, which would make it just that much better."
Ron stared at Draco amazed. "You really are heartless."
"You were pretty mean yesterday."
"Yeah, but I'm not like that every day, you make a sport out of it."
"Whatever, go get all this crap."
Ron stared at him shocked. "Oh no. I am not doing this whole thing alone, you're the one that wants to make this stupid thing anyway, so get your ass up and help me." Ron said, pushing the blonde as he walked around him. Draco watched the redhead for a moment then grudgingly got up and walked up to the front.
Potions was finally over. Ron walked out with Harry, complaining. He heard Draco behind him, and turned to find the boy staring at him angrily. He looked like he had yesterday in the hospital when Harry wouldn't leave. Ron was about to say something when Draco pushed him to the side and walked by.
As the blonde stormed away Ron thought about how much it seemed he'd hurt the boy. Yesterday when Harry wouldn't leave it was as if Draco only wanted to be alone with him, and now when he'd insulted and complained about the blonde, the same reaction came up.
Harry snapped his fingers in front of Ron's face. "Hey, come back to earth." Ron turned his attention from the disappearing blonde, to his best friend. "Why were you looking after Draco?"
"What?"
"After you saw he had heard you and he pushed his way by you, you began to look after him…well like you were sad."
"No. I was just thinking about something from yesterday."
---------------------------
Draco walked into the common room angrily. He'd been wiping away tears since he left the Potions room, and he wasn't sure why. He had felt the same hurt yesterday in the hospital, and he'd cried then as well, but that still didn't solve his problem of why he'd been crying this time or the last. He realized he had been crying more lately when he was around Ron and Harry.
Draco sat down on the couch and stared at the wall in front of him. He didn't know what was going on with him, and it was frustrating him. As he got comfortable the door opened, and he got up. He didn't want anyone seeing him upset, so he stood up and took his normal smug attitude, but when he turned around he'd wished he hadn't. Pansy had walked through the porthole.
"Draco! So this is where you ran off to after Snape's." Pansy said gleefully as she ran up to the blonde and wrapped her arms around his neck.
"Get off of me." Draco said ripping the girl's arms away from him.
She stared up at him hurt. "Draco, what is wrong with you? You've never pushed me away so much." She continued to stare at him as he coldly stared back at her. "Have you been crying?"
"What?"
"You look as if you've been crying. Have you?"
"No. I'm just stressed. And I'm tired of you always hanging around and off of me. Just stay away." Pansy's eyes filled with tears, but Draco continued to stare hatefully at the dark-haired girl. When she received no better response she ran from the common room crying hysterically.
Ron was walking towards the greenhouses, he'd stopped to go to the bathroom so Harry left him and now he was late for class, but he heard someone running behind him. He turned around and found Pansy with her hands over her face and her head bent down and she was running towards him. He sidestepped the girl, who heard someone move, so she took her hands from her face and looked up at the redhead with her face redder than Ron's hair.
"What happened to you?" Ron asked as she glared up at him.
"What's it matter to you, you hate me, remember?"
"I hate Slytherins, but that doesn't mean I'm not going to care if someone's crying."
"Do you know if Draco really hates me as much as he says he does?"
"From what I know, I'm afraid so."
Pansy heard this and returned to crying with her hands over her face, and she ran off again. Ron took a deep breath and debated on whether he should go and see if he could console her or go to class. Of course after a moment's thought Ron decided Pansy wouldn't talk to him anyway, so he just went down to the greenhouses.
--------------------------
Ron sat in the Gryffindor common room, it was about 1 in the morning, everyone had gone to bed and was fast asleep, but Ron couldn't sleep, so he kept the fire alive and stared at it in peace. He had been trying to figure out what was going on with Draco and Pansy. Until just recently Draco hadn't extremely pushed Pansy away, she was the only girl that ever paid him any attention and he always enjoyed attention, but now he was apparently saying some things to her that caused her to cry in the middle of school. Not to mention Draco had seemed rather jealous at the hospital and angry at Potions, all because of him.
As Ron was thinking about all of this he remembered his was supposed to be doing some research on the anti-love potion, now that he was thinking of Pansy and Draco. He saw some fifth year had left the big potion book they'd been given on the table in front of the fire. So he picked it up and began to look through it absent-mindedly. He wasn't able to concentrate on the information he was reading, every time he looked at the page his thoughts began to return to Draco and the situation with Pansy. Draco really no longer wanted Pansy to be around, he was going to make an anti-love potion, just to get her away from him.
Ron closed the book and returned it to the table. This was useless, he was going to need sleep for tomorrow, so his best situation was to go back upstairs and try and fall asleep.
Ron opened the door to the dorms and walked over to his bed.
------------------------------------
AN: Well I hope you enjoyed this chapter, and there was more to it at the end, but I didn't want to give a lot away already, but Draco and Ron are both going through issues. So tell me what you think and I'll keep writing if you like it, So stay tuned to find out just how Draco and Ron solve their issues.