Who I Am

Chapter 10

Importance

I told Vernon I was going to be at the mall alone. (What else would I tell him? "I'm going to be eating dinner with the man I really love"? No.) It was partially true: I was going there alone, but I would meet Ron after getting there. It was a fast walk. Closer than the school, at least.

A hand reached out from behind and pulled at my shirt. I turned to see Ron standing there, wearing a red shirt with a dragon wrapped around the bottom and black pants.

"Hey, you look good." Ron smiled.

"Thank you very much." I bowed slightly. (The man was a god, after all.) "So do you."

"Don't lie like that."

I pulled my head up quickly. "I mean it. You're gorgeous. You really are." I smiled up into his face. I couldn't decide what the look on his face meant, I couldn't even tell if it was good or bad, but I stood up straight and kept my smile. "So, what made you decide to go out with me?"

Ron shrugged. "Let's go in. It looks like there's going to be a line if we wait around much longer."

After we sat down at our booth at Ruby Tuesday's, I fell silent again. I really wasn't sure how to do this. . . It wasn't really a date, but I had still never really been out with a potential friend before. I never had a friend to go out with in the first place.

I leaned over my cherry coke and peered at the man before me. He looked so damn good. . . His hair was not gelled; it was falling naturally around his freckled, somewhat pale face.

I love you. I thought softly and smiled. I just wished I could say it aloud. . .

"You're really love struck aren't you?"

I snapped back to reality. Ron was watching me with that look on his face again: the one that said he was reading your face without your acquiesce.

I shrugged. "You should know why."

Ron looked down. "How many times do I have to say I'm sorry for that?"

"None really. I don't regret it. The only thing I regret is not mine to regret."

". . . What?"

"The fact that you don't feel the same. That's all." I sighed and looked away.

"All of that doesn't matter now anyway. I want to ask about what has happened to you in the last few days."

"I'd rather not tell you, Ron."

"You're not yourself and I want to know why."

"I was like this when we met. Who's to say this isn't me?"

"That wasn't you. That was never you. The real you. . . Came out later."

I arched an eyebrow. Ron got up and came over to my side of the table so he was next to me.

"The real Harry Potter wasn't afraid to get what he wanted. All he wanted was love and to be loved. He didn't care if he was accepted by people in society. He was the bravest boy I had ever known. . . Far braver than I could ever be," here, he reached over and took my collar. "He wore tight shirts that drove me up the walls."

"Now you're trying to seduce me. After I. . ." I stopped myself. I couldn't let him know about Vernon.

"After you what?" Ron leaned in closer.

I turned away. "You're trying to seduce the answers out of me, huh Daisy Duke?"

Ron gave a wry laugh. "I'm sorry, Harry. I just want to know. . ."

"Well you can't know."

"Why?"

"Because I'm afraid for your life, is that enough for you?" I raised my voice so the people in the next booth over turned their heads.

"Now you have to tell me, Harry."

I rested my face in my hands. If I told him, he would probably feel like he had to do something. Vernon would kill me if he found out someone else knew, or even worse, he could kill Ron. . .

"You know how abusive my step-father is, right?" I needed to get this off my chest. Ron was the only person that could help me now. He helped me come out of my shell, now he could help me get away from Vernon who helped shove me in in the first place.

"You have to wear foundation to keep people from noticing."

"Yes, but. . . Since my mom died. . . He started doing more than just beating me," I looked up into those beautiful blue eyes of his. "He's started raping me, Ron."

The red-head fell silent next to me.

"You understand now, don't you?"

He reached up and took off my glasses. "I understand perfectly."

"You can't say anything, though. He'd kill you and me if he found out. More importantly you."

"Don't say things like that. You are just as valuable as me or anyone else on this earth."

"I'm nobody."

"Don't be stupid, Harry."

Ron began stoking the side of my face with the back of his hand. The feeling was coming back, that nervous, tingling that came the first time he kissed me. Well, the only time he kissed me. Now it was coming simply by feeling his touch on my skin. . .

"How can you be nobody? You're Harry Potter. That sexy, yet somehow innocent, boy that I can't get out of my head no matter how hard I try."

. . . and began running through me veins as he spoke each word. . .

He leaned forward and kissed my cheek. This time, I knew he meant it.