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"Hey Ron." said Harry, watching him warily. The look on Ron's face made him anxious.

The red-head stood there looking back and forth between the two people who had been his best friends for years, not sure how to say what he was feeling, not happy with how things had been between them lately.

"Oh, so you can see me now?" he finally said, his tone laced heavily with sarcasm.

"Yes…" Hermione said, raising an eyebrow at the way the other bot had spoken. "Why wouldn't we?"

"Oh I don't know." Ron said, scowling at the pair still sitting cuddled up together on the couch. "You haven't seemed to see me at all the last few months. Too wrapped up in whatever the hell this is." He said motioning to the pair of them.

"What are you talking about Ron?" Harry asked, tilting his head, affecting a look of confusion while inside he was steeling himself for a fight. He knew Ron, he knew what that look on his face meant; that stiff set to his shoulders and the balled fists. Ron was spoiling for a fight.

"Ron, we've been busy studying. I've been helping Harry get caught up in his classes and doing extra work to bring his grades up." She said, in a tone one would use on a very slow child.

"I know, you're always in the library. What if I wanted help too? Are you willing to help me with my grades the same as you help him?" Ron said brusquely.

"If you asked, yes." The brunette said, looking at Ron as though he had lost a few marbles. "And you've been busy with Lavender…" She said as diplomatically as possibly.

"Yeah well…" The youngest Weasley male blustered. You don't drop your friends, or friend," he emphasized "just because you start dating someone."

"There again, you're the one who dropped us." Harry said sardonically. "You've been attached at the mouth and… other places… with Lav-Lav and hadn't spared us a single thought until now." He finished, raising an eyebrow as if daring Ron to say different.

The red-head blushed, sending Harry a glare. "Oh and you two haven't been busy on your own?" He said peevishly. Turning his attention back to Hermione, he pulled a face before opening his mouth once more. "So that means if I ask, you'll help me the way you help him?" He said, putting emphasis on the word 'help' in such a way as to imply that there would be less clothing involved.

A loud, slightly wet crack resonated throughout the common room, which had gone silent, the whole of Gryffindor house watching with bated breath as the blundering red-head got himself into more trouble than he could handle.

Before Ron knew what had even happened he was on the ground, Harry straddling his stomach with one hand around his throat and the other pointing a wand at his face.

One look at the murderous look on Harry's face held everyone in place. No one had ever seen Harry react so violently to anything, let alone have that violence directed at one of the precious Golden Trio. They knew that Harry was a force to be reckoned with, but this… this was new.

Ron lay there, staring up at the boy who had been his best friend, shaking in fear at the dangerous glint in his eye. As blood pooled in his mouth and ran down from his nose he was almost gagging on his own blood.

He knew had gone too far with the disparaging remarks to Hermione, had known as they came out of his mouth, but for some reason he had been unable to stop himself. He had watched them for weeks, seen how they had been together; both flourishing in this new relationship, becoming better and happier people. All of this had been done without him and he had felt excluded and unwanted. While it was true, he had been dating Lavender brown, in the back of his mind he had always fancied Hermione, so much that he thought they would end up together. Harry had never seemed interested in her and had Ron had seen the way he had looked at Ginny. He had never in his wildest dreams thought that his two best friends would end up together. Hermione was supposed to be his… or so he had thought.

"I would suggest," Harry said quietly, his voice like ice and steel, "that you remove yourself from my sight and stay… the fuck… away… from Hermione." The raven-haired Gryffindor said, the calm in his voice more frightening than if he had been screaming. "Next time you disrespect her like that, you will see exactly why Voldemort fears me." He said, the flinch at the name giving him a sick sort of pleasure.

Almost as quickly as he had pinned the other boy, harry rose, fluidly and gracefully. Looking around at his housemates who were still frozen in shock at the scene they had just witnessed, he caught sight of Dean and Seamus. "Get him out of here." He said to them before turning to Hermione and taking her by the hand, leading her out of Gryffindor tower and through the castle, uncaring that is was well after curfew.

Hermione, while concerned, knew when to push Harry and when to let him go until he was ready to talk. She had seen the death in his eyes at Ron's stupid words and knew that now was not the time to push. While she had no worry that her boyfriend would harm her, she knew that he wasn't ready to speak.

Twenty minutes later found them inside the Room of Requirement. The minute the door had closed behind them, Harry had pulled her against his chest, wrapping his arms tightly around her, his head laying on her head. She knew what he needed; to feel here there, safe in his arms, unreachable and untouchable. And so she let him have it; letting him hold her close and reassure himself that she was alright. After a few moments he pulled away and pulled her toward the bed in the center of the room that the castle had provided. Slowly he stripped her and took his time worshiping her body. Hours he spent just touching, kissing, and licking every inch of her body before he took her. Slowly he breached her, sliding all of himself deep into her, filling her with himself and all that he had to offer.

When he finally rolled over onto his back and pulled her close they both were exhausted and more than sated. She wanted to talk about the scene in the common room but now was not the time. She knew that they would discuss it in the morning and that was enough. Right now all she wanted was to surrender to Morpheus' call, held in the arms of her lover. And so she did. They both did.