-1Title: Second Chances? (Part 2 of 3)
Pairing: Harry/Ron, Draco/Ron
Author: InTheVast
Rating: NC-17 eventually
Warnings: Slash, Melodrama, Sex, and Angst
Word Count: 2000ish
Disclaimers: No ownership.

Part II.

"So what we are talking about is basically a kamikaze mission." Lupin said, shrugging his shoulders dismissively, as he crossed his arms and leaned back in the wicker chair.

"What else did you have in mind?" Draco sneered. "Do you really think that we are going to get another chance like this? What are you waiting for..." He stood up roughly, his posture radiating violence. "Would you like them to continue to hunt you down, one by one? Is that more fulfilling of all of your martyr fantasies?" Ron noted the way Draco looked at Harry and Lupin, painstakingly avoiding Ron's own incredulous stare.

"That's enough." Harry said, gesturing for Draco to sit down. The air became palpably tense as Draco eyed Harry again, an unspoken threat darkening his eyes. Harry looked towards Ron as if to ask for help, but all Ron could do was look on hopelessly. He hadn't spoken a word in front of Draco and he wasn't about to start now.

Last night he had been waiting for a confrontation or something, anything really. Anything from a snide comment to a meaningful look, anything besides being flat out ignored. It's not that he minded really, he was doing the exact same thing. If Draco wanted to pretend he wasn't there, that was absolutely fine with him.

"Look, this may be the best opportunity that is going to come our way. If we surprise them, and I know that this meeting will consist of the top death eaters, we kill Voldemort's most powerful supporters." Draco said, his voice falling a few notches

Lupin nodded grimly, finally swallowing the bitter words. "You are right Draco, this is a chance we can't just let pass by." Ron looked at his friend and teacher in shock. Was Lupin really willing to go through with this?

Ron knew there was just one big important thing that hadn't really been considered. How did they know that they could trust him? As if reading his mind, Harry spoke up.

"And you're certain Voldemort has no idea of our hide-out?" Harry asked, staring down at the table as if it fascinated him.

"He doesn't know, and you can't think that I told him either. I didn't even know where you were..." he paused. "Setting up house until yesterday when you showed me."

"You could still have communicated with him." Ron thought out loud, shocking himself and everyone else sitting at the table.

"Well I guess you'll have to trust me." Draco snarled. "Shouldn't be too hard right? I mean I only had to betray people that would torture me for weeks if they found me."

Lupin shook his salt and pepper hair as Draco stood up again, and made his dramatic exit to the outside, presumably to sulk under the dying willow trees.

"I knew it even when I was teaching him, that boy is a ticking bomb." Lupin sighed. He sipped his honey tea from the mug he cradled in his weathered hands.

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"Bastard." Ron grinned as Draco grabbed his collar and pulled him in for a kiss. Draco's tongue met his own and the feeling of it traveled up and down his spine, casting goose bumps all over him. Draco's hands, instantly hurried and insistent, gripped his hipbones and Ron moaned at the pleasure and the pain of Draco's fingers tightening on two day old bruises. But before he could allow himself to sink into this exquisite agony, he heard footsteps. Draco paid no mind, and was sucking Ron's pulse in the hollow of his throat like a vampire.

"Wait, I think someone is coming." Ron said pushing Draco away. He gestured towards the bed, and as both of them stifled laughs, they crawled under the mahogany bed frame. They watched, holding their breaths, as Harry's sneakers circled around Ron's portion of the room, and then with a sigh from the owner, the two shoes exited.

Draco crawled out first but he didn't help Ron up. When Ron pushed himself up, he looked at Draco questioningly, only to be rewarded with an angry glare.

"What's wrong?" Ron asked.

"You tell me." Draco demanded, grabbing his robes and slipping them over his clothes with his back to Ron. "What was he doing here?" His voice was stone cold.

"Who? Harry?" Ron snorted in disbelief. "He lives here. We share a room remember?"

Draco's eyes flashed. "Don't make a fool of me." He grabbed Ron's collar again, this time not for a kiss. He brought his face very deliberately close to Ron's so that Ron could feel his breath against his own cheek when Draco spoke again.

"Why was he looking for you?" Draco laughed bitterly. "Are you fucking him too?"

"Let go of me." Ron pushed him back, but he was more confused then angry. "You were the one that started that rumor if I recall, and there never was any truth to it. Not that you deserve to know, you git."

"Never? So you've never had any secret feelings for him?" Draco asked as he crossed his arms, Ron took a deep breath as he saw Draco was trying to appear as invulnerable as possible.

"Maybe... maybe when we were fourth years." Ron said honestly. "But that was just a little nothing crush. Nothing ever happened." Ron reached for Draco again, but Draco ignored the offering of peace as he was focused on something else behind Ron.

Draco picked up the photo by Ron's bedside table, the one of him, Harry, and Hermione outside of Hogwarts. He stared at it for a second, and Ron watched this, his forehead creasing in confusion at what Draco was doing. Then Ron saw it, Draco's knuckles turning white against the ebony frame of the photo. Draco's face turned hard in the refelction of Ron and Harry's smiling faces. Draco threw the photo against the wall. Ron flinched as he heard the sound of glass shattering, mouth falling open in shock.

"You fucker!" Ron cried in fury, rushing to pick up the pieces.

Looming fearsome over him, Draco began to yell angrily.

"Just admit that you still have feelings for him!"

"I don't!" Ron yelled back. "Are you such a moron that you can't get that through your thick, stupid skull?" As if to drive his point further, he reached upwards till his arms were pulling Draco down close enough to himself. He kissed him and he put everything he had into it, his love, his desire, and his trust.

The blonde boy wrenched away, and looked down upon him as if taking in the scenery of Ron's mussed hair, his distressed state, disheveled robes, and the broken glass laying around him. Draco pulled his own robes up, and then unzipped his pants.

Ron saw instantly that his lover was hard, thick and red-veined with desire. He looked up at Draco hesitantly, saw Draco's hooded silver eyes looking back at him, challenging.

Obediently, Ron shaped his mouth into an O and took Draco's cock into the ring of his mouth.

Much later, after Draco left, Ron was still tasting the bitter remains from their encounter. Ron knew he had to clean up all signs of Draco or Harry would freak out and then think he had really gone mad. Ron had made his bed like a good boy, all he needed next was to clean up the mess from the framed photo Draco had thrown.

He cut his fingers on the glass he picked up. His eyes drifted to the smiling, innocent photo of Harry as he licked the blood from his finger tips.

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"So do you think we can trust him?" Harry asked. Ron could feel the gentleness in his voice. Good old Harry, never trying to be too insistent.

"I don't know. He's always been difficult to read." Ron looked at his own hands as if his palms would tell him the answers. Pity, he had never really paid attention in palm divination.

Harry threw up his hands in frustration. "I guess I just thought if anyone would have an idea it might be you."

Ron wrapped an arm around Harry and together they settled into the tiny, makeshift bed in their corner of the hideout.

"Made with love." Harry had told him when he first presented the lopsided, quilted bunk. Currently there was a makeshift curtain around them, separating their bed from Draco's. Ron wished they had been able to stick him with some other aurors, but none of them had wanted to deal with a renegade death eater.

"So is Draco still out there pouting or what?" Ron asked Harry, settling into his favorite little nook in between Harry's neck and shoulder. He could feel how tense his lover was with stress, no doubt over this impending mission.

"Yeah." Harry sighed, smoothing back Ron's red gold hair to kiss him on the forehead. "Maybe I should go have another talk with him, if only I didn't think he would try to aveda kadava me."

"Maybe..." Ron gulped. "Maybe," he looked up into Harry's bright green eyes. "Maybe I should try to talk to him?"

Ron felt Harry's next deep breath stir his hair. There was a small pause as Harry contemplated. Ron waited for the accusations, maybe Harry didn't trust him enough. He would understand if that was the case.

"If you wouldn't mind Ron, that would be great." Harry said softly. "You'll probably be able to read him better then anyone else, but I know what that is going to be like for you."

"Yeah." Ron sighed. He reached over and began to rub the knots out of Harry's neck.

"I just need to know if I, I mean we, can trust him. I'm risking some of the best of us on this stealth attack... mmmm that feels nice. Thanks Ron."

Harry kissed him, a sweet tangle of tongue and promise, fingers warmly traveling down the indentations of his spine. When they parted Ron let out a deep breath of submission.

"I'll talk to him." And then he let go of Harry's shoulders because he was losing all feeling in his fingers. He knew what he had to do.

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The air outside was cold and thick. Nearly suffocating. Ron briefly thought about running far, far away. But he knew deep down he could run to the ends of the world, away from this war, and he would never escape this moment. There was something defective running in his veins, something powerful and surging from within and it was inescapable. It was in the way Draco turned to look at him, grey eyes flashing knowingly, the traces of a strange smile curling his mouth as he looked Ron up and down. His gaze lowered from the shabby robes to the holes in his worn shoes.

"Well what do you know," Draco drawled. "Some things never change."