Wow, one of my quickest updates ever! Poor Draco. Ron was an ass, but no, he was not paid. Simply jealous, and any person, male or female, will do strange things when jealous. Let me know what you think everyone! Enjoy! :)

Draco cried himself to sleep that night, his father leaving him alone after rubbing his back for awhile. When he woke up again the next morning, he had a slight headache and his eyes felt dry. DracoI groaned. No matter his father told him not to cry over such trivial things. It appeared that crying caused massive headaches. He sighed and pushed himself off of his stomach and up onto his feet. The loss of warmth from the blankets, as always, was disappointing.

He made his way downstairs, taking in the smell of breakfast. His parents were already seated at the table, and a servant of theirs had taken care of breakfast. He sat down between them, and received a small smile from his mother. They had become that much closer since she found out that he was into boys. It was actually a bit disturbing how much his mother had come to support him over time.

"Morning Mum, morning Dad." They both returned the greeting with a quick "morning" before going back to what they were reading. After a moment, his father looked up again, remembering that he had something important to tell his son.

"By the way Draco, our computer is no longer working. I'm afraid that when your aunt used it, she put a virus on it by clicking some stupid supreme evil ad." He looked extremely irritable. "I'll be going to get a new at the end of the week." Draco nodded. It didn't matter to him anyways. Besides, his griffin no longer wanted to speak to him.

After breakfast, he headed up to his room to start packing for Hogwarts. He knew that he still had a week and a half before the train actually departed to Hogwarts, but he figured that it would take his mind off of last night's events. Once he was done though, those words came flying right back to him, stinging his heart like a bee. It was the first time in his life that he had ever really let down his guard, and he knew now that he had made a mistake in doing do.

Harry slept from the time he laid down after excusing himself from dinner straight through to the next morning. Arguing with his friends was honestly getting tiresome. Why did they have to oppose him on something like this? It just wasn't fair. It wasn't like his serpent was hurting them in any way. What was really pissing Ron off was the fact that Harry had another friend who could be in the running for the title of his best friend, or end up becoming even more than that and taking Harry away from him. At least Hermione was genuinely worried that something bad might happen.

He was the first one up that morning, waking up at 8am. He pulled his laptop to him and opened it up, watching with tired eyes as it powered on. Once it had done so, the chat came up. Harry wasn't necessarily surprised that Green_Serpent80 wasn't on, though he was thoroughly disappointed. He sighed and signed off, then peeked at Ron and Hermione. At the moment, they were both still sleeping. He decided that he was going to go out and take a lone stroll to get some fresh air. However, at that moment, Hermione decided that she would wake up. Harry smiled over at her as she looked at him with tired eyes.

"Hey Hermione. Do you want to go out for a walk with me?" She thought for only a moment and nodded. They both went to get dressed and then reemerged. Harry was honestly relieved that Ron was still sleeping.

"Is there something you want to talk about Harry," Hermione asked him curiously once they were outside of the Burrow.

Harry nodded and sighed a bit.

"Honestly, I don't get what Ron's problem with me and Lucky is. He seems insistent that something bad is going to happen... and I don't get it. You know, just because I made a new friend doesn't mean that I'm going to forget all about you guys." Hermione nodded.

"I honestly don't know what was going through his mind last night when he approached you Harry, but I do know that he's just afraid that you won't be around as much."

"Then why doesn't he just tell me that? It would be so much easier if the three of us sat down and talked this out." Hermione nodded.

"I know that, and I've tried to tell him that, but he just doesn't seem to want to budge. You know how hardheaded Ron can be..."

"By the way Hermione, has he told you how he feels yet?" She shook her head.

"And I don't think he ever will, which leaves me to wonder if he does even like me." Harry nodded. It was obvious that the two were in love, but Ron, as usual, seemed a bit oblivious. He knew that he had to just allow them to take their time and tell each other when they were ready, whenever that was.

"Well, Hermione, I'm sure that he'll find a way to tell you eventually... Well, we might as well head back then. I'm sure that Ron's awake by now, or at least just about. I don't want him to wonder where we went off to."

They both returned, and even though it had been Harry's idea to go back, he was a bit reluctant. After all, he knew that sooner or later he was going to have to confront Ron, and he wanted to put it off as long as possible. However, when they arrived at the room, they found their other friend awake and glaring at them.

"And where were you two?"

"We went out for a walk," Hermione replied. He nodded before looking at Harry. Already, the brunet had a bad feeling. There was something Ron was hiding. Instead of focusing on that though, he decided to get straight to the point.

"Look Ron, I don't understand why you're so convinced that Lucky is bad for me, and we need to talk about it before it ends up turning into a fist fight.

"I already told you Harry. I like who you are better without him. Besides, it's not like you'll have to worry about him anymore." Ron said the last part under his breath, but Harry happened to catch it, and he felt his fist clench.

"What did you do!" Ron looked baffled and shook his head, but before he could speak, Harry cut him off.

"Don't try to deny it! I could hear what you said!"

"Fine! I might have told Lucky... that you were no longer going to talk to him..." And suddenly, the guilt hit the redhead full force.

"You what!" Harry was about to tackle Ron, but Hermione grabbed him.

"Harry, perhaps it's best that you go for a walk," she turned to the other boy with a glare. "Ron and I are going to talk in private." Ron gulped at that, and watched with pleading eyes as Harry left the room. He rushed down the stairs and exited the Burrow, breathing in the fresh air. If it hadn't been for Hermione, he was pretty sure that his best friend would be laying on the floor, badly banged up from a beating. He had no right posing as Harry and saying such a thing to Lucky.

Then something else had hit him. Lucky thought that Harry, or James as he knew him, never wanted to speak to him again. Did that mean that he wouldn't be online that night when Harry logged on to talk to him. He frowned at the idea of not being able to talk to his online friend. For him, it was his only escape from all this madness, while the friends by his side were more of a reality check. Harry needed a bit of both if he was going to survive the next few years.

For the rest of the day he ignored Ron, though he already knew the punishment wasn't warranted. Judging by the way that Ron kept glancing fearfully at Hermione, she had seriously laid into him about what he had done. Harry smiled to himself. At least he had one friend who, even if she didn't really understand, supported him in some way.

That night, he logged onto the chat, hoping badly that his serpent would apear. Harry waited... and waited... and waited... Hours passed, and soon it was midnight, but there had been no sign of Lucky. He frowned as he stared tiredly at the empty chat. When Ron came upstairs, Harry's deadly glare turned on the redhead. If Ron wasn't one of his best friends, he probably would have killed the boy.

"Guess who believed you!" Ron frowned and sighed.

"Look Harry... I'm sorry. I just... I didn't want to lose my friend... And I didn't want you to get hurt. From what Mom and Dad said, that person could be Lucius Malfoy... then what would you do?" Harry shook his head.

"Will everyone else stop deciding what's best for me please! You're not my mother! I appreciate the concern Ron, really, but that doesn't mean that you have to ruin my friendship. Seriously, just because I don't know someone...!" Hermione appeared a moment later.

"There's no reason to yell Harry. Ron's already had a thorough talking to." He sighed and nodded before looking back sadly at the computer. Lucky was gone... should he continue to wait? Harry shook his head. He would have to call it quits at least for tonight. After all, he needed to sleep at some point. Harry fell asleep, unaware that awhile away, Draco Malfoy had no computer, so he could not check and see if his griffin might have changed his mind. That night, both boys went to bed, equally upset by what had happened.

I apologize that things have not been straight yet, but it just felt like in order to make things more interesting, something else should happen to add a little more tension. So, who else wants to kill Ron and high five Hermione. Well, let me know what you think! And thank you to EVERYONE who has reviewed so far.