-1Chapter 12

"I'm beginning to think all of my friends are stupid," sighed Harry but then he saw Hermione beginning to lift her text and he jumped away from their table in the Gryffindor lounge. "My guy friends! I meant my guy friends!"

Seeing Harry's hands in a defensive position made Hermione want to laugh. The boy could fight dementors, evil teachers and dark lords but still feared her with a heavy book. She placed the text in her lap and suggested to Harry's seat.

"I know what you meant Harry. Both Ron and Draco are extremely stubborn. Ron won't talk to us because he thinks we're still talking to Draco and Draco won't talk to us because he doesn't want to interfere with our friendship with Ron. Quite noble of him, actually."

Sitting back down, Harry looked at the Potions paper he had gotten back that day. With Draco's help he had gotten the highest score he had ever gotten, even when he copied from Hermione and altered things so it sounded like they were his words. He couldn't help but remember Draco's expression that last day in the library and then the one on the stairs outside.

"I think Draco knew how unstable our friendships with him were, even more then we did."

Hermione's cheeks puffed out in annoyance.

"That's just him trying to not get attached to us. I swear, if he keeps everything inside of him for much longer I-I'm going to hit him again!"

"I don't think that's the best way to convince him we want to be his friends," commented Harry, remembering the alluded to punch back in third year.

"I know, but I just feel so helpless when it comes to these two. Perhaps we should glue their butts to chairs until they agree to try to get along?"

"Hermione, how would we get them to sit on chairs with glue on them to begin with?" questioned Harry.

"Well they're both vastly naïve to the muggle world. I'm sure they wouldn't even know what glue is," said Hermione.

"I think that would only serve to make them madder at us anyway," said Harry.

"Well I'm out of ideas then. Short of forcing them to fight a troll together I have no idea how to make them get along," said Hermione but then her face lit up. "Draco doesn't happen to like the Chudely Cannons does he?"

"Not that I know of," said Harry, realizing that he and Draco had never talked about Quidditch. They never talked about a lot of things actually.

"There goes that idea. If only there was a way to convince Ron that we still care about him even though we're friends with Draco and convince Draco that we do want to be friends with him and that he isn't getting rid of us so easily."

"I wonder if there's a spell for that," said Harry in a half-joking matter, easily avoiding Hermione's attempt at swatting him with her hand.

"Even if there was I wouldn't use it. Some things are better off solved without wands," stated Hermione, ceasing her attack when Harry nodded. "Do you think if we just told Ron that we were friends with Draco that he could have handed it better?"

"Perhaps if he was sedated at the time," said Harry, remembering how angry Ron had been that they had left him in the dark. "Do you think that-that we told Ron something, something that we had kept secret from everyone else that he'd forgive us for not telling him about Draco?"

Hermione's face began to turn a brilliant shade of crimson.

"Secret? I have no secret. Nope. I have nothing of the sort."

Harry hide a knowing smile behind his hand as Hermione tried to hide her blush and nervous laughter behind her book. Even if Hermione was in denial he did have at least one secret he hadn't told anyone else.

"Go away Harry," snapped Ron, as Harry tried to approach him after Quidditch practice.

"Would it kill you to listen to me?" asked Harry, chasing him across the field.

"Maybe, if Malfoy was around," said Ron, the venom in his voice equal to that of Snape's voice whenever he talked to Harry.

Harry struggled to think of something that would both defend Draco without insulting Ron when his much taller friend suddenly stopped short. At first he was relieved because he thought Ron had finally come to his senses to listen to him, but that hope was crushed when he saw Ron's arms flying about madly and heard the twin's laughter.

"Instant Quicksand," announced Fred, approaching the fighting friends.

"Courtesy of Triple W enterprises," continued George, walking beside his twin.

"Perfect for stopping friends and foes alike in their tracks," said Fred.

"Just add victim and you'll have their instant attention," said George.

"Thanks for providing the test dummy Harry," said the twins together.

As the twins each hugged one of his sides in thanks, Harry looked down at his friend's feet. There he saw that there was, indeed, a patch of such sand around them that was already to his ankles. It also seemed to only pull him further down whenever he succeeded in moving his feet, however slightly.

The twins removed themselves from Harry and moved over to their youngest brother. As George stood in front of him, Fred held onto his arms to avoid being punched.

"Now play nice Ronnikins," said George, messing with Ron's hood as if he was fixing Ron's collar for a party.

"Try not to get too dirty," added Fred, licking his free hand and pushing back some of Ron's hair.

"Fred! Gross," hissed Ron, trying to lift one of his legs to kick them, only causing him to sink further down.

"Have fun," the twins said together, each of them kissing a check and quickly jumping out of Ron's reach as he cursed and tried to kill them with his bear hands.

"When you're done throw this into the sand," said Fred, handing Harry what looked to be an ordinary clump of dirt.

"Let us know if it works," shouted George, running towards the changing room with his twin right behind him.

"What do you mean i if /i it works?! FRED! GEORGE! Come back here," shouted Ron, moving around as if trying to run after them. This resulted in him being up to his shins in quick sand.

Harry moved around so he was face to face with Ron and, as a side note, he realized this was the first time he and Ron could literally see eye-to-eye with each other. Before he had to look up at his forever growing friend.

"Well at least now I don't have to glue you to a chair."

"What the hell is glue," demanded Ron, more out of frustration then genuine curiosity.

"Never mind. At least now you can't avoid me," said Harry.

"Doesn't mean I have to listen," stated Ron, moving to put his hands over his ears.

"If you don't listen, I'll leave you here," threatened Harry.

When it came to his friend, and yes Ron still considered Harry his friend even though he was furious at him, Ron learned very quickly it was rarely a good thing to call Harry's bluff on such threats. Unless they were playing chess of course.

Ron lowered his arms and crossed them against his chest, but made no sound or movement to indicate that he would listen.

Figuring this was the best he was going to get, Harry placed his broom to the side before beginning.

"First of all, even though you're my best friend you can't decide who my other friends are. That goes for Hermione as well."

"Malfoy can't-"

"Be trusted? Don't you think we've considered that? Don't you think Hermione of all people would be smart enough to be careful? She told me that when she and Draco- oh grow up Ron. I can call him his first name if I want. When she and Draco started prefect duty together that he never talked no matter what Hermione said. And remember when Hermione twisted her ankle at Halloween? She said it was Draco who carried her, a muggle-born, on his back to the Hospital Wing."

"Harry, it's all a trick. He'll act all nice to Hermione, and you'll trust him and then he'll hand you over to You-Know-Who," exclaimed Ron, as if it was the most obvious thing in the world.

"I didn't even find out that he and Hermione were getting along until after I started to get along with him and I found out by accident," said Harry, wishing he had one of Hermione's textbooks to hit Ron with.

"All part of his plan," exclaimed Ron.

"Ron, have you ever known Draco to be sneaky about anything? Even when he was flat out trying to get us did he ever acted any different?"

"In first year he tried to make you get rid of me and be friends with him," said Ron.

"That was before he had any reason to dislike me. He could have honestly wanted to be my friend, you know," said Harry.

"I bet his i father /i told him to befriend you," said Ron, trying to imitate the way Draco used to brag about his father in earlier years.

"Ron! He's been avoiding Hermione and me ever since you said it was you or him. He's i trying /i to preserve our friendship," shouted Harry, practically in Ron's face. His wand was itching to grab his wand and jinx Ron something that he could never live down. Pink hair! …or something like that…

Ron had the decency to look completely shocked at the statement. He searched his mind madly for any reason Malfoy would have to want to keep the trio together. If he really had wanted to do something horrible to Harry, wouldn't it be easier to break up his support?

Taking in a deep breath to calm himself, Harry backed away from Ron to keep himself from attacking if the red head decided to continue in his rant of 'evil' plans.

"Look, I'm sorry we didn't tell you. I really am but I wasn't even going to tell Hermione and she didn't tell me. We found out about each other on accident. Then we both know how you feel about Malfoy. It just didn't seem to be a good idea."

"I probably would have tried to kill him," mumbled Ron absently, trying to find a way that he could sit.

Harry tossed the ball Fred had given him into the sand. Once it had sunk into the sand, Ron was forced upwards as if he had been catapulted, nearly falling down in the process, and the sand returned to normal ground.

The boy who lived looked at his friend and sat on the ground, silently hoping he wouldn't have to ask the twins for more instant quick sand later.

Ron looked towards the exit for a moment before sitting down with his friend.

"So now what?"

"I'm going to be completely honest with you."

"That's new."

Harry softly kicked Ron's knee, but didn't argue with his statement.

"The truth is that I am-I am seeing someone."

Ron paled and jumped back to his feet.

"Malfoy? You're seeing Malfoy?!"

Harry felt his face grow redder and hotter then he could remember it becoming in ages. He swung his arms about madly in a negative gesture.

"NO! Not Draco! I'm not seeing Draco. Whatever made you think that? I mean, I've never even thought about it before!"

"That's a relief," said Ron, sitting back down. "So I was right about you having a girlfriend then?"

"No. I told you before that it wasn't a girlfriend," said Harry slowly, trying to cover the heat from his face with his much colder hands.

"But it was similar," said Ron, with an expression that made it look like he wanted to kick himself. "So Hermione was right. You have a boyfriend."

"Hermione is practically always right," agreed Harry, wondering if he could ever look either of his friends in the face again.

"I screamed like a bloody banshee when she said that, you know," said Ron.

"The thought of my being… gay disgusts you that much," asked Harry, eyeing up his broom for a quick escape.

"No. Lots of wizards are gay. In fact a couple of cousins of mine are," said Ron.

"Then way did you scream?" asked Harry, forcing himself to look up.

"The thought of you checking me out in the shower," admitted Ron, joining Harry in blushing.

Not able to help himself, Harry began to laugh.

"Ron., that's gross. You-your like my brother."

"Thank Merlin," exclaimed Ron, putting his hands together as if praying.

Harry stopped laughing, wondering if Ron was actually praying. He knew wizards often said Merlin in places muggles said God, but he didn't think people acutally worshipped him. Was it a stupid question to ask? He studied his fiends expression and saw that Ron was watching him for his reaction with a small smirk on his face. He could almost imagine little horns coming out of that red hair.

Soon both Ron and Harry were bursting out in laughter together. It was the best laugh either of them had had in ages. All the stress, the hiding, suspicious and secrets were being let out. Or were on the way out at least.

Being the first to calm down Ron rubbed the bridge of his nose in mild annoyance.

"I guess marrying you into the family is no longer an option then."

"Ron, I would never marry you. It would be too weird," said Harry.

"I didn't mean me," snapped Ron, but at Harry's bewildered expression he decided not to push the subject further. "So tell me about this boyfriend of yours. What house is he in?"

"Umm," began Harry uncertainly, scratching his head. "He's not in any house."

"You mean you met some boyfriend last year when Drumstring was visiting and you're just telling me now," said Ron in horror as he paled significantly. "Please. please, for the love of all that is food-" Harry snorted "-tell me it isn't Krum."

"It's not Krum. He liked Hermione re-"

"Don't remind me!"

"…"

"So you're boyfriend is a muggle then? I guess that makes since. You'd rather date someone who didn't know you were famous, right," asked Ron, pulling up some of the field's grass and attempted to tie it into knots.

"Well he doesn't know, but he isn't a muggle either," began Harry but stopped when Ron looked like he was about to throw up.

"By Merlin's beard, Harry, are you dating a teacher?" rasped Ron, though Harry was amazed he could speak at all with his jaw looking like it unhinged itself.

"Ron, that's gross, plus how would one of the teachers not know I'm famous? Besides the only guy even close to our age is Snape and, not only is he a prick, he's old enough to be our father's," protested Harry, beginning to feel the urge to vomit himself.

Trying to regain normal coloring, Ron took a break in his questioning in order to take in a few deep breaths.

"Harry, just tell me already before I imagine something even more horrible and I give myself a heart attack."

Though he hesitated a moment, Harry stood and grabbed his broom.

"Come on, it would be easier just to introduce you."