AN: oops, I am so sorry for that eternally loooong break. I had exams and the fear that I was not as prepared as I'd have liked to be gave me some sort of writer's block so I couldn't continue. I'm sorry. I hope you like this chapter…alright, here goes nothing…

Chapter 5: consequences

Draco walked out of the classroom, leaning the back of his head against the wall as he took in deep calming breaths. He swore profusely in his head, certain that his life was never going to be the same again.

There was no remedy for curing or even surviving this kind of extreme embarrassment but he knew he'd be able to drink the pee of a centaur without second thought if it holds the promise of doing just that for him.

Saving him... Which was the entire point from the beginning. Oh fuck! His brain, the pessimist part of it, cussed loudly and he banged the back of his head against the wall, regretting it almost immediately when he felt the sharp pain shoot through his skull.

He sighed and pulled back, standing ramrod straight and looking around. He noticed Ron was yet to come out of the room... "Oh God, he must be horrified!" he muttered, making his way slowly to wherever his feet will carry him, his class was momentarily forgotten.

Flashbacks of Ron's face and expression when he'd kissed him kept assaulting him. I mean, could anybody look more horrified? He mused, his brain torturing him like never before.

He felt horrified. In fact, he was certain this is the most horrified he has been in his entire life! Which is uhh...? Eighteen years but still long enough to have seen things like Voldemort-just his face was horrifying-, or his stupid snake being fed as everyone watched on with straight expressions when that little shit literally tore people apart. Or oh, the first time, when he was eight years old and his father had taught him how to cast Avada Kedavra to kill a mouse.

Yes, he had been horrified then. So horrified, he had been sick to the stomach and spent two days puking whenever the memory came up but this… this new addition to his list of "First ten worst things I have seen, done and heard" had certainly kicked everyone and everything on its way and shot right to the top.

He groaned when he realized he was outside on the grounds of the school. "Amazing subconscious you got there, Draco" his brain quipped sarcastically and he rolled his eyes at himself, deciding to stay outside anyway.

He pulled out his wand and cast a disillusionment charm on himself before walking towards the lake and lying dejectedly in the grass by it. "Oh boy, could my life get any worse than this?" he mumbled, sighing deeply and closing his eyes tightly as the image of Ron's shocked expression filled his head. "Oh crap!"

Ron stood in the classroom, long minutes after Draco had left and he still couldn't move a muscle. He had been trying though. Trying to maybe be able to move, run after Draco and snog him senseless just so he'd know that he was right, and it was him.

That it has always been him. Loving him from a distance with the fear of the reaction of both their families stopping him from doing anything about it. It was not fair to live an ultimatum of choosing between your family and the one you love just because you fell in love.

And Ron was certain that was exactly what would have happened. How could a supporter of Voldemort be allowed in a relationship with a key follower of the light before the war? He was certain his mother would have wept and maybe even gotten herself sick which was typical of Molly when she didn't get her way with advising her kids.

And of course, there was that obvious and undeniable factor. The fact that Draco Malfoy had had the deadliest crash known in the history of the Wizarding world on Harry! And that had killed him but it had felt so much better when Harry had reassured him that he was straight and had no intentions whatsoever of ever dating Draco. That had felt good.

He had tried working his throat muscles and those had failed him too. When he finally managed to slowly turn around, it felt like centuries and Draco was obviously long gone. He sighed again and felt his muscles relax but the only thing he could manage was a soft "Draco"

"Oh I am so ruined!" he thought and headed out of the classroom. A quick glance at his wrist watch told him he was thirty five minutes late for class. No need to go now and earn a stupid detention when he could just go to madam Pomphrey and feign some sort of post- war trauma. Yeah, that always works. Besides, with the way his heart was alternating between beating three hundred times a minute and five times a minute at an extremely fast and extremely slow pace, he was certain that something was really wrong with him.

He headed to the infirmary, his mind blank and uncertain of what he can do as he was pretty certain that Draco has probably shelved his hypothesis as a false one with no correlation whatsoever between Ron and whoever writes to him at night.

"I really screwed up." He muttered as the image of Draco kissing him ever so softly, came into mind. It was a different kind of kiss than the ones he was used to. Different than when lavender was literally tearing at his lips with her teeth and tongue my God!

"I guess that's what it feels like when it's done with love and not teenage hormones." he whispers to himself and was about to smile when the evil part of his already mean brain added. "yes it is. But of course since you ruined any chances of him ever kissing you, here you are, on your way to the infirmary with a mild heart failure"

He gasped softly as his heartbeat sped up again. He wasn't sure what was causing it but this time, he was certain he didn't need to lie to madam Pomphrey about his heart and as wrong as that sounded to him in the circumstances, his heart needed to be checked. "Yeah right!" the evil part of his brain scoffed at him.

He made his way slowly to the infirmary, careful not to disturb his already disturbed heart and the more he thought about his heart, the weirder it felt and the faster his heart beat. By the time he got to the infirmary and pushed the door open, he was clenching his chest tightly as the palpitations got worse.

Madam Pomphrey heard him come in and peeked out of her room…or office, he never knew what that was, to see him in that position "Ronald Weasley" she said calmly as she stepped out and headed towards him.

The relief that washed through him had his knees going weak and as he sank to the floor and into oblivion; his last thought was "wow, my name does sound different when it's not coming from my mother or Hermione."

Harry sat in class, his nails drumming repeatedly against the surface of the table as he felt Hermione's eyes on him. It was a feeling he was very used to and yes, he could live happily without it.

It wasn't the feeling he felt when she was looking at him tenderly in those moments when she thought he couldn't see her. He felt love for her too but he wasn't sure how to go about it however, he had more pressing things to deal with right now.

Like the questioning glare she had been drilling into the side of his head since lessons started and Ron didn't show up. He noticed, almost immediately, that neither did Draco. "wow, maybe those two managed to figure all that nonsense out" he thought, then his pervy brain added "and they're probably shacked up somewhere having amazing gay sex." He smiled at the thought before pouting "well it's not fair that Ron gets to have amazing sex with Draco while I sit through charms, enduring Hermione's death glare!"

He started packing his books immediately class was over and would have fled if Hermione hadn't pulled him back sharply till his bum hit the hard surface of the chair pretty hard. He was not an amused man when he turned to face Hermione and apparently, neither was she.

He glared at her but he couldn't keep up the act long enough, considering she was looking at him like he was a guilty little child caught with his hands down his pants, my God! She was well on her way to becoming Molly Weasley and the poor girl had no idea.

He would have laughed at the mental image that brought up, if it was another time but as it stood, it wasn't so he groaned loudly "What is it? And please stop glaring at me like I did something wrong!" he hissed at her.

That seemed to tone down the glare a little but she didn't entirely lose it. "Well, tell me, Harry Potter, where is your best friend? You know, the one called Ronald Weasley?" she asked.

To be continued…

Thank you all to my amazing readers…please R&R to let me know what you think. I hope you liked reading this, anyway. Thank you all.

:-*