Chapter 7: payment?

She hadn't been so surprised when she'd peeped through the crack in her door and found that Ronald was standing in the infirmary since over the last few months, he'd been a regular visitor in the hospital wing.

It was a headache, a nightmare or those constant itches he got in his midsection. The point is, for the past six and a half months, Ronald Weasley was always tormented by some kind of ailment.

It was however new to see the boy comes in, clutching his chest in that manner as if letting go could consequently mean letting go of all hope to live again and keep breathing.

Then he'd collapsed. She'd reached for her wand to cast a cushioning spell but that had been too late so she cast wingardium leviosa on his immobile body and floated him over to a bed. His heart rate had been spiraling out of control like never before and it bothered her.

She pulled out her kit, herbs and potions as well as syringes. Her wand ghosted over the boy's limp form, muttering a diagnostic spell to determine what the cause of the heart palpitations was. She'd washed him to get him cooled and given him potions on a half hourly basis...

Nothing seems to be working and she felt on edge. The only good news was that he didn't seem to be getting any worse either.

Harry sat down at the table with Hermione, trying to enjoy his meal but Hermione was right. Ron not showing up for lunch was on his top five unlikely things to ever happen and was probably on the top of the list.

He loved food more than anything else though...he paused in his thoughts. There is a possibility that Ron loved something more... Draco. Loved him enough to miss three square meals a day just to be with him.

He breathed a sigh of relief, his nerves slowly calming down till they almost reached the optimum point. Almost, because in the next moment, right before he happily went back to his meal, Draco stormed into the hall.

And he didn't look pleased, or happy. Harry frowned, turning to fully look at Draco's seemingly sulky progress towards his House table and how he plopped down on the bench, ignoring the curious and slightly worried look from his house mates who looked smart enough not to ask anything.(400)

His movement caused Hermione to look over at him and subsequently follow his gaze to where Draco sat with his back to them. He saw confusion settle onto her features as she looked from Draco's back to his face but he said nothing, waiting for her to figure it out on her own.

She did, just like he had expected and grabbed his arm, gripping it tightly; which he hadn't expected. At least not entirely. "If Draco is here and he's not happy..." she started to say before Harry cut in, "yeah I know...it could mean many things: that he wasn't with Ron all day till now..."

"Or that maybe Ron told him but he rejected him."

"Or maybe he found at that Ron tricked him" Harry muttered, more to himself that to Hermione but she heard it anyway.

"Wait, what? Ron tricked him? How? And why in the name of Merlin would he do that?"

"Long story" Harry shrugged it off, and at Hermione's deep frown, he added to save his own skin "which I'll tell you all about, later... when we figure out what happened to Ron and where he is."
She nodded in understanding, looking like she'd call him on that offer soon.

Draco hadn't noticed the time as he lay there in the grass trying to think of anything but Ron but somehow, by some extremely weird reason, his thoughts kept wandering to the ginger red haired, freckled masculine compact of a boy. It didn't do well on his senses as time spent with Ron over the years kept rushing through his head, abusing him and making him feel even worse than he already did.
What's worse, the more he thought about it, the more certain he was that Ron did love him. All the evidence points to it...well, except the most recent one where he'd kissed Ron and the boy had just looked at him like he had horns or some other new bodily development that was not at all flattering to his being..

He repeated the question; "why didn't you kiss me, Ron?" in his head over and over again like a mantra and no matter how many hours he'd been doing that, he'd realized that he was no closer to figuring out the reason than he was when he first started chanting that.

He'd walked to the great(800) hall, half terrified and half confused; terrified because he feared Ron has told his friends about what happened between them and they were going to make fun of him indeed, and confused because somehow, the other option seemed to bring just that emotion out of him. What if Ron didn't tell anybody? Could it be because he likes him on some level, or because he's a better person? Or just because he loved Draco too?
He shook his head when he got to the doors to the great hall, opting to go with his usual arrogant stance as it had never failed him. He pushed the door open and... nothing.

Basically, no snickers and giggles as well as sneers and growls, mostly from the Slytherins but that's it, nothing! He didn't dare to look at the Gryffindor table but he was certain he felt eyes on him the moment he sat down. He fiddled with his braised rice, shifting uncomfortably in his seat and snapping "What?" at the people bold enough to keep giving him worried looks. Disgusting.

But the ones he really felt like snapping at were far across the room and he couldn't even risk looking back at them for fear of catching Ron's(1000) eye and making a total fool out of himself.
Pansy looked at him again and he snapped "what?" at her, but being who she is, she just frowned at him and asked him as if she couldn't care less about his mood. "You weren't in class all day today. Are you going to say where you were?"

"Obviously not, I'm not. But if you want to know...And you're so concerned, I'll have you know I wasn't doing anything sinister- at least, not as sinister as I'd like" he added, speaking undertone. She heard it anyway and rolled her eyes, knowing when to push him and exactly when to just back off. Draco tapped his foot noisily on the floor, giving up his resolve slipping and he finally lifted his gaze to look over at the Gryffindor table to see Harry and Hermione watching him, frowns on their respective faces but for some reason, he felt they weren't directed at him.

The duo quickly looked away as if he'd caught them with their hands down their pants and he scoffed. Do those two even have an ounce of subtlety in their bones? Those two? He paused, turning back to look over at them again. Yes, normally when he used "those two", he was referring to Ron and Harry and nothing at all to do with Hermione so where was Ron?

He was aware he was openly staring at them now, not having a care in the world as to what anyone thought and then suddenly he understood the worried looks he'd seen on their faces when he'd first looked over. What, Ron never went to class? That had been unexpected but so was the nagging feeling that his best friends expected him, Draco, to know about Ron's whereabouts,(1300) which in that moment will be great but he didn't and he'd managed to lose his appetite in the middle of all this confusion with the Golden trio..

"I'm fucked" he thought to himself and groaned, dropping his fork noisily back in his food. "This is all my fault!"
Harry and Hermione frowned at each other, feeling they've got all the proof they need, to be certain that Draco didn't know where Ron was and that they could officially start getting worried. They stood up in unison, picking up their books and were about to go and search for him when they heard and owl screech. They turned and saw it drop a note in front of them: Mr. Potter, Miss Granger, your friend Ronald is in the infirmary at this instant and I'd like you both here immediately" the note simply read. They looked at each other and literally run out of the door, causing heads, including Draco's, to turn and look after them.

Draco looked around and groaned, damning it all to hell before he got up and rushed after them, no idea what was going on and absolutely no clue as to how to explain things to Harry and Hermione if they asked or what he'd say to(1400) Ron if he met him first.(1406 words)

A/N:: I kind of wrote this chapter in a slight hurry and I feel it could honestly have been better so I might re-edit and make adjustments to it, but for now, I hope you have some fun reading this..Thanks for the support and R&R please.. Luvs you all, Muah Muah!