Suedehead
Part 2
“Look it’s not that hard to understand.” Hermione smiled at the other
girl. “Sure, I hated Draco when he called me a Mudblood and it was one
of the greatest highlights of my life…” she paused and cocked a
caterpillar, “and I’ve met Gilderoy Lockhart…when I punched the
pointy-faced git on the end of his pointy nose.” She shrugged. “But
that was then. We’ve all done a lot of growing up since then…well some of us…I suspect Draco is still an immature little berk.”
Pansy nodded oh yeh…
“It just seems silly to carry on hating him for something he did when he was twelve….”
The Slytherin interrupted her. “Well actually he called you a stupid, bloody Mudblood only this morning …”
Hermione gave her a look and she shut up.
“You’re right….we were just crazy kids huh?” And she rolled her eyes.
“So!” Hermione looked at her expectantly.
Pansy looked back. “So…what, Granger? You may have to be a bit more explicit some of us don’t speak dork!”
The other girl pulled a face. “Ha ha! You are so droll Pansy. I mean so what did you show Ron? And do I really want to know? I hear bleaching your eyes can be quite painful.”
Pansy
laughed. “Ah yes that. Well I didn’t actually show him myself…I just
might have implied that if he broke into Draco’s room - using the
password Snuffles…” she shook her head at the other girl‘s wide-eyed
look, “please don’t ask - tapped his wand on the third drawer of the
bureau while saying ‘Weasley is my king’ then he might find something
of interest inside…” She grinned. “If Weasley then chose to read what
he found there is that really my fault?”
Hermione shook her head slowly. “You are truly evil Pansy. Tell me does Voldermort come to you for tips?”
Pansy grinned back. “Not yet….but he will”
They both burst out laughing.
Hermione recovered first. “So what exactly did the poor boy read?”
“Poor Granger?” Pansy cocked her head to one side. “Does Weasley seem upset by what he read to you?”
The
other girl paused in thought. Now that she thought about it…Ron had
been really happy this past week…giddy almost. Whatever he had read it
certainly hadn’t upset him…
She smiled at the Slytherin girl.
She had a pretty strong suspicion…had for a while now and if Ron had
read something written by Draco that had him bouncing around with a
silly smirk on his face then she could guess the meaning if not the
actual words.
Pansy was nodding back at her, smile wide and eyes bright. “Did you know Draco likes to draw Hermione?”
*~*~*~*
Dinner
had been a bit of a trial if he was honest; every time he closed his
eyes the imprint of Weasley’s arse seared itself across the back of his
eyelids, like the annoying spot left after staring at the sun too long.
And didn’t that analogy work because Voldermort knew the red head’s
arse certainly rated as a heavenly body in Draco’s world.
Draco
watched as Weasley stood up from the table; the Gryffindor had been
staring at him for the entire length of the meal and suffice it to say
the Slytherin’s nerves - not to mention certain body parts – had had
about as much as they could take. He let out a little sigh as he
watched the lanky git take an enormous bite out of an apple, devouring
almost half in the process; the possibilities of what else that big
mouth could devour left him feeling a little breathless.
Pansy
leant over to whisper in his ear. “Draco are you sure you haven’t
developed asthma? Your breathing seems a little off these days.” She
grinned evilly at the start of surprise this evoked. A look of
embarrassment at having been caught looking spread rapidly across her
pathetic friend’s face. She felt no remorse for thinking of Draco in
such terms; the true meaning of the word after all meant deserving of
pity and Voldermort knew Draco panting after Weasley was a pitiful
sight indeed. She shook her head pityingly at the boy’s woeful attempt to cover his drooling.
“Erm…yes…well, it’s er…it’s Weasley.”
Oh I know it is Draco…I know it is…
She smiled encouragingly at him; one should reward effort.
“His total lack of table manners is er…distracting”
I bet it is!
“I
mean just look at the over-tall prat.” And he paused to take another
long look at the subject of his discourse. Weasley was saying something
to Granger, spraying her with stray bits of fruit in the process. Of
course the fact that he was bending down to lean on the table as he did
so was in no way derailing Draco’s train of thought. In fact he was
hardly even noticing the way the black material of the boy’s trousers
stretched tight across a rather luscious arse….
Pansy coughed
lightly trying to bring the distracted blond back down to earth. When
he continued to gaze across the room she tapped him lightly on the arm
but the dolt was clearly still frolicking on planet Weasley.
Exasperated she slapped him hard on the back of his head.
“Bloody hell woman! What was that for?” He turned to glare at her.
Well, seems she had finally regained his attention.
“I was waiting for you to continue….and Christmas is rapidly approaching.”
He frowned still rubbing at his head. “Yes, well you didn’t have to brain me…a polite cough would have sufficed.”
Pansy
rolled her eyes in disgust. “Of course it would….” She got no further
as their attention was arrested by a commotion over at the Gryffindor
table.
Weasley was walking away while Potter appeared to have transformed into a human fountain.
“Oh now that…that is disgusting…”
Pansy
nodded her head in agreement; she tried to ignore the little voice that
was trying to tell her that she really, really shouldn’t find the sight
of recycled pumpkin juice dribbling from someone’s nose endearing. That
was just wrong. She sighed softly as she watched Granger hand the
dripping boy a napkin.
*~*~*~*
After dinner Draco
decided to go for a ride on his broom; it had been a very trying day –
everywhere he’d looked it was Weasley’s arse or Weasley’s eyelashes or
Weasley’s long fingers – he needed to clear his head and a nice bracing
ride in the fresh air would be just the ticket. He spent the walk from
his room to the entrance door sternly telling himself that the fact
that he would also be able to spot Weasley better by air had had no
influence on his decision whatsoever. He was vaguely worried that his
inner voice was beginning to sound disturbingly like Pansy…
He
had been flying around the grounds for about five minutes and not at
all looking out for vivid red hair when he spotted him; lying alone on
the grass on the far side of the lake. He turned his broom and headed
over as casually as he could. As he drew closer he noticed that the
Gryffindor had his eyes closed; relieved that he hadn’t been seen by
the red head he leant forward resting his chin on his crossed hands and
settled back to enjoy the view.
*~*~*~*
Ron smiled as he
watched Draco’s sudden change in direction. He trailed the blond’s
approach through carefully hooded eyes suppressing the urge to grin as
the boy halted above him. Well, seeing as Draco had made such an effort
to join him he felt it was probably only fair that he provide a show….
Biting
his lip to suppress the rather girly giggle that was threatening to
escape, he slowly reached a hand down to the hem of his t-shirt; lazily
he drew the material up to his midriff. Sighing he began to trail his
long fingers languorously across the bared skin.
Draco fell off his broom.
*~*~*~*
Half
an hour later Ron was waiting anxiously outside the Infirmary. He had
bitten most of his nails down to the quick and he had a familiar
gnawing pain in his stomach; he recognised it of course, it was his
dear old friend guilt. He hadn’t meant to hurt Draco just tease him for
a bit. Trust the useless tosser to go and do something as overly
dramatic as fall twenty feet off his bleeding broom. Luckily he’d
landed on his head so hopefully the damage would be minimal….
Just then Pansy walked out looking very serious.
“Madam Pomfrey says you can go in now.” She bit her lip. “Please try not to tire the poor boy out.”
Ron nodded solemnly at her and headed through the doors.
Pansy managed to reign in her laughter until he was out of sight and then she let out what was most definitely not a loud snort before erupting into giggles; and she most certainly did not continue to snort
herself into helpless hiccups as she made her way back to her room. She
did concede however that she may have let out a refined, almost musical
peal of ladylike laughter.
Oh my Dark Lord…she was going to dine out on this for years…years!
*~*~*~*
Ron
walked hesitantly into the ward really not sure about his reception.
Draco was lying on one of the beds looking very pale and still but
there was no outward sign of injury. As he approached the bed the blond
opened his eyes and let out a groan.
“Oh Voldermort, not you!” He closed his eyes again and sank lower into the mattress.
In
spite of his feelings of guilt Ron broke into a grin; he couldn’t help
it there was just something about Draco that brought out his wicked
side and at least the other boy hadn’t hit him with a curse…yet.
*~*~*~*
Draco
closed his eyes tightly and tried his best to disappear into the bed;
hopefully if he stayed like that for long enough the stupid bastard
would take the hint and bugger off.
He couldn’t believe he’d
allowed himself to become so engrossed on what the red head had been
doing with his hands that he’d leant too far forward and fell off his
bloody broom. He also had a horrible feeling that he may have been
drooling just before he fell – with a bit of luck the teasing bastard
had thought it was rain…
He heard the other boy shuffling his
feet and wondered if he dared risk a peek. No! He had to be strong;
this could only end in tears – his tears and that was becoming all too
familiar lately; Pansy had suggested he check for breasts last week;
bloody cheek they’d been manly tears of frustration!
“Er…Malfoy.”
Oh Merlin! He surely wasn’t going to talk about what had happened, was he?
Draco
suppressed a groan. It was bad enough that he’d fallen right in front
of the prat but then apparently the ginger menace had levitated his
unconscious body up to the Hospital Wing. He had no recollection
between landing and waking up on the otherwise empty ward having been
out cold for the entire drama; his virtue could have been compromised
and he wouldn’t even have known. He sighed wistfully.
Weasley’s cough dragged his thoughts back from their happy place. He took a deep breath and opened his eyes.
*~*~*~*
Ron
let out a startled yelp as the blond on the bed snapped his eyes open
and glared at him. He had just about become resigned to the fact that
Draco was going to ignore him until he went away so was somewhat taken
aback at this sudden reversal. Unfortunately now that he seemingly had
the other boy’s full attention he wasn’t quite sure what to do with it.
He had a vague uneasy feeling that he should apologise but then that
would mean revealing that he knew what affect his actions would have on
the Slytherin and that would surely lead to shouting, broken furniture,
rivers of blood…in fact your typical Malfoy reaction to being thwarted.
He eyed the other boy’s angry glare; yep, there was a very good chance
that Draco was about to throw all his toys out the pram….
*~*~*~*
Draco
was clinging desperately to his anger as if it was a lifebelt; sadly
however he could feel his grasp slipping and had a feeling he was about
to go under.
If only Weasley didn’t look so completely
adorable shuffling nervously from foot to foot with a delightful blush
spreading over his freckled cheeks….Fuck, Pansy was right he was turning into a girl…
“Oh for fucks sake, say something Weasley!” He had to get the boy out of there quickly before he embarrassed himself. Again.
The
red head stuffed his hands deep into the pockets of his trousers
causing Draco’s eyes to drop instinctively to where the material was
now stretched enticingly across his….the blond bit his lip and willed
his head not to explode. Rallying all of his remaining strength he
forced his eyes back to the other boy’s face; luckily Weasley was still
staring at his feet.
“Could we please conclude this swiftly
Weasel? I have the mother and father of a headache and I can feel lots
of little headaches coming along.”
*~*~*~*
Commending his spirit to whatever gods existed Ron lifted his head, took a deep breath and started to talk.
“Er…look Malfoy…I… er…didn’t mean for you to...you know fall or anything.”
Draco frowned what was he blabbering about?
“I
just thought erm…it would be a bit of a laugh to well…er… tease you a
little.” The red head looked back down at his feet blushing madly. Bugger this was proving even harder than he had thought…
Draco was frowning deeper now Tease me? Well yes, but he couldn’t have known that that’s what he was doing…how could he? That would mean he…
“So
you see I wasn’t actually trying to injure you or anything.” Ron looked
up hopefully at the blond; he wasn’t encouraged by the look he saw on
the boy’s face. Oh dear. He continued in a rush. “It’s just
after what Pansy said…you know about…about your erm…journal.” He paused
to take another deep breath; there was no going back now. “And I would
never have broken into your room to read it only she was so insistent
that it was the right thing to do and she went on so much about a
violation of my human rights and…and so many illustrations and
positions and…and ….” He came to a stuttering halt.
Draco’s
blush had reached his fingertips by the time the red head shut up but
he felt strangely calm. The worst had happened. His previously happy,
well-ordered life had been destroyed. It lay in tatters at his feet;
destroyed by his best friend. And yet he was taking it in stride;
handling it in a mature, measured manner.
He turned slowly
toward the bedside cabinet, reached across to pick up the half-full jug
of water and hurled it at Weasley’s head.
Luckily years of
living with Ginny had honed Ron’s instincts and he was ducking before
the jug left the blond’s hand. He wasted no time after that in beating
a hasty retreat; better part of valour and all that…
He was half-way back to the Gryffindor tower when he heard a blood-curdling scream echo off the castle walls.
Part 1 ~~~~~~~~ Back to Ron/Draco ~~~~~~~~ Part 3