Bloom

“I’m sorry…what?”

Ron lifted his head, looking completely stunned as he still took some deep, steadying breaths. Draco smiled at him and tucked a lock of his messy hair behind his freckled ear. Ron blushed and ducked his head as he did so, making Draco’s heart flutter.

“You heard me,” he said with a light laugh, “I love you. I don’t care that I lost our game. I love you, and I want you. I know we can’t be, you know, out about it around here, but…it’s worth it, to me, to just know that you’re mine.”

 “Yours,” Ron repeated, his voice still a bit raspy, which Draco found adorable. “I…” he bit his lip, and Draco grew hot in anticipation, “Sorry…” Ron exhaled heavily, “I’ve never…I’ve never actually said those words out loud. I didn’t realize it would be so difficult.”

Draco scoffed patiently. “It’s okay,” he said, “I understand.”

“I love you, too.”

And it hit Draco like a bludger to the chest. He had heard it before, of course. His parents told him, Blaise told him. Even one of his house elves, Lotty, had told him once, when he was incredibly young. However, hearing it from Ron, someone who had always been so brutally honest with him, felt completely different.

It made him feel like a good person. A good enough person. Good enough to hear those words from Ron, who frequently felt unlovable. Who was not very trusting. Who had been burned by everyone who even pretended to care about him. His friends, his family. People Draco hated with a passion because how could they know Ron and not realize how much love he needed. How much love he deserved for fucks sake.

“I want to love you for a long time, Ron Weasley,” Draco whispered, his hand still on the side of Ron’s face. Ron’s gaze fell. “Hey…look at me.” The Gryffindor’s glistening sapphire eyes rose again. “Get used to it,” Draco said with a smile, “Now that I’ve said it, I’m going to say it all the time. I love you.”

His blush deepening, and radiating such heat that Draco cold feel it, Ron opened his mouth, but the words seemed stuck. Draco planted a kiss on his forehead. “It’s okay,” he murmured, “I know it’s hard for some people. But hearing it once, that’s enough. I only ever wanted to hear it at least once. And now…” he kissed Ron on the lips, “Now I can give you the world.”

“You’re enough,” Ron replied, looking startled that Draco could suggest otherwise. “Being yours is enough, Draco.”

“No,” Draco responded, “You deserve more. Better. But I’m going to try and give you everything you are worthy of.”

“Stop,” Ron stammered, still blushing heavily, “Please.”

“Why?” Draco asked, giving him a small kiss, hoping Blaise was still distracting Professor McGonagall, “I just want-”

“Draco,” Ron interrupted, looking at him in anguish, “Please…I know you mean well, but-but it’s hard for me to hear stuff like that…it’s too much…”

“It’s too much because you’ve never heard it,” Draco replied sadly, “But I understand. I’ll back off. A little.”

“You promise you’re okay?”

“I promise.” Ron stopped walking. “I really, really promise, Blaise, alright?”

Blaise grabbed his waist from behind and pulled Ron into his chest, hugging him tightly. “Good,” he said, kissing him on the cheek, then nuzzling the side of his neck, “But that just means I can be even more aggressive next time, doesn’t it?”

They had all left the castle about ten minutes ago. Blaise had distracted Professor McGonagall by claiming he had lost his textbook and wanted to search for it. Thankfully, Ron and Draco had gotten off the floor -carefully, as Ron was a bit sore after all- just before she had entered her room again.

Full of adrenaline, none of them had wanted to end the night. So they had decided to take a late night stroll by the lake, comfortably covered by foliage. Blaise had already asked Ron about a hundred times if he was okay, and now he couldn’t keep his hands off of him. Rubbing his back, hugging him, holding his hand, kissing him everywhere just to make him smile.

“Sure,” Ron whispered back to him with a chuckle, “You can do whatever you want.”

“Mm,” Blaise murmured, looking sly, “You better stop that, or you won’t get any time to recover.” He then kissed Ron’s neck, making him squirm. “You’re so cute.”

Draco watched them with a smile. It was interesting seeing them be affectionate with each other. They were so…careful with each other. Not like how either of them were with him. But he supposed that’s what made this work. He was the leader. He took charge. He was the aggressor. And they…they were sweet. No matter how much Blaise tried to deny it. He had much more of a soft side than Draco did. But not so much that he couldn’t dominate Ron if he wanted to. When he wanted to.

Draco walked over to them, standing in front of Ron. “Now don’t be making plans without me,” he drawled, “I’d hate to have to punish the both of you.”

“Oh, you’d love it,” Blaise said with a laugh; in his arms, Ron also smiled. Blaise locked his eyes with Draco, and a familiar warming sensation flooded through him. Draco could love Ron, but Blaise was always the love of his life. His soul mate. “We’d never do that to you,” Blaise whispered gently.

“Never,” Ron agreed, and closed his eyes as he let his head rest back on Blaise’s shoulder, “Are you coming to detention tomorrow, too?” he asked.

“Only if you want me there,” Blaise answered.

“Yeah, of course,” Ron said quickly, then he reached out and grabbed Draco’s arms to pull him forward until their waists were touching. After a moment, he smirked. “I like being in the middle.”

Simultaneously, Blaise and Draco chuckled their happiness. Draco felt like he was floating. Between Ron and Blaise, he had the best of both worlds. He had two halves of one whole, perfect relationship. The three of them filled each other’s empty spaces, without anyone having to give up pieces of themselves. They were all broken in their own way and had nothing left to give but what they had left over, and they all cherished those pieces carefully.

Loyally.

Lovingly.

Draco leaned over Ron’s shoulder to kiss Blaise, then moved back to Ron. There was still a pecking order, after all. Ron, however, did not seem upset. The perfect person that he was.

The next day, in Double Herbology, Draco continued to bask in his floating feeling. Blaise was happy, and had been in a good mood all day, which in turn caused Draco to remain uplifted. And any time they saw Ron, he would sneak a smile in their direction. Everything was just so…good.

“Hey,” Blaise suddenly whispered to him in the middle of dissecting and identifying various parts of the fertilizer in front of them, “Winter break is coming up.”

“Yeah,” Draco replied, poking at what he hoped was a pebble with the point of his quill, “You’re coming with me, right? Mum and Dad were expecting you, at least.”

“Well,” Blaise shrugged, “I was thinking, actually…my house will be empty, won’t it? What if we…stayed there instead? Just us?”

“Just us?” Draco repeated, considering. It was a nice thought, just him and Blaise in his enormous manor. It was almost as big as his own, but seemed bigger because Blaise’s mother was very modern, and decorated her house in a minimalistic style, as opposed to his mother who needed statues, furniture, plants, or portraits in every empty space. It always made Draco feel claustrophobic.

“Well…” Blaise said again, slowly, “What if…what if I invite…?” He tilted his head.

Blinking, Draco instinctively glanced to his left, where Ron was at a table with Potter and Granger. None of them were working on the assignment. Instead, they were huddled close together. Actually, they were so close that Potter’s hip and shoulder were practically touching Ron’s, and on occasion when he was speaking and looked at Ron, his hand would go to his arm.

“You think he could come?” Draco asked, trying to sound thoughtful instead of bitterly jealous, “I mean…his family…they probably do things around Christmas, right?”

“He’s of age,” Blaise replied with a shrug, “We all are. It’s our choice.” He looked over at Ron as well, his eyes narrowing when he saw how close their Ron was to the bloody Chosen One. “No harm in asking, right?”

“Right,” Draco replied with a tight smile, “I’d rather have him with us...otherwise…”

He trailed off, hoping Blaise would understand what he was saying. That, otherwise, Ron would be sharing a room with Potter. And the last time they had done that, according to Ron, they had quickly found their groove in shagging. So, naturally, Potter would probably assume things would go back to that, and Ron would have no logical reason for saying no. And Draco had the sinking suspicion that ‘because I don’t want to’ wasn’t a good enough reason for the narcissistic Golden Boy.

Blaise’s lack of response told Draco he was thinking the same thing. For the remaining twenty-three minutes of class, the Slytherin’s continued to eye the Gryffindor Trio, growing more and more disgruntled as they watched them huddled together, whispering about something that was clearly serious. It made Draco’s skin prickle uncomfortably for a couple reasons. One, because he did not like one of Ron’s ex-lovers being so close to him like this, touching him. And two, because he had a feeling that what they were talking about, what they had been talking about, the reason Ron had been injured, was because they were tracking down Horcruxes.

But they weren’t allowed to talk about that.

“Missed you,” Ron was murmuring against his lip’s hours later, his hands untucking Draco’s shirt from his pants.

“Did you?” Draco replied, sounding a bit more snarky than he intended, and followed it with a sharp bite at Ron’s lip that made him gasp. “You and Potter seemed a bit chummy today.”

“Draco…” Ron sighed, pouting slightly, “He’s my best mate. We’re comfortable.”

“Oh, I’m aware,” Draco sneered, “And you’re best mates who used to fuck, Ron.”

“Used to,” Ron repeated, “We used to. You know he’s dating my sister now, right?”

“You think he’s going to pass you up when you’re sharing a room this break?” Draco replied, though he was still guiding Ron back into the far wall they usually wound up against, “Will you tell him no?”

“Of course I’ll tell him no,” Ron said harshly with narrowed eyes. But he was still pouting. It had not turned into a real argument yet. “But he won’t do anything, Draco. Okay? Will you trust me?”

“What if…” Draco murmured, grabbing Ron’s chin, and running his thumb along his soft, pink lips, “You…and me…and Blaise…” he trailed his hand down, brushing the backs of his fingers along Ron’s neck, “Were together alone this break?”

“What are you talking about?” Ron replied, his eyes wide with curiosity. Draco’s shirt was now untucked and in the process of being unbuttoned, though Ron had not averted his eyes at all.

“Blaise wants us to stay at his house,” Draco answered with a sly grin, “Just us three all winter.”

It was then that there were three knocks at the classroom door, and then it opened, and Blaise strode in, carefully locking the door behind him. He walked straight for them.

“I just told him about your offer,” Draco said, leaning forward to kiss Ron playfully. He was inwardly begging Ron to say yes. This winter would be perfect if it were only them. Able to be open and able to touch each other whenever they wanted. Kiss, and fuck.

“What do you say?” Blaise asked, immediately putting himself with them, kissing Draco, then kissing Ron. “You’ll come, right? You’re of age. You’re allowed.”

But Ron’s face had fallen. He had lost his smile, and the giddy look in his eye. He was biting his lip and radiating an anxious energy. When he took a breath to speak, his bottom lip quivered.

“I can’t,” he said in a small, child-like voice.

“Why?” Blaise demanded, obviously hurt, and disbelieving.

“Come on,” Draco encouraged, stroking Ron’s cheek, “We can help you come up with a good story to tell everyone. You don’t have the trace. You’ll be fine.”

“But…” Ron let out a shaky breath, “I…I already won’t be at home…”

Suddenly feeling cold, Draco dropped his hands, and took a step back. “Why?” he asked flatly, though he unfortunately had a feeling he already knew the answer. And it filled him with dread.

“Draco…” Ron whimpered, “I was going to tell you. I was going to tell you tonight. Both of you.”  

“Tell us what?” Blaise asked slowly.

“You’re looking for things again, aren’t you?” Draco demanded, taking another step back. “If you’re going to be gone all break…then…you know where it is, don’t you? You’re going to try and destroy it.”

“What?” Blaise barked.

“I can’t tell you,” Ron whispered, his eyes magnified with glistening tears that did not fall, “But…I don’t have a choice. I have to go, Draco, I ha-”

“You don’t!” Draco shouted, not bothering to stay quiet, he pointed a finger at Ron, “You have a fucking choice!” Ron flinched. “Don’t tell me you have to! You don’t! You’re going off risking yourself again!”

“You can’t do it, Ron,” Blaise said firmly, “Don’t do it again. This is dangerous.”

Though they all knew exactly what they were talking about, no one said it.

“I do have to,” Ron whispered shakily, “This is…I’m his best friend.”

“Your best friend who doesn’t give two shits about your life!” Draco bellowed.

“Draco,” Blaise hissed warningly, “Keep it down.”

Both he and Ron ignored him. “He does to!” Ron was yelling back, “But he can’t do it alone!”

“He doesn’t…need…you!” Draco boomed, his chest rising and falling with heavy breaths. “I need you!”

“And I need you!” Ron replied desperately, raising his palms to the ceiling. The tears had fallen now. “But I…I just… I can’t say no to this…it’s…what we’re doing is bigger than just me, or him…”

“Yeah I know what it is!” Draco hissed, “And that’s why I can’t let you do it, Ron! I can’t…” he let out a cry of frustration, “I just got you!”

They all fell silent. Tears streaming down Ron’s sad, scared, and confused face. Draco was pink with anger, still heaving deep breaths. Blaise stood nervously to the side, not sure where to jump in, but looking at Ron pleadingly. Silently begging him not to go.

“I just got you,” Draco repeated quietly, “I just told you I love you. Don’t leave me, Ron. Don’t leave me for him.”

“It’s not like that,” Ron cried in a choked voice.

“It’s exactly like that,” Draco replied a bit too harshly. But he couldn’t take it back. Nor did he want to.

The classroom door flew open, and Professor McGonagall click-clacked inside, her eyes wide and stern. “What on earth is going on in here?” she demanded, “Mr. Zabini what…”

She continued her squawking, but Draco wasn’t listening. He pulled his robe tight around his unbuttoned shirt and plopped down into a chair at the back of the classroom, avoiding Ron’s pitiful glances. Blaise was sent away. Draco’s heart did not stop racing.

He couldn’t let Ron go.

Not this soon.

Not ever.