He was having that dream again, the one he'd had so many times before,
years before he had known what it meant. Bright flashes of green
lightning surrounded him and a there was a woman's voice, begging and
pleading for mercy.
Gasping, Harry jerked upward in his bed. He was still shaking and he
wiped a hand across his cheeks, not really surprised to find them wet.
The only time he'd ever heard his mother's voice in his memories was as
she pleaded for his life and even as he longed to hear it, it still
hurt.
He glanced around, still a little jumpy but he couldn't really see
anything. There was no light filtering through the curtains around his
bed so it wasn't morning yet and he couldn't see much else without his
glasses. Swiping his arm halfheartedly over his face a last time, he
rolled over to try to go back to sleep.
"Harry?" A voice whispered right next to his bed and a head poked
through the curtains.
He nearly went tumbling out the other side of the bed in surprise.
Enough had happened at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry since
he'd come here that he was wary of visitors in the middle of the night.
At the last moment he recognized Ron's voice and nearly sighed aloud in
relief. He certainly wasn't up to any late night calisthenics tonight.
"Yeah?" he whispered back, and Ron crawled the rest of the way through
the curtains and sat next to him. He saw a brief glimpse of his friend,
wearing his own pajamas, before the curtain swung back and left them
both in the dark.
"Are you all right? I thought I heard something," Ron whispered,
concern in his voice.
"Yeah, I'm fine," he croaked out. "Did I wake you up?" That's just what
he needed, to wake up the whole room because of his nightmare.
"Nah, I was already up, getting a drink. You sure you're all right?"
Ron asked doubtfully.
Harry nodded, and when he realized that Ron couldn't see him he
whispered, "Yeah, I'm sure."
His friend hesitated a moment longer then shifted backwards, leaving
him and wild panic went through Harry as he realized that he'd be alone
again with the dark and the screams still fresh in his ears.
"Wait!" he blurted out, his hand latching onto Ron's arm. "Could you
maybe...stay for a minute?" He felt Ron start in surprise and he bit his
lip. Just great, Harry thought glumly. Bad enough the Ron had caught him
having a nightmare but now his friend would think he was scared of the dark
or something.
But Ron didn't say anything. He just hesitated for a moment and then
said softly, "I can stay, if you want, Harry. It's no big deal." He
seemed to take Harry's silence as agreement because he moved to crawl
under the blankets, shivering a little. The room was rather cold at
night.
Harry moved over to give his friend some room, a little embarrassed but
still grateful that his friend had stayed.
One of Ron's hands fumbled under the blankets until he found Harry's
and he squeezed it lightly. Ron still didn't say anything, much to
Harry's relief.
Lying there together quietly in the dark, Ron's fingers gently stroked
the back of Harry's hand, which felt weird but nice. His hand was warm
and sort of sweaty but holding it was easing the last of Harry's panic.
After a few minutes, Ron pulled his hand away and Harry made a sound of
protest without thinking, suddenly afraid that his friend was going to
leave. Instead, Ron moved closer and hugged him awkwardly.
"Was it another bad dream?" Ron asked in a hushed voice and Harry
blinked in surprise, nodding before he'd even thought about it. Ron's
arms tightened. "You had one when you stayed with me over vacation," he
said, answering Harry's unspoken question.
There wasn't much he could say to that, so he didn't and instead he
closed his eyes and relaxed against his friend. In his whole life no
one had ever just held him like this, certainly not the Dursleys and
for that he was more than a little grateful. But this was sort of nice
and comfortable. Ron was warm and was rubbing his back gently; probably
something his mother had done for him when he was younger.
At the thought of mothers, Harry winced a little and moved closer to his friend.
Ron probably already thought he was being stupid so he might as well enjoy this
while he could. But the other boy didn't say anything about it, just sighed a
little and moved so he could press his cheek against the top of Harry's head.
The warmth and the comfort were well on their way to putting Harry to
sleep and when Ron shifted away again Harry let him go, a little
regretfully but the screams were faint now and he felt safe again.
Something soft brushing his lips jolted him awake and Harry jerked back
in surprise. He pulled back a little more and squinted at his friend in
the darkness. He couldn't see very well without his glasses but he and
Ron were close enough for him to see the embarrassment on his friend's
freckled face.
"Sorry, I thought you were asleep," Ron muttered, moving back towards
the curtains.
Without thinking, Harry caught his arm. "Wait!"
Ron paused and Harry tried frantically to think of something to say. His
friend, the closest friend he'd never dreamed he'd ever have had kissed him.
No brush on the cheek either, it had been on the lips even.
"Why did you do that?" he asked finally, his voice hushed.
"I just wanted to," Ron stammered, "Look, I'm sorry, I wasn't thinking.
I'll just go back to bed..." He shrugged awkwardly and started to scoot
back again but Harry's hand on his arm kept him from going too far.
Harry's mind was still whirling. A kiss, there was nothing else to call
it. From Ron, his best friend. His first kiss.
They'd all had the basic sexual education class just this year.
Professor McGonagall had taught it with her usual brisk efficiency,
ignoring the snickers and embarrassed expressions of her students.
She'd told them all about the basic physical aspects of it without even
a blush and then about the emotions around it. Her stern expression had
been little softer than usual and she had even gone as far as to say
that a relationship based on love was far more important than the sex
of the people involved. Professor McGonagall had made it sound like a
wonderful thing, which certainly hadn't been the impression that Harry
had gotten in the Muggle world.
Then again, Malfoy had sneered during that section of the class. He and
his friends had snickered and muttered nasty things under their breath
until Professor McGonagall had threatened them with detention. That had
shut them up, mostly. Anything that Malfoy hated probably couldn't be
that bad.
Personally, Harry had thought that the whole business sounded terribly
embarrassing and, well, kind of messy. And how much more embarrassing
would it be if you did it wrong and the other person got mad, or worse,
they laughed at you?
But Ron was his friend; Ron would never laugh at him. Ron had kissed him
right on the lips and somehow this seemed a lot more interesting than
embarrassing now. Hesitantly, watching Ron's face as best he could in
the darkness, Harry leaned forward and pressed his lips awkwardly to
Ron's. It was terrible; their noses kept getting in the way and it felt
kind of like pressing his lips against a wet fish. Ron was so shocked
that he didn't seem to know what to do, just sat there with his mouth
open against Harry's.
Then Ron recovered a bit and they seemed to get everything tilted the
right way and it was...nice. Ron's lips were surprisingly soft and warm.
Harry finally pulled back when he started to run out of air and he wiped
his mouth with the back of his hand. Kissing was nice but it was sort of
wet.
That seemed to jolt Ron out of his daze and he stammered, "Why...why did
you do that?"
Harry shrugged. "I wanted to."
"You aren't just saying that so you won't hurt my feelings?" Ron asked
suspiciously.
"Nope." He lay back down, tugging on Ron's arm to pull him down with
him. This time, he held his friend, mimicking everything Ron had done
early. Ron just held still and let him, still lost somewhere in his
thoughts.
"You really wanted to?" Ron said timidly, tilting his head up so he
could look at Harry. He nodded a little and nearly fell off the bed
again when Ron all but pounced on him, kissing him hard this time and
Harry kissed him back eagerly. He flinched when he felt Ron's tongue
probe timidly at his lips but only for a second before he warily opened
his mouth.
It didn't feel nearly as gross as it had sounded, having someone else's
tongue in his mouth and he pushed back with his own tongue. Ron brushed
the tip of his tongue against the roof of Harry's mouth and he pulled
back with a muffled giggle, rubbing with his own tongue to get rid of
the tickle. He could see Ron's confusion so he grinned and repeated the
gesture on Ron, snickering again at Ron's expression.
They both sighed a little and cuddled closer together, Ron resting his
head on Harry's chest.
"I've wanted to do that for a long time," Ron confessed in a hushed
voice.
"With me? Why?" Harry couldn't really imagine why anyone would want to
kiss him, even if Ron was his friend.
Ron sat up a little, giving his friend an exasperated look. "Because!
Because you're..."
Because I'm Harry Potter, Harry thought glumly, a strange ache forming
in his chest.
"...my friend." Ron finished. "And you're nice and you're sort of cute...
I sound like an idiot," he groaned.
Harry grinned senselessly, his relief making him feel a little weak.
"No, you don't." He kissed Ron again, softly and it seemed that kissing
felt better every time you did it. A groaning sound from another bed in
the room made them freeze until it melded back into quiet snoring.
"I better go back to bed," Ron whispered reluctantly and Harry nodded. A
last soft kiss and Ron slipped back through the curtains. Harry listened
to him pad quietly across the room, the soft rustle of fabric as he
climbed under the sheets.
Burrowing underneath his own blankets, Harry sighed happily, his earlier
nightmare as distant to him now as the Muggle world. Just before he fell back
into sleep, much more pleasant dreams beckoning him, he had time to wish
fervently that it wouldn't take another nightmare to get Ron to kiss him
again.
-finis-
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mailto:keelywolfe@gmail.com
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