Room 310 of the Goat's Inn - Completed

[beyond_measure]

Ron had been writing in his journal, and letting Draco and Fred know about the changes his tea with Harry and Hermione had brought about, and watching for his opportunity to catch a glimpse of the guest book. He had a feeling he'd heard Harry's room number at some point last night, but he couldn't remember it

Comments

[__harry__]

Harry was in the middle of writing a response to Hermione is his journal when he heard a faint knocking at the door. How had Hermione known? he thought, a small smile gracing his lips before his mood became serious again. If she was right, and Ron was outside that door (and frankly, Harry couldn't think of who else would bother to visit him at the moment), well, he could only hope he could keep his temper in check long enough to have a decent conversation with his old best mate. He was embarrassed by his earlier behaviour at tea, as he'd gone into the meeting resolved to be nothing but supportive but for some reason, as soon as he'd got the faintest trace that perhaps his suspicions about Malfoy and Ron were true, all reason and logic had flown out of his mind. Vowing to do better this time round (and thankful for being given a second chance), Harry quickly stood and crossed to the door, opening it with a timid smile

[beyond_measure]

Ron was incredibly relieved to see Harry's smile. He ignored the stiffness of the greeting and grinned widely, resisting the urge to pull Harry into a hug. After all, they'd just been in a huge fight and Harry had only given him a small smile. It didn't mean that everything was fine, now. Although Ron desperately hoped it would be. At some point.

"Hi, Harry. Can I come in?"

Maybe this won't be quite as terrible as I'd thought.

[__harry__]

"Yeah ... of course." Harry answered, breaking him out of his slight trance as he backed away from the door, gesturing towards the sitting area.

"Do want anything to drink? Tea or --" Harry immediately realised his blunder and his face flushed slightly. "Well, perhaps tea's not the best idea."

[beyond_measure]

Harry seemed... not nervous, exactly, but not quite himself. Is he just being polite?

Ron entered the room, looking around a bit. He laughed when Harry asked him if he wanted tea.

"No thanks. I've had enough tea for the moment." He noticed that Harry was blushing slightly. Well, nervous seemed to be part of it, then. "Could I just get some water?"

Somehow knowing that Harry was nervous too made things seem a little less daunting.

[__harry__]

"I'm sorry." Harry answered, sitting on the edge of the sofa, taking a small sip of water before continuing. "I -- I just lost it. I jumped to conclusions... my mind just -- here you were, unloading this huge thing and I--" he broke off realising that he wasn't quite making sense. He sighed, setting his glass down on a end table and rubbing his eyes. It had been an emotionally tiring day - making up with Hermione, to the tour and that horrible scene with Snape and then fighting with Ron again, Harry wasn't quite sure he could take any more. He just wanted everything to be okay again between him and his best friends, then maybe he could face the rest of the world.

[beyond_measure]

Ron listened to Harry carefully. He didn't quite understand what Harry was trying to say. He was silent for a moment after Harry stopped speaking abruptly, thinking.

He looked back over at Harry, his brow furrowed slightly. Harry looked... tired. And about how Ron felt, actually.

But he didn't know what to say to Harry.

"And you what?"

[__harry__]

"I just -- lost it. You were there. Or did you already forget?" Harry joked, giving Ron a weary smile. "My normal - well you know."

[beyond_measure]

Ron laughed. "Your normal well you know?" He looked down again, taking a sip of his water. This was really, really terrible.

"Well, you had reason to lose it, really. I - promised Hermione that - well - nothing will happen with me and - Right. I wanted to tell you that, too. In person. And apologize for - thinking with my - cock."

Ron's blush was a deeper red than his hair.

[__harry__]

"Perfect." Harry replied, relieved that Ron had chosen an out of the way table as if he instictually knew Harry's discomfort at being the center of attention in the middle of the pub. He grabbed his glass and headed towards the corner, trying to ignore the whispered words as he passed by the scattered patrons.

"Much better." He whispered, sinking into the chair, with his back against the wall waiting for Ron to join him.

[beyond_measure]

Ron sat in the chair across from Harry's. "You get used to it." He shrugged. "I have. I mean, even right after I didn't get that much attention, but eventually you just filter it out." He gave Harry a slightly sad smile, keeping from adding that it would die down if Harry just stayed.

"Anyway, I like the surprise." He took a sip of his drink. "And the question of the weekend. What now?"

[__harry__]

"Right well... I only had this much planned." Harry said with a shrug, fingering the lip of his glass. "How's your mum?" He aimed for a neutral topic, something that would ease them into conversation without having tempers immediately flare before they could talk about what they were supposed to talk about. Problem is, Harry had no idea what they were supposed to talk about. There were plenty of things of course, but Harry just wanted to forget all the stupid fighting of the night before and he felt their earlier row had been resolved by their mutual apologies, so he was hoping for just a clean slate, however unrealistic that was.

[beyond_measure]

Ron couldn't help but watch Harry play with his glass. He mentally shook himself. This was getting very out of control. He smiled and took a sip of his drink, hoping Harry hadn't noticed anything. It was odd enough between them without... this. Whatever it was.

"Oh, you know mum. Waiting with baited breath for grandchildren, since we've all been out of the house. So right now she's mostly pestering Bill and Fleur, but once she gets a grandbaby she'll be back on all the rest of us to settle down and give her more." He smirked. "Took her ages to not harrass me about Hermione, actually."

[beyond_measure]

Ron's eyes narrowed slightly at Harry's sigh before he closed them. If Harry didn't want to do this he shouldn't have brought it up.

He took a deep breath, concentrating. They arrived with a pop in the living room of his flat.

When he spoke, his voice was low and calm. Well, he sounded calm, but the flush slowly spreading up from his neck said otherwise. "So you don't know what happened to us, then?"

[__harry__]

Harry crossed his arms defensively as soon as he heard Ron's voice, even and low, and he eyed the slight reddening of the other man's neck.

"Fine. I ran off to America. You're angry about it." Harry sighed, closing his eyes for a moment as he thought, maybe it would just be best for Ron to get everything out now; maybe that's what the other man needed. "Go ahead then. Yell at me for it." Don't even try to understand, he added silently, meeting Ron's gaze.

[beyond_measure]

Ron looked away, his jaw tightening. Tempting though it was... "I already yelled at you for it. I want to know why. Which I thought I'd made clear last night when I asked you about it over and over again. Or are you still refusing to tell me anything about it?"

He looked back at Harry. Not that he probably wouldn't start yelling AS Harry was explaining it to him...

[__harry__]

"I had to get away." Harry said, sighing again as he dropped his arms to the side. The words had come easy with Hermione, but then again, he was writing in one of those charmed journals, which considering the rest of their conversation, he was sure they were designed to pull things out from the writer. But now that he was having this conversation face to face with someone, he wasn't sure he could handle it.

"Maybe I'd be more apt to tell you, if I didn't think you were immediately going to jump down my throat over it."