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Only the Ring Finger Knows	By : aoigensou Category: Harry Potter > Slash - Male/Male > Harry/Draco Views: 9411 -:- Recommendations : 0 -:- Currently Reading : 0
Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter, nor any of the characters from the books or movies. I do not make any money from the writing of this story.

Chapter List
- 3
- 4
- 5
A/N: I�ve put of doing this for more than two days,
but my goal is to have this chapter out by my birthday!!! So here we go! ^_^

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Chapter 3

Harry trudged into the Great Hall and sat heavily
down at the Gryffindor table. He didn�t
bother lowering his voice as he vocally cursed Malfoy (without magic) for
ruining his morning, and only the loud �thud� of his book bag hitting the floor
interrupted him. Viciously, the
disgruntled boy broke off from his verbal barrage and grabbed a muffin. Before he knew what hit him, Harry had run headlong into
Hermione.

�Second time today,� he muttered, and moved to go
nd hnd her. He almost made it, but
found that Ron was in his way.

�Harry, mate, what�s the matter?� Ron asked with
some concern. Harry seemed preoccupied
and more than a little pissed off.

Harry said something too low for Ron to hear, and
ended his mini-rant with �stupid Malfoy.�
Ron gave him a knowing look.

�You know, you could try and give him a
chance. It would save you a headache.�

�And Harry, you know he isn�t exactly evil. He fought for our side after all,� Hermione
added.

�That just means he�s not evil. I still think that he�s the sneaky bastard
we came to know over the years.�

�Can you prove that, Harry?� Hermione asked gently.

�Yes,� Harry replied without hesitation. Hermione raised an eyebrow.

�Oh?�

�I met him in the bathroom yesterday morning.�

Ron�s eye opened wide and he grinned. �Ooooooh reeeeeally now?� Harry gave his fri friend a disgusted look,
as if to call him a pervert.

�Yes. And
he acted as if it were two years ago.
Sneers, insults, haughtiness� It was the Malfoy we�ve known.�

�Hmm.�
Ron�s expression had mellowed from a grin to an amused smile. Hermione merely looked thoughtful.

�Well mate,� Ron said, �it sounds like he really
hates you.�

�Or he really likes you,� Hermione
interjected. Harry�s mouth fell open.

�You�re joking, right? Please say you�re joking,� he choked out. Hermione shrugged.

�Dunno.�
She gave him a mischievous smile.
�Would you mind if he did?�
Harry spluttered.

�Yes!� He
stared at his two best friends as if they had both grown two extra heads
apiece. Ron laughed loudly.

�Don�t worry, I�m sure she�s kidding. Or way off base at least.�

�Better be�� Harry mumbled, moving to leave.

�Where are you going?� Ron asked. Harry looked back, no stopping his stride.

�Library.�

�Oh.�
Hermione gave him an approving look.
�Well we were going to ask if you wanted to come to Hogsmeade with us��
Harry shook his head.

�Sorry, too much homework.�

�Becoming an Auror is going to take all the fun out
of you, mate!� Ron called to Harry, who stuck his tongue out in response. Ron grinned and slipped his arm through
Hermione�s, much to her surprise. Harry
smiled and felt his mood lift slightly.
He was so glad that Ron had been more cheerful lately, and he knew that
it had a lot to do with the fact that he had received a letter saying that Bill
had woken from his coma and was on the path to recovery.

Finally Harry felt that things were going back to
normal, that things were starting to feel right again.

�All except Malfoy, damn him.� As soon as he spoke, Harry�s mood fell
again. He had been happy with the
status quo, and Malfoy had upset the balance.
Also, it disturbed him that everything seemed to come back to the
blonde-haired Slytherin lately. Harry
gritted his teeth and forced himself to stop thinking of him.

After all, he had homework to do.

^V^V^V^V^V^V^V^V^V^V^V^V^V^V^V^V^V^V^V^V^V^V^V^V^V^V^V^V^V^V^V^V^V^V^V^V

The trip to the library was uneful,ful, Harry knew
the castle well enough from his experiences in previous years that he could
navigate the back passages with his eyes shut. Dumbledore had cordoned off a
section of the school for the refugees to live in, and tried to keep life as
normal as possible. Classes had
continued, and the Headmaster made a point not to let the war interfere with
life if he could possibly help it.
Hogwarts had been a safe haven.

But there had been those who were too stubborn to
flee in the face of the Dark Lord.
Percy Weasley had been one of them.
Stubborn to the end, not even having made amends with his family. A fact that Mr. and Mrs. Weasley regretted
deeply.

There were also the families of the Muggle-born
students, that couldn�t be helped. Many
died at the cruel hands of Voldemort before he was stopped. Hermione was lucky, she didn�t lose her
family, but she came close. Hermione
had convinced her parents to relocate to the States for a while, about a week
before Death Eaters attacked the Muggles in that neighborhood. It had been unnerving for her, and she had
spent a lot of time not speaking; reflecting on the predicament.

Harry had felt for her, it had been her first time
dealing with the happenings of war on a personal level. Something like that always had been and
always would be very difficult to come to terms with. Fortunately, her family was safe and she only had the �what if�
thoughts to deal with. Those, while
painful in their own right, are never as bad as dealing with an actual loss.

�Excuse me?�
Harry was startled from his wandering thoughts by the sound of a small,
timid female voice in front of him. He
opened his eyes and leaned the chair forward until it was sitting normally on
the floor again. He was met with the
sight of two girls shyly standing on the other side of his table, fidgeting
slightly.

�Can I help you?� Harry asked politely. The girl on the left, a Ravenclaw second
year, blushed slightly and the girl on thght,ght, a Hufflepuff first year,
giggled. Harry waited quietly for the
girls to recover their wits. He was
being infinitely patient, thinking that he knew what they were there about, but
tolerating it. For the moment.

�Yes, well�� the Ravenclaw began, but didn�t
continue. The Hufflepuff took this as
her cue to jump in.

�We have a favor to ask of you,� she said
softly. Harry raised an eyebrow and
unconsciously his hand drifted over to his ring and began fiddling with it.

�Oh? How
can I be of assistance?� Harry decided
to play dumb, even though he figured that they were going to ask him about
where he�d gotten his ring, like every other person who�d talked to him lately
had done. He was greatly surprised.

�Well, we�d heard about you and Draco Malfoy�
seeing each other, and� well, we came to ask you to stop.�

�Yes, it�s� well, some of us think that it�s not
fair. The two best looking guys in
school being taken, and by each other.
No one else has a chance.� The
Ravenclaw found her voice again. Harry
looked from one to the other inulouulously.

�What?�

�t2>�And� you and Draco Malfoy never got along very
well anyway. Is this just some kind of
fling? Because� lots of us are really
sad about this� and�� the words trailed off and the girls stood there waiting
for a response. Harry couldn�t believe
what he was hearing.

�I�m not having this conversation�� He put his face
in his hands and shook his head. After
a few seconds, he looked up again.
�Listen girls, I think you have some facts incorrect. First off, I�m not seeing Malfoy. I don�t even like the guy. Secondly, no matter what you think, people
shouldn�t ask someone not to see someone else bse �se �it isn�t fair.� That in itself isn�t fair to those involved,
if they�re happy together. Not that
Malfoy and I are. Happy or
together.� Harry made a face that
looked vaguely disgusted. The girls
looked ashamed. �So while I�m happy to
say that your efforts were unnecessary, please think before you do something
like this again, okay?�

The girls nodded, and turned to flee. Harry let them, to save themit oit of
embarrassment.

�To think� people think that Malfoy and I�� He
shuddered. �UGH.�

Harry reached again for his potionxtboxtbook,
thinking that he�d done enough idle thinking for the day, and tried to lose
himself in the world of magic turned matter.

He didn�t get very far, however, before he was
interrupted yet again by another set of voices. These, however, weren�t directed at him, he just happened to
catch the conversation. It was a pair
of Slytherin girls, and Harry�s interest was piqued when he heard his name
mentioned.

�So what do you think is going on with Draco and
Potter?�

�I�m not sure.
They have the matching rings, but their attitudes��

�You heard about that, too?�

�Yeah. Two
hour ago, in front of the Great Hall.
Potter practically blew up at Draco for no reason. And I heard from a good source that
yesterday they were in a bathroom together.�

Silence.
Harry grimly thought that he could hear one of the girls grinning.

��No, get your mind out of the gutter. They were fighting.�

�Just like old times, eh?�

�Yeah, but there�s something off about it.�

�I think that the rumors are true.�

�They�re dating?
Maybe. You think they�re
shagging yet?�

�Well if they�re not, then they will be soon.�

�What about the fighting, though?�

�A cover. I
think they don�t want anyone to know that they�re together.�

�Pretty flimsy cover. Sure, it would have worked last year, but Draco�s changed.�

�Yeah.�

A short silence followed in which a disgruntled
Harry gathered his things and started to leave. He couldn�t take listening to the inane gossip about himself and
his worst enemy any more.

�You�d think thaaco aco would have better taste
than a Gryffindor.�

�Potter�s hot though. I�d want him��

Harry bit back the urge to scream and made his
escape as quickly as possible.

�I�ll just do my damn homework in the dorm,� he
fumed, practically marching through the halls, the conversation he overheard
running through his mind. The only
coherent response he could think of to the speculation was �How dare they?�

Harry thought that by now he�d be used to his being
talked about due to his fame, but paparazzi and nosy reporters had nothing on
gossipy teenage girls.

�Mr. Potter.�
At the sound of his name being spoken by a familiar yet unwelcvoicvoice,
Harry looked up from the stone floor where his gaze had been riveted.

�Professor Snape�� Harry bit his lower lip and his
left hand automatically went over to play with the ring on his right hand, an
occurrence that was rapidly becoming a nervous habit.

�Lucky I ran into you.� Snape looked less than amused.

�Sir?�

�I wanted to inform you that your detention is to
be served after the holidays have ended.�
Snape smiled. Respect or no, he
still savored e opp opportunity to give detention to the Golden Boy of
Hogwarts.

Harry nodded.
Snape inclined his head and left Harry, his robes swirling in the
patented Snape way. Harry slumped
against a wall and wished for the thousandth time that his life could be
simpler.

�Did you know that Harry Potter and Draco Malfoy
are dating?�

�Yes, I�d heard!
It�s disappointing� but you know, it�s kind of hot. They�re just so good looking.�

�Yeah� Do you think that they�d let people watch
them make out?�

�I don�t know��

Harry listened with a deepening despair as more
people walked past talking t hit his and Draco�s nonexistent relationship. There had to be something that he could do
to quell the burgeoning rumors, all he had to do was think about it. A strategy was what he needed� maybe Hermione could help.

Harry straightened up and squared his
shoulders. He was going to walk to the
Gryffindor common room with as much dignity as he could muster. First he would do his homework and wait for
Ron and Hermione to come back from Hogsmeade.
Then the planning could begin.

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After-chapter noteage: Okay, I think I lied.
Christmas isn�t this chapter, but it was getting to be towards the
two-week mark since I last updated, and it was starting to bug me. So I cut it a tad short. That, and yesterday was my birthday, and I�d
promised myself that I�d update on my birthday. Missed by a few hours�
oops. (Because of this lateness,
this chapter is un-beta-ed. Apologies
for any mistakes.) But yes, I turned
21! Everyone celebrate with me!!!

As a gift� you can review!!! I would love you forever, and give you a
chapter by next Wednesday, hopefully!
The more reviews, the happier Lizzie is. The happier Lizzie is, the more she feels like writing!

Anyone know where I can find an entry-level
phlebotomy job? I�m quitting my job at
the end of October (I�m just tired of my boss� he�s a jerk) and while that will
give me more writing time, I need a means of supporting myself. Seriously, if it�s a guaranteed job, I will
move anywhere in the country.

Edit 10/13: Is anyone reading this familiar with the works of H.P. Lovecraft? Because I have a story idea involving Harry Potter and the Lovecraftian mythos that I'm dying to discuss with someone knowledgeable in both areas!! If you know anything at all, then IM me!! gerudolahrali on AIM or lizerdbeth on Yahoo.

I miss my brother�

Next Chapter:
Christmas approaches� I promise!
- 3
- 4
- 5
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Only the Ring Finger Knows