It was hard to motivate Harry to get up the next morning. No matter how hard he tried, Ron could not get him to go to the Great Hall with him. That's why Ron and Hermione brought some breakfast for him before the first lesson. Naturally, there were not so subtle whispers about Harry's crush all over the school. Ron felt terrible for his best friend.

Harry barely looked at anyone as they wandered the Halls of Hogwarts to get from class to class and afterwards, he went back directly to their dorms.

Despite Harry going out of his way to avoid Malfoy, they passed him and his Slytherin gang between Transfiguration and Charms lessons. Harry kept his eyes on the ground, but Ron watched them carefully. The Slytherin were making kissing noises and sniggering, but Malfoy himself did not join in. He just glared at Ron, who gave him a confused frown.

#

It was finally the last lesson on Friday. Weekend.

Harry stood up quickly and hurried away, probably back to the dorms. Ron noted that he would take Harry flying this afternoon, no matter how much he refused.

"Weasley!"

Ron picked up his bag and turned around. "Malfoy."

"Stay here." Malfoy demanded.

"And why would I do that?" Ron said.

"Or else your father will be unemployed." Malfoy hissed, ignoring everyone passing them on their way out. Snape was already gone.

"Hey, I have done nothing to break our truce." Ron crossed his arms, noting that the last person, Pansy Parkinson, had left the classroom, only leaving Hermione, him and Malfoy in the room.

"Oh really." Malfoy took a step closer. "Then what are all the rumours about? You may be able to fool the school, but you can't fool me."

"What are you talking about?" Ron wondered.

"You can drop your stupid facade now, Weasley. I have seen through your evil plot." Malfoy pulled out his wand.

Before Ron could react, Hermione stood in front of him, pointing her own wand at Malfoy. "Wand down. Let's talk about it."

"You obviously can't!" Malfoy almost yelled. "You're just what my father says. A filthy blood traitor." He fired a hex that Hermione blocked easily, trying to disarm Malfoy in the same move, but he blocked. Hexes were sent back and forth in rapid motions and heads were ducking out of aim.

Only when Ron sent an Expelliamus while Malfoy had to block Hermione's Petrificus Totalos did Malfoy have to yield. "What's your problem?" Ron yelled, never taking his wand down.

For a few moments, Malfoy seemed to have a hard time keeping his emotions in check. His features showed frustration, hurt, desperation, anger. Then, his face went completely blank. "Your father is unemployed, Weasley." He picked up his wand and went to leave, but Ron moved to the door, never taking his wand from pointing at Malfoy's face.

"Don't you dare, or I'll tell Harry-"

"Don't act like you have anything to threaten me with." Malfoy interrupted angrily. "You have already told him. You didn't keep your word. Now live with the consequences."

"What?" Ron said. "I didn't tell him anything-"

"I think I get it." Hermione said. "Since everyone is talking about Harry's crush on... well, you know. Malfoy thinks you told Harry and made up this plot against him to just make him think Harry likes him back so... I don't know."

Ron looked back at Malfoy, who gritted through his teeth. "You can stop your stupid 'I'm a fucking oblivious stupid Gryffindor and I don't know what's going on'-show now. I have seen through it. Stop it. This is not fucking funny."

"Malfoy, it's not how you think-"

"Do you think Harry would be this embarrassed that he would avoid everyone for a whole week?" Hermione asked. "Do you think if this was just a joke to him, would he look this tired the whole time? Have you really looked at him since this whole thing got out?"

Ron loved Hermione's rational brain. It could be really annoying when she was arguing with Ron but he could not deny that she was great with reasoning.

Malfoy hesitated, then he glared at them again. "You're really going all out with this, don't you. You sick bastards!"

"Malfoy!" Ron took a threatening step closer with his wand. "What part of Harry is really suffering did you not understand?"

"Come on, Ron. Let's go." Hermione said. "Think about it." She said to Malfoy before opening the door. Ron followed her.

 #

Days passed and slowly, Harry dared to show up in the Great Hall again and keep his eyes from the ground. The gossip settled and people moved on to the next topic, the relationship between the head boy and the seventh year Slytherin bad girl. It was kinda funny in Ron's opinion, but Hermione just sighed about how people could not mind their own business.

On Monday, the trio sat in the library, writing their Transfiguration homework that they had just gotten one hour ago. Ron hated that school was not over when the last lesson was done. They still had to work in their free time. It was like the teachers did not want them to have fun. He glanced next to him, but Hemione put her arm in front of her own parchment and sent him a glare. Ron sighed heavily and tried to figure out what else McGonagall wanted from them.

"Why is he not reacting?" Harry asked randomly.

Ron looked at his best friend opposite of him. His parchment looked even more empty than Ron's. He was frowning thoughtfully. It was obvious that something was bothering him. "What?" Ron asked.

Harry looked up, from Ron to Hermione, then back down. "Malfoy."

"What about him?" Ron asked. Could he not speak so the ordinary mortals could follow too? But Harry did not seem to have the desire to clear anything up.

"I think he means why Malfoy's not reacting to the rumours." Hermione said. "What do you expect him to do?"

"I don't know." Harry said. "Mock me? Laugh at me? Hex me? Make fun of me?"

"Isn't making fun of you and mocking you the same thing?" Ron wondered and Harry glared at him.

"No." Hermione said. "Cambridge defines making fun of someone as making a joke  about someone or something in a way that is not kind  whereas mocking is defined as laughing at someone, often by copying them in a funny but unkind way."

"Who's Cambridge and why are they defining our words?" Ron wondered.

"Hermione, what are you doing?" Harry asked. "Learning dictionaries by heart?"

Hermione ignored them. "Either way, why don't you talk to Malfoy, if you're so bothered. I think it would be a good idea if you two cleared up a few things."

"And what am I supposed to say?" Harry rolled his eyes. He tossed his head back and covered his face. "Hey Malfoy, you must have heard the rumours about my crush on you. Now I came so you can hex my face off as revenge."

"How about, 'Hey Malfoy. The reason I've been acting like an idiot the last few weeks is you. Let's f*ck.'"

"Ron!" Hermione shrieked. Ron smirked as he saw the both of them get dangerously red faces, Harry's still mostly covered by his hands.

"What?" Ron asked. "It's what they want, don't they."

"How about you ask him out to Hogsmeade instead?" Hermione suggested.

Harry let his hands drop from his face to the table. Not minding the loud bang he created, he hissed at his friends angrily, "You're making this sound like we're talking about a nice girl or something. To refresh you memory, we're talking about Malfoy. He will not want to do any of that with me. He will curse me into pieces if I come closer to him that ten metres. He's avoiding us, haven't you noticed? He wants nothing to do with me."

To be honest, Ron had not noticed Malfoy avoiding them, but now that Harry mentioned it, he could not remember the last time he had seen the boy. Noticing the hint of pain in Harry's tone, although he had obviously tried to hide it, Ron looked at Hermione. She looked back helplessly.

"That's not true-" Ron started, but Harry was in rant mode now. Even though he tried to keep his volume down, Ron was pretty sure the five fourth years on the neighbour table were listening to every word.

"And why are you even so casual about it? Especially you, Ron. Not only is he a boy, I'm Harry Potter and I'm gay... Or something. You were always so weird about this stuff when it came to girls already? Why are you so supportive now? And anyway, Malfoy has made fun of both of you a million times? Why do you think it's a good idea to try anything with him? Why aren't you mad? Or try to warn me? I don't understand. Or is this all a big joke to you? Because it's not. For me it's not. It never was. Do you know why I kept messing up my potions and ran into him on purpose? Because it's the only way he notices me. He interacts with me. I didn't know it, but in some weird way, I've always enjoyed our fights. Because he looked at me. I know he will never look at me with a genuine smile, or talk to me simply because he wants to, but he sees me. And now he doesn't anymore and I don't know why. What the hell happened?"

Ron and Hermione looked at him silently. For a few seconds, Ron was frozen. He knew they had some kind of feelings for each other, but he did not know they were so deeply rooted, that they went so far back and that Harry was this affected by Malfoy's ignorance.

He looked at Hermione for help. "Harry, that's not-"

"Oh nevermind." Harry stormed out of the common room.

Ron looked at Hermione. "Should we follow him?"

She shook her head. "I think he needs time alone. Time to think."