Pains Of Unanswered Prayers

Chapter Title: Hogsmeade Surprises

Disclaimer: Most of what’s in this story do no belong to me.

Author’s Note: This is a story I came up with wondering about Ron’s actual bravery in the books, and why he could be called brave. What other kind of courage is there, than the courage to face yourself? My friend Jodie helped me fine-tune it. I like it. I think it’s one of the best stories I’ve ever come up with. Contains Slash between Male and Male, hints at Female/Female. Not much though, and of course it has Male and Female relationships.

--

"Get out of the way, quit talking, move along, get to class," she snapped to the few stragglers in the hall. "Come on I don't have all day to baby-sit you. I have to teach a class you know?"

Katrina Santos-Snape sighed as they waked down the hallway. She really didn't want to control the corridors, but McGonagall was getting onto her case about letting kids wander around the hallways all hour. She turned a corridor and stopped as she heard murmurs coming from one of the empty classrooms. She sighed and opened the door preparing the give anyone in the classroom detention with her husband. That was a punishment they'd never forget.

"Aie Dios Mio!" She exclaimed her eyes widening in shock.

"Katrina!" Ron Weasley exclaimed backing away from the person he'd just been kissing.

"Uh, you had better get going," she said backing away from them. "I won't be very happy if you're late to my class."

She backed out the room in shock and Ron quickly turned to the person beside him. Neville Longbottom was staring at the ground in embarrassment and he sighed.

“Neville, I'm sorry,” he said softly.

Neville nodded and quickly made his exit from the room and Ron sighed again. He had no idea what just happened with Neville. They'd just been talking. Ron had been upset about something and Neville had come to check on him. He hadn't meant to make a move on Neville, and he had no idea why he did. Neville was the only person that knew Ron was gay, and knew that he was in love with Harry. Neville found out after overhearing Ron talking in his sleep the year before. He'd been Ron's confidant since. He couldn't believe he'd so something so stupid as kiss Neville just because he was upset over Harry and Harry's girlfriend.

He slowly trudged out classroom and made his ways to Katrina's. He slowly opened the door and Katrina looked up at him and then quickly looked back down at her desk. He sighed and walked over to his desk beside Harry and Emily, Harry's girlfriend, and laid his head down on the desk.

He had no idea what he was going to do about Katrina. She wasn't the type to keep gossip to herself. Katrina loved to talk.

"Hey Emily?" Harry said to his girlfriend.

"What?" Emily said back.

"What's up with your mom," he asked. "She looks terrified."

"I don't know," she said with a shrug.

"Um, class, how about we go out and sit outside for the hour, I mean it's going to start getting cold soon, you should take advantage of the nice weather," Katrina said standing up at her desk.

The class cheered and they quickly followed Katrina out onto the Hogwarts ground. The class spread out as students ran all over the place according to their usual groups. Ron watched as Harry, Emily, Lupin's son Trey, and Neville walked over to the rocks by the Great Lake and he walked over to Katrina.

"Yeah?" she asked.

"Listen, about what you saw," he started but Katrina cut him off.

"Yeah, about that," Katrina started to say but Ron rushed forward with what he had been saying.

"Sorry if we scared you," Ron told her. "It wasn't meant to happen, Neville and I, we aren't dating or anything. It was a complete accident."

Katrina put her hand up to stop his tirade and gave Ron a small smile.

“Look, I'm fine Ron, it was a shock that's all,” she said. “You should take pride in knowing you were able to surprise me.”

"Yeah, I'm pretty much sure not much can scare you," he said laughing. "But I promise, you won't be seeing anything like that again. I'm pretty sure it was a one time thing."

"Oh, it's no concern to me who you make out with," Katrina said with a shrug.

"Alright,” Ron said a sigh of relief.

He walked over to Harry and the others and took a seat beside them. Neville looked up and gave him a weak smile and Ron smiled back. He hoped Neville and him could continue to be friends after what happened. Over the past year, Neville had become one of his closest friends and he didn't want to lose that.

"You okay Ron, you look a bit shaken up now that I think about it," Harry said looking at him closely.

"Hmm, yeah I'm fine," Ron said smiling at them, thinking about what would happen if Katrina told anyone what she'd seen.

"I didn’t notice before but Harry's right, are you sure you're not catching the cold that Hermione has?" she asked him.

"I'm fine," Ron said with another shaky smile.

"Okay then," Emily said smiling back.

Ron glanced over in the direction of Neville and sighed. He didn't know how things had gotten so screwed up. All that they had been doing was talking because Neville wanted to make sure he was okay after seeing Emily and Harry together, knowing that Ron was in love with Harry. They'd talked for a few minutes and soon Ron found himself kissing Neville. He was surprised Neville didn't push him away. He knew Neville was rather even tempered, but he was sure if someone he wasn't attracted to kissed him out of the blue he would have done something about it instead of just standing there.

"These pants leave nothing to the imagination," he heard Trey say out of the blue.

"What?" Emily and Harry said together confused.

"Since when are you concerned with that?" Emily asked.

"Hey, I'm a man, and I'd like to show what I have to offer," he said.

"Not much I'm sure," Emily muttered under her breath.

"Is there a reason you're judging Trey," Harry asked.

"No, I was just telling her I'd like to show it off is all," Trey said with a grin.

"Like I said, you probably have nothing worth showing off," Emily told him with a smirk.

"You're just as sour as your father," Trey told her referring to her dad, Professor Snape.

“Speaking of which, I bet he has more than you," Emily said with a snigger.

"That's just disgusting," Ron said pulling a face.

"Wrong, on so many levels Emily," Harry told her.

"But true," Emily told him.

"I can't believe you went there," Trey told her disgusted.

"I'm out of here," Ron said standing up and walked over to Neville.

He sat down beside him and Neville looked down at the ground.

“Look Neville, I'm sorry,” he said softly. “I shouldn't have done that.”

Ron saw him glance up at the others in the group and smiled to himself. He knew if Neville was making sure no one could hear them, he'd actually speak to him, which meant that Ron could explain himself.

“It's okay Ron,” he heard Neville say softly and turned to him in shock. “You were upset with Harry, and you were hurting. It's understandable.”

Ron noddled and leaned back against the tree with Neville. He'd never felt so comfortable with anyone as he had in the past year with Neville. He never wanted to lose that feeling.

“You want to help me in the Greenhouses today?” Neville asked suddenly and Ron nodded with a smile.

“Sounds good,” Ron said and Neville smiled at him.

“Alright then, during free period okay?”

“Ok,” Ron said.

Harry sat watching as Ron and Neville spoke to each other. He had no idea what they were saying, but it seemed as if whatever they were talking about was calming Ron's nerves. He was glad someone was able to calm the crazy red head down. He had no idea why, but Ron had been rather moody and unpredictable lately and he was worried about him.

"He's been acting strange lately," heard Emily say.

“Maybe he's just worried about Voldemort because his father was attacked,” Harry suggested.

“Trust me, if that was the case, I'd be able to tell Harry,” Emily said dryly and Harry had to admit she was right.

Emily was a bit of a daddy's girl and she was always terrified that Voldemort would find out her father was spying for The Order.

"Well Ron's always been a bit shaky when it comes to Voldemort," Harry said quickly.

"Probably just depressed cause he isn't getting any," Trey butted in.

"You're such a pig," Emily told him dryly.

"Seriously," Harry agreed.

"You better be lucky Hermione is in the hospital wing and not hearing this, or you wouldn't be getting any either," Emily told him.

"She has a point," Harry told Trey.

"Whatever," Trey muttered.

"You know what, sometimes it's hard to picture you as Lupin's son," Emily told him.

"Well, you know that, it's easy to picture you as Snape's daughter, because it shows through," Trey snapped at her.

"Are you calling me ugly," Emily asked angrily.

Harry looked at Trey and then back at Emily. He had no idea why the two were fighting so much, but he did know that Trey was wrong. Emily was far from ugly. She had beautiful black hair and big brown eyes. She looked nothing like her father. The only thing she shared with him was her hair color. Her hair however looked like it was washed on a daily basis.

"He's lying if he is," Harry spoke up.

"Let's go and let his ego deflate," Emily said grabbing Harry's hand.

He took her hand and followed her to the other side of the lake. He took a seat on some of the rocks and Emily promptly sat in his lap. Harry was glad Katrina couldn't see them because she would have told her husband, and Harry knew he would've been dead.

The next morning, Harry took his seat next to Ron at breakfast and pulled a piece of toast towards him. Much to his surprise Ron barely even aknowledged he was there. He just nodded at him and continued with his breakfast. Harry opened his mouth to ask Ron what was wrong when he felt lips press against his cheek. He turned to see a smiling Emily standing beside him, and he leaned up to kiss her back. When he backed away Emily sat down beside Harry and turned to Ron.

“Good morning Ron,” she said brightly.

“Morning,” Ron said before getting up and walking away from the table.

“He seems rather cranky lately,” she said looking at Harry.

“I know, I mean we talked about it at the lake yesterday and I still don't understand it,” Harry said shaking his head

“You should spend some time with him. Today is a Hogsmeade visit, go with him, I have to do something for my mom anyway, and maybe if you’re alone, he’ll talk to you about what’s going on,” she suggested.

“You think?” Harry asked.

“Yeah,” she said with a smile.

“Alright, we’ll go hang out in Hogsmeade,” Harry agreed.

“Alright, I just wanted to say good morning, I have to go, my mom is going to have me busy all day,” she said before leaning in to kiss him goodbye.

“Bye,” he said with a smile.

“Bye,” she told him before running off towards the doors.

Harry got up from the table and went to look for Ron. It didn't take long. He was sitting alone on a bench in the entrance hall.

“Hey,” he said walking up to him.

“Hi,” Ron said as he looked up.

“How does spending the day torturing people in Zonko’s sound to you?” Harry asked him.

“Good, but don’t you usually go with Emily,” Ron asked him.

He was confused. Nothing ever came between Harry and his alone time with Emily. It was like it was a religious even whenever he got time away from Emily's parents and classes to be with her.

“She has other plans with her family, and we haven’t hung out in a while, so I thought it’d be good for us to hang out,” Harry told him with a shrug and Ron smiled.

“Well then, sounds good,” he told Harry.

Harry smiled back at him and they ran upstairs to get their coats before hurrying out the door and towards Hogsmeade. The first place they went was Zonko's. Ron, like his brothers before him, treated the place like it was holy ground. They quickly made their way to the back of the store, and Ron headed for the most dangerous, most explosive jokes. He was Fred and George Weasley's brother after all.

“I love this store,” Harry told him with a grin.

“It’s Paradise,” Ron replied smiling back.

“Why don’t we do this more often?” Harry asked.

“Your usually with Emily,” Ron told him.

“I am aren’t I,” Harry asked softly.

Ron was telling the truth, he had been spending a lot more time with Emily than he had in past years, but then, their relationship had changed a lot at the end of their fifth year.

“Yup,” Ron told him, picking up a stuffed mouse that was supposed to explode at the sight of a cat.

“Does it bug you,” Harry asked him.

“Not a bit,” Ron said easily but the tone in his voice gave away the truth.

“Why does it bug you so much?” Harry asked and Ron turned to him with a sigh.

“It doesn’t bug me,” he said testily.

“Yes it does, I know you, and I know when you’re angry, and right now, your pissed.” Harry said.

Ron took a deep breath to calm himself down. How dare Harry say he knew him? He didn't know anything about him. If he knew anything about him, he would know that for the past two years, Ron had been fighting with himself to fall out of love with his best friend because he knew that best friend would never love him back.

“You don’t know me half as well as you think you do,” he said softly.

“Why do you say that?”

“Because if you knew me, you would be able to see something that’s right in front of your face, and has been for a while,” he felt himself explode at the words.

“What’s that,” Harry asked him.

Ron didn’t say a word, he just pushed Harry against the shelves in the shop and pressed his lips against Harry’s in a fierce kiss. Harry froze where he was standing. Ron was kissing him. His mind couldn't seem to grasp that train of thought.

He felt Ron back away and stared at him without being able to say a word. He couldn't get his mind to function properly. He couldn't understand why Ron had kissed him. He opened his mouth to ask Ron what the hell he was thinking but Ron cut him off.

“Shit Harry, I’m sorry,” he said backing away.

“Ron,” he started to say but Ron just shook his head and ran out the store.

He groaned and leaned his head back against the shelves. He had no idea what he was going to tell Emily.

--

Ron ran to the Three Broomsticks with his mind in turmoil. He couldn't believe he'd done it; two years and he had made it without telling Harry how he felt. He'd known he was in love with Harry since forth year. He had no idea why he'd let he get the best of him now. He slowed to a walk and stepped inside The Three Broomsticks trying to catch his breath. He saw Neville sitting at a table in the back and sighed gratefully. He walked towards Neville and took his seat beside him.

He laid his head down at the table and groaned.

“It went that bad?” Neville asked with a raise of an eyebrow.

Ron looked up at Neville for a second and nodded his head before laying back down on the table.

“What happened?”

“I kissed him,” Ron said softly.

“You what?”

Neville was stunned. He didn't think Ron would ever let Harry know how he felt. The boy was petrified of how his family would treat him, and how Harry would react to the news. He thought Ron would stay in the closet the rest of his life.

“I couldn't help it. Harry made me upset and I pushed him against a shelf and kissed him,” Ron said quietly.

Neville sighed and stood up from his seat to sit down next to Ron. He hesitated for a second for placing his hand on Ron's back and rubbing it gently.

“It’ll be okay, Harry won’t stop talking to you over a simple kiss," he said encouragingly.

"I'm an idiot," Ron moaned.

“I'm not arguing with that one,” Neville said with chuckle and Ron groaned again.

Neville sighed and just continued to rub Ron's back. He kind of felt sorry for the guy. He knew if he was in love with his best friend, and knew that best friend could never love him back, he would be crushed. He wouldn't have been near as strong as Ron was being at the moment. At least Ron had the strength to face Harry every day instead of breaking off their friendship so he wouldn't have to deal with the pain. Neville didn't know whether it was because he was brave or if he was just plain stupid.

--

Harry sat on a stone outside Zonko's holding his head in his hands. What was he going to do? He couldn't completely cut Ron out of his life. Ron had been his best friend for over five years; but the guy had kissed him. How could he handle Ron kissing him? Ron was like a brother to him, and Emily, Emily was the only person he wanted kissing him.

“You okay?” he heard a voice asked.

He looked up to see Emily standing in front of him. She had her black hair down around her shoulders and it was blowing slightly in the wind. It took him a moment to notice the nervous expression on her face, but when he did, he gave her a small smile and nodded.

“Just thinking Em,” he told her.

“’Bout what?” she asked.

She took a seat on the rock next to him but the nervous expression didn't leave her face.

“I finally found out what was wrong with Ron.”

“Really? What is it?”

He could hear the happiness in her voice and he sighed. She was definitely worried about Ron, but he was worried about how she would treat Ron after learning he'd kissed her boyfriend.

“I think he’s gay,” he told her quietly.

“Why in the world would you think that,” she asked confused.

“. . . He kissed me.”

Emily stared at him for a second before erupting in a fit of laughter. She knew it really wasn't funny, and she shouldn't be laughing but she couldn't help picturing Harry's face when Ron had kissed him.

“I don’t think this is funny,” he told her slightly annoyed.

“I know, I know,” she said calming down. “But I just can't help it. Sorry.”

“What’re you doing here anyway, I thought you had to help your mom,” he asked.

Emily took a deep breath and looked down at the ground as her former nervousness crept back into expression.

“Actually, I lied,” she said softly. “I had a doctors appointment.”

“What for,” Harry asked her.

She looked at him as she felt tears gather in her eyes. She hoped Harry reacted better than she imagined. She couldn't handle it if he got upset.

“I’m pregnant,” she said.

--

To Be Continued . . .

Review please? They're like happy pills to me. And will keep me updating. I swear. Half the story is written.