Unbecoming

Epilogue.

Three Weeks Later

There was a feverish pounding on the door, and Ron frowned. It was far too early for visitors. But the knocking came again, and he opened the door a crack.

Oliver Wood stood there, looking rather sheepish. "Hey, Ron," he said,

"Shh!" Ginny hissed suddenly from behind him. "Get in, get in, hurry." She shoved Oliver into the flat and kicked the door shut behind her, locking it quickly. "You've got to hide him."

Ron blinked. "What? Ginny, what's going on?"

"What's going on?" she shrieked. "Do you live in a hole? Honestly! It's on the front page of the newspaper! Don't you read the newspaper?"

"I write for it," Ron mumbled, offended. He picked up the paper, which he had tossed absently aside just moments before, while getting ready for work. "And try to be quiet. Draco's sleeping."

Oliver's eyes brightened and Ginny didn't seem to be paying attention. She unrolled the paper and held it up. On the front page, in bold letters, it said 'Quidditch Hero Oliver Wood To Wed Ministry Official's Daughter'. There was a picture below that of Oliver and Ginny, looking stunned.

Ron stared blankly at it and Ginny threw it back on the table. "Don't you get it?" she wailed. "Mum reads that! And I hadn't told her!"

"Mum... Oliver..." Ron trailed off, stunned. "Ginny, you and... Oliver?"

She scowled. "Yes, me and Oliver! That doesn't matter! What matters is that... well, Mum'll be after me for sure!"

He glanced at Oliver, who was beaming and glancing around in fascination, as though seeking a glimpse of the Fabled Boyfriend, who was, Ron hoped, asleep. "You're marrying my sister?" he asked pointedly.

Oliver turned back and smiled. "Apparently. I mean, I'd just asked her the other day, I don't know how the papers found out... But yeah."

Ginny was still panicking and running around the flat, looking for someplace to hide. "Mum'll be here any minute. She can always find me. That dratted clock of hers. Blast it. So I figured there was no point in running. A distraction was in order."

"Distraction?" Ron echoed, still quite stunned.

"Yeah." She grinned. "You haven't told Mum that you have a live-in boyfriend yet, have you? And the fact that it's Draco Malfoy might also be helpful. So I figured she'd come here intending to murder me, and you could do the noble thing and sacrifice yourself so that I could still be free to marry Oliver!"

Ron's eyes widened terribly. "Oh my god," he moaned. "Ginny!"

"You've been bribing me for weeks to report the same things to Mum. That you're still living alone and moping! I couldn't keep up the lies anymore!" she cried melodramatically.

"You're selling me out!"

"I had to." She looked at him pleadingly.

"Bloody hell. I'd best owl in sick... I don't think I'll be getting to work today."

He did so, quickly, and had just sent Pig out the window with the message, when there was a sharp knock on the door. Ginny paused in her efforts to hide Oliver behind a curtain, and Ron paled.

He tried to look calm and dignified when he opened his door to let his mother in, but he failed miserably and she took one look at him and said, "What have you done now, Ronald Weasley?"

"Ginny's hiding Oliver behind the curtain," he blurted.

"You rat," Ginny hissed.

Ron just smiled nervously as Mrs. Weasley stalked over to the curtain and tore it aside, looking Oliver up and down. "This is the boy?" she snapped.

"Yes, Mum," Ginny stammered. She tried to smile. "We meant to tell you."

Ron was perfectly content to watch as his mother firmly berated both Oliver and Ginny, asked a thousand questions concerning Oliver's background and breeding, financial situation, and religious views. He sat on the loveseat and watched, distantly amused.

And then Draco appeared in the doorway of their bedroom, dressed only in a pair of loose jeans, his hair wild from sleep, face lined from his pillow. Ron forgot all about his mother, sister, and future brother-in-law. He grinned at Draco as Draco yawned and came over to join him, sliding onto the couch and curling up against him. He blinked sleepily at Mrs. Weasley, Ginny, and Oliver.

"You didn't go to work," Draco said, voice rough from sleep.

Ron licked the side of his neck affectionately, mostly because he knew Draco hated signs of affection like that in public. Draco growled and Ron laughed. "I didn't. Because... oh fuck. My mum." Startled and suddenly remembering there were others in the room, Ron raised his head to look. They were all staring at him, Ginny looking very smug, Oliver looking intrigued, and Mrs. Weasley looking stunned.

"Who," she said carefully, "Is that boy Ron is licking and why did he just come from Ron's bedroom?"

"That," Ginny pointed out loudly, "though hard to recognize, is Draco Malfoy, Ron's boyfriend."

"Hard to recognize?" Draco sputtered indignantly, not at all aware of his disheveled appearance, or maybe just obnoxiously vain despite it.

"Boyfriend?" Mrs. Weasley nearly howled.

"Erm. I meant to tell you," Ron said weakly.

She bore down on them with the fury of a thousand suns. "Ronald Weasley," she hissed. "I am not impressed."

Ron shrunk back against the couch, and beside him Draco started shaking with silent laughter. "I'm sorry," Ron squeaked.

Her eyes narrowed and she turned to Draco, inspecting him critically. "He's too skinny," she snapped.

Draco's laughter abruptly stopped and a flush of indignation rose to his cheeks. Before he could speak, however, Mrs. Weasley continued. "And furthermore, it is positively unseemly to go about so poorly dressed when there are guests over."

"We didn't expect any guests," Ron said weakly, looking to Draco for help.

"Lucius Malfoy's son, hmm?" she said now, turning back to her inspection. Draco tilted his head up arrogantly, managing to look like a prince despite his messy appearance. "Hmm. The splitting image of him."

"Looks may be hereditary, but not everything else is," Draco said quietly.

She squinted, and Ron took Draco's hand, wanting to lend support. He'd been dealing with his mother all his life and still wasn't used to it. Mrs. Weasley glanced down to their entwined hands and then back up to Ron's face critically. "You are using that lubricant I gave you, I trust?" she said.

Ron moaned and beside him, Draco burst into helpless peals of laughter. "I'm... I'm sorry," he managed to gasp, moments later, while Ron was still trying to will himself into a dead faint. "Excuse me, I can't..." he left the room, still laughing helplessly, and Ron could hear Ginny and Oliver laughing as well.

He opened his eyes to find his mother still waiting imperiously for an answer. He cleared his throat. "Yes, mum," he mumbled, and Ginny and Oliver just laughed harder. "If you don't mind... I better go check on...on Draco."

He fled to his bedroom and closed the door, casting eight locking charms and three silencing charms on it before falling face first onto his bed and moan, shaking with a sharp, strange mixture of hysterical laugher and cries of pain.

Draco was still snickering, but he sat on the bed next to Ron, smoothing his hair and stroking his back. "Calm down," he tried soothing, but the amusement in his tone made it difficult to be calmed.

Rolling over, Ron sniffled and grimaced. "That was the most embarrassing thing that has ever happened to me."

"Stop thinking about it," Draco suggested, and then he went about trying to distract him, unbuttoning the shirt Ron had intended to wear to work and kissing his chest in random places.

"They're all laughing at me."

Draco licked his collarbone and made a distracted sound. "I can't hear them."

"I put silencing charms on the door," Ron sighed, shifting underneath him and closing his eyes. He felt Draco's grin against his throat.

"Good."

"I'll never be able to look them in the eye again."

"Good," Draco said again, sucking on his neck. "We can just stay in here until they go away."

"What if they never leave?" Ron moaned.

Draco smirked and kissed his lips hard. "Even better," he purred, and Ron laughed.

"We'll stay in here forever?" he asked, growing a little breathless.

"Mm hmm," Draco agreed. He kissed Ron again and Ron smiled against his lips, content and let his eyes close, because this made all of that humiliation and all of the hurt he'd experienced all his life worth it. It wasn't perfect, but it was real, and he kissed Draco back, forgetting the pain and loneliness and everything else except Draco, because nothing else mattered. His mother and Ginny could tear his flat apart and Oliver could knock a hole in the door and watch through it, and Ron wouldn't notice.

Nothing mattered except this.