Happy Birthday, ellen_fremedon!
Harry Potter

Ron/Harry PG

Rather cliche'd. I'm sorry.



Curiousity

"Harry?" Ron had spent most of the Christmas holidays trying to steel himself to say what he was going to say, but now there was only a couple of days left before they left the Burrow. His mouth still went dry.

"Yeah, Ron?" It was too dark to see, but Harry's voice was sleepy. "You okay?"

He was going to make a fool of himself. Ron just knew it. He took a deep breath. "Harry. You fancy blokes, don't you?" Oh, God. Now he was in for it. Why couldn't he have just let it lie?

"What?" He could hear Harry sit up in bed. "Why are you asking that?" He didn't sound as angry as Ron feared.

"Because. Because I saw you last month, snogging that Smith character from Hufflepuff." And he'd never forget it, either. Burned into his brain, it was.

"Oh, God." Harry fell back, from the sound of it. "You think anyone else...Okay, probably not because anyone else would be trumpeting all over Hogwarts, and I've not made the headlines in the Prophet lately." He paused. "Yeah. I fancy blokes. I fancy girls, too, a little, but not as much as blokes. Is that a problem?" Harry stopped breathing.

"What? No! You're my best mate!" There was a problem, but not what Harry was thinking.

He could hear Harry take in air again. "Good. All right. So?"

"So, how did you know? I remember fifth year and Cho and all." He survived the first question. This one seemed a bit safer.

"Ron, could you light a candle or something? They're watching my wand, so I can't."

"Oh. Yeah." Ron poked his wand at the candle on the table between them. Dad had expanded Ron's room so they could fit a real bed in there. As they were now Harry's guardians in the Wizarding world, thanks to Sirius, they thought it best to make sure Harry knew he had a permanent home in the Burrow. Which meant that Harry was, almost officially, Ron's brother. Which made things even weirder right now.

"Thanks." Harry sat up again. He shrugged. "I don't know. I mean, yeah, I had a crush on Cho, but I think I had one on Krum, too. And you know how I reacted to kissing Cho."

"Yeah. 'Wet.' Thought something was off there." He grinned.

"Yeah." Harry smiled back. "Anyway, after...well, you know Sirius and Lupin were together, right?"

"Could hardly miss they were sharing a room, could we?"

Harry shook his head. "I did. I was so...well, you know how I was that summer. Surprised you didn't chuck everything the way I was. But Lupin told me, and then I started thinking about Cho and...Cedric and Krum and, well. I didn't like it - Muggle hate gays, you know? And I get the feeling our lot isn't much better."

"Don't know how Muggles are, but yeah. Charlie's had a rough enough time. One of the reasons he's not in England, I think. You didn't...test it out or anything?"

Harry narrowed his eyes. "Didn't really have to. It just sort of made sense, didn't it? It's who I am, I guess. What are you getting at, Ron? What's with the Inquisition here? You want me to drink Veritaserum or something? Yes, I'm gay. I like blokes. You said it wasn't a problem!"

"Shh! You'll wake everyone. I was only asking because...well. You figured you like boys, and then you started, what? Dating Smith?"

"Then I agonized over it and wondered what I was going to do about it, and Zacharias was there, and maybe he could sense something. And he's a good snogger, but nothing came of it. When we weren't snogging, we were arguing, you know? And I don't mean like you and Hermione, either. We never agreed on anything. It wasn't fun. Why are you doing this?"

"Because. I saw you snogging Smith and I wondered, if I'm your best mate and all, how come you never, you know, asked *me*?" He sounded ridiculous and jealous and stupid and he wanted to die, and anyway, what would he have done had Harry actually asked?

"Well, let's see. You're straight. You'd have punched me in the nose. You're my best friend. You like girls. You're practically my brother now. You don't like blokes. You're dating Hermione. And you're straight. Have I covered all the bases? Oh, yes. You're not gay." He laughed.

"Yeah, well. I thought you were straight, too, until I saw you snogging in the Charms corridor. And I can't forget it. And I'm am not dating Hermione." Harry looked at him. "I'm *not*. She wants us to wait until after we leave school, so we know what we really like. We just..."

"Hide behind statues and kiss." Harry rolled his eyes. "So, okay. I'm single, and you say you're single. What do you want to do?"

"Um." Ron hadn't thought that far. "I...I don't know."

"But you're not going to leave this alone, are you? Okay. Budge over." And Harry climbed into bed with him, lying face to face next to him.

"Harry?"

"Don't worry. I'm not going to *do* anything. Except..." He wrapped his arms around Ron, which felt both nice and weird at the same time. "How's this?"

"O...okay." It was...yeah. Okay.

"All right, then. You know, if I thought you were interested, I'd be right on you? The Triwizard thing was right - I'd miss you more than anyone else, except maybe Hermione. And you're...well, you're cute, aren't you?" And he smiled and licked his lips.

"You...think..." This was now past weird and into terrifying. "What..."

"Can I kiss you?"

Ron swallowed. And then thought about it. It was what he was after, wasn't he? So maybe he could figure out why he was wanking to Harry and Smith? And it's not like it would hurt him, and he already knew he liked kissing girls, because he liked kissing Hermione. He nodded, unable to speak.

"Okay, then." Harry leaned in close. His lips were soft and supple but not like Hermione's. And there was a faint trace of stubble on Harry's cheeks against Ron's, and his body was definitely not Hermione's. No, this was HARRY.

And his body stirred just a little bit, because it did feel nice. Sort of. And Harry was more than just a little bit, and that was...he pushed away.

Harry didn't look upset. "It's okay, Ron. I...love you, but as a mate. Being more would be...ick, actually. Cute as you are." He grinned and pecked Ron on the forehead. "I'll just go to my bed, shall I?"

That was probably a good idea. "You don't have to. You're...you can stay if you want. Just for tonight and all."

"All right." Harry gave Ron another peck and rolled over. "Just think of me as your sister, Ron."

"Well, you know. Since Ginny's out - Charlie's not bad looking and you'd still be in the family." Ron blew out the candle to the sound of Harry's laughter.