A/N: Wai! ^_^ It's been a while, ne? I finally decided to finish this because: a.) People keep reviewing and fussing at me; b.) A random idea popped into my head while I was driving to my Spanish exam; c.) I only had one chapter to go anyhow; and d.) I'm taking a break from writing 'Perhaps' – I'm stuck! So here you go, all you people who've probably despaired on me ever coming back to this fic. ^_^

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Love and Longing in the Common Room

By Akira Ichijouji

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PART 9 – EVERYONE GETS INVOLVED

"Harry! Psst! Harry!"

Harry woke from his dream (it was something involving a spaceship, large locusts, silk, and Ron) to someone poking him incessantly in the side.

"Gerroff…" He tried to roll over, but the poking continued. "What!" Harry sat upright in bed.

"Harry, we need to talk to you!" Hermione was standing beside his bed. She had evidently been the one poking him, since she did it again.

Harry batted her hand away. "What the…hey! You're not supposed to be in here!"

"Oh, who cares. Come on, come on, I've only been trying to get you up for the past fifteen minutes!" Hermione grabbed his wrist and attempted to pull him out of bed.

"It can't have been that long," Harry said grumpily as he let himself be tugged ungracefully to his feet.

"Oh yes. It was."

Harry barely had time to grab his glasses off his bedside table before he was hurried out of the dormitory.

"Where are we going?" he said, rubbing at his eyes.

"It's a secret."

"Oh bloody hell," Harry muttered, putting on his glasses and attempting to stifle a yawn.

They were met halfway through the common room by Fred, who had a very mischievous grin on his face. This worried Harry very much.

"Where's George?"

Fred's grin went wider. "See, that's something I'm not allowed to tell you…" He waggled his fingers.

Harry sighed.

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"Hey! What are you doing to me!?" Ron said indignantly as he was shoved in a closet.

"It's for your own good, Ron!" Ginny giggled.

"Yes, Ron, dear brother, we're looking out solely for your own well-being…" George said, grinning like he'd swallowed an entire legion of canaries.

Ron began pounding on the door as the footsteps of his two siblings faded into the distance. His two siblings who'd pushed him in a closet, taken his wand, and locked the door, as a matter of fact.

There was no answer to Ron's desperate pounding, so he finally gave up and sat down on a crate, face-to-face with a mop that was leaning precariously against a stack of buckets. The redhead set it straight and leaned his head back on the wall, suddenly very tired.

His eyelids began to droop.

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Harry was getting fed up as Hermione and Fred took him on a very long march through the castle.

"Where are we? I don't think I've ever been in this part of Hogwarts…ack! What are you doing!?" Harry shouted as he was pushed unceremoniously into a closet. "Hey!" He started to take his wand out of his pocket, but Hermione just grabbed it and slammed the door. Harry heard her perform a locking charm, and then he heard two sets of hurried footsteps and giggles going off down the hallway.

"Harry?"

"AAAARGH!!!!" Harry had been unaware that there was anyone else in the closet besides himself. "Ron! You scared the hell out of me!" He sank to the floor, heart still going a mile a minute.

"Sorry," Ron said, smiling from his sleepy position on the crate. "Do you have any idea what they're up to?"

"Absolutely none. Hermione and Fred grabbed me out of my nice warm bed – where I was having a great dream, may I add."

"What about?"

Harry wracked his brain, but could not remember for the life of him. "I can't remember." He crawled over to Ron, pulling up another crate so he could sit beside his friend.

There was a contented silence (well, as contented as one can get when one is locked in a dark closet in the middle of the night), then Ron spoke again. "Er, Harry, I just…you don't think badly of me because of the whole…incident…in the common room earlier, do you?"

"Incident? What incid…ohhhhhhh." Harry blushed, but it was thankfully almost pitch black in the closet. There was a weighty pause. "No, of course I don't think badly of you! I could never thing badly of you! I mean, I…" he trailed off, blushing even more furiously.

"You what?"

Harry blanched, and decided that a change in topic was very, very necessary. "Er…how long have you and Seamus…?"

"Huh?" Ron was puzzled. The realization dawned. "What? Never! I mean, I'm not…he's not…he's just a friend! I mean, er…I don't really know what happened." Now Ron was blushing furiously, the tips of his ears bright red.

"Oh." Some of the color returned to Harry's face. "J-Just a friend?"

"Yeah…Just a friend…"

There was another contented pause. Harry's shock and excitement was starting to wear off, and he felt very tired indeed. He let his head droop wearily onto Ron's shoulder, delighting in that incidental contact.

The breath seemed to catch in the redhead's throat as Harry snuggled up to him, and before he'd realized what he had done, he had looped an arm sweetly around Harry's waist and rested his head upon the black-haired one on his shoulder.

The mother of all contented pauses later, Harry sighed. "'Sis nice…" he mumbled, nuzzling closer.

This was so precious that Ron lost all control and did the unthinkable.

Harry's eyes snapped open as warm lips descended upon his. The shock left when realization dawned and he felt an enormous weight lift effortlessly off his shoulders and he buried his fingers eagerly in Ron's hair.

Mmm. Perfection with freckles.

Ron tightened his hold on Harry, mostly to quell the rampant shaking of his hands. Harry made the most delicious little noise and leaned closer into him; this sent electric shivers down Ron's spine to curl lazily in his belly.

Then it was over too soon, and they were panting, foreheads touching, hands still tangled in hair and clutching robes.

"Harry…" Ron said breathlessly, reaching up to brush the bespectacled boy's cheek with trembling fingers.

"Yes?" Harry murmured, almost unable to think through the intoxication of having Ron this close. The redhead pulled him into another kiss, which was sweet and comforting and made Harry want to hold on as tightly as he could and never ever ever let go.

"Harry…" Ron murmured again, just before his lips parted, letting Harry's inquisitive tongue delve within.

Harry, feeling much, much bolder, shifted so he was half-sitting on the same crate that Ron was sitting on and half-sitting on Ron. Too soon they were forced to break their kiss, and Harry leaned his head on Ron's shoulder once more, taking quick panting breaths.

"Harry," Ron said for the third time. "Harry – I really, really, really like you."

Harry laughed and snuggled closer. "I really, really, really like you, too."

Ron grinned, his heart absolutely, perfectly full.

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"Hey, Ron…" Harry blinked bleary eyes and noticed that a thin line of light was shining unobtrusively underneath the door to the closet. He wondered absently what time it was. "Ron?" He gently shook the boy he'd been curled up with for the past…oh, who knows how long they'd slept…

"Wha…?" Ron sat up and rubbed his eyes. "Where…oh." He and Harry smiled adoringly at each other, and Ron reached out to cup the side of the other boy's face. Harry leaned into the touch.

"Don't you think we ought to find a way out of here? There's no telling what time it is, and I'd really rather not miss breakfast."

Harry nodded and stood, and was soon enveloped in an embrace and gentle kiss from the taller boy. Harry sighed in contentment at the very warm feeling in his stomach and at the way Ron was dropping soft kisses to the underside of his chin.

Then all was quiet as they just held each other, confronted by emotions that neither boy would understand until much, much later. But that is another story and shall be told another time.[1]

The light under the doorway was becoming more insistent, so Harry pulled away, but kept tight hold of Ron's hand. He sighed, and tried the door handle.

It opened.

Harry began to blush furiously as whistles, cat calls, and uproarious applause greeted their timid emergence.

Bloody everyone was standing around!

Ginny and Hermione, who looked very, very pleased with themselves; Fred and George, both being held possessively by Oliver Wood, who had his arms around both of them; Seamus, who had his arm around Dean; Colin Creevey, who was – oh god – taking pictures; Lavendar and Parvati, who were giggling madly with delight, along with Angelina Johnson and Katie Bell; and Neville, who was being held by…Malfoy?!

Fred and George (albeit reluctantly) pulled away from Oliver and came over to put their arms around Harry and Ron.

"So, how does it feel?" said George.

"Huh?" Ron was feeling slightly vexed, and was blushing furiously.

"To come out of the closet, of course, silly!" Fred grinned insanely.

Ron grinned, and held tighter onto Harry's hand. "I hate you all."

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*swish and flick*

Finitum Part 9!

And…

END OF STORY!!!

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[1]: What is it with me and The Neverending Story? We may never know.

A/N: Wai, wai, triple wai! It's done! I just have a few last words on the subject:

The "coming out of the closet" thing was purely by accident. x_X I didn't realize what I'd done until I got to the point where Fred says it, LoL…but oh, it was a terrible, terrible pun. ^_~ Again, sorry it's been so long. This is, officially, the last fic I've started and never finished and then come back to a lot later to finally finish (except for Hikari/Kaimei…don't even get me started on that one. Two bloody reviews. Bloody, bloody, bloody. And crackers.) Just to clear things up with some reviewers – yes, I know it's ridiculous and implausible, and perverted, but see, it's supposed to be silly. Sil-ly. Wai. But thanks to everyone who's given me such shibby reviews!

I usually don't do this (list reviewers, I mean, but what the hell); thank you: Beck, LillianaNoelia, Mark JGC, Merelyn25, The Black Rose, aja pie-chan, Archica, Miss Madison, Gwen, Blinks-Tiger, SoulSister, Sara the Green Witch, j, Arabella Black, she-devil llama, bwaybaby79, Cranky Cathe, Ria, madam zala, rokjai, Noodlejelly, Lise Rasmussen, Kim-chan, mel, Ashirir, DevilFireEyes, bunnyb, Hazirah M, and last but not least, iamtheanonymous!

And especially thank you to roxi storm and Sakana, who yelled at that stupid flamer in their reviews. You're sweethearts. ^___^

To digitally obsessed: *giggles* I wrote chapter four on purpose to squick you out…didn't you know? ^_~ To Flair: Monkey! To Kimagure: I love you! *glomps* Wai!!! To lise: LoL…that one plaintive review where you said I hadn't updated this fic this year was what made me start thinking again about writing more. Seriously. ^_^

Arigatou, minna! ^____^