Note: At the moment, this chapter is unbeta'd. Feel free to pick out any mistakes you see in a comment.
Warning: The story contains slash (obviously) which implies male/male relationships. If you're not interested please don't read. Also, this chapter contains mentions of drug use, profanity, and vague sexual content. You. Have. Been. Warned.
On with the show…
Chapter Six
"What are we supposed to do?" Seamus asked annoyed, pulling himself away from Justin. "We can't shag, we can't swim..."
Draco paused his bouncing and bit his lower lip in consideration. "We could go dancing…"
"Turn here, Harry! She said turn here!"
"She said turn at the green sign; that's aqua, you dolt!"
"It's the same thing!"
"It's really not, Seamus. Anyway, all of you calm down there's something green coming up just here- that's not a sign."
Harry scowled hard at the bright green dumpster they sped by. They were lost in the uncharted back roads of the town they just happened to be staying in. In retrospect, Harry thought, asking the disjointed looking prostitute where they could go dancing was one of those Very Bad Ideas that Draco seemed to accumulate. Nevertheless they were on the road now and thus Harry was determined to get them where they were going.
In the back of the van Ron was sleeping fitfully across the seat. In the middle seat Justin was staring blankly out the window, leaning back against the chest of Seamus who was heatedly discussing their next turn with Draco. Draco was perched on a cooler that had been wedged between the two front seats. In the front passenger seat was Blaise, squinting at Draco's hastily scrawled directions and trying to relay them to Harry. Who, of course, was driving; his knuckles white on the steering wheel.
Blaise struggled with the impulse to crumble the instructions in his well manicured fist. "Well, look, she said to keep going down this road for ten minutes and we'd see the sign, and we've been driving for way longer than ten minutes and I didn't see any bloody sign so maybe there ISN'T a bloody sign and it was all in her head."
The note of distress in Blaise's voice must have registered somewhere in his ginger mind because Ron snorted in his sleep and rolled over murmuring. "No mummy, wan'nt me broke th'lamp was 'orge."
Justin snickered and tried to hide it just as Draco pointed urgently to a ridiculously small turn off, lined thickly with trees and announced by a small bottle-green wooden sign reading: Sparky's Spectacular Pub y Disco. Admittance on Saturday's £3 – 17 and older only.
Harry made the sharp turn, slowing down as they started on the narrower road. Seamus stared suspiciously at the sign. "Pub 'why' disco?"
"Pub 'ee' disco," Blaise corrected. "It's Spanish."
"But the rest of the name isn't Spanish," Justin pointed out.
Blaise blinked a few times blankly before shrugging.
"Harry, the tree's are really close, I'm scared," Draco said, reaching out to clutch at Harry's arm.
"Draco, don't, I'm driving!" Harry yelled, but it was two late, the van swerved and before anyone had a chance to realize what was happening, before Harry could even straighten out the vehicle, they crashed directly into one large tree. Blaise and Draco screamed, and Harry on the basest of instincts leaned over and wrapped his arms around Draco with enough strength to keep the man, so cavalier about seatbelts, from flying headfirst out the windshield. The belts caught everyone else, save Ron who tumbled to the floor of the back of the fan.
"Ouch!" Justin complained, rubbing his neck. Steam poured from the hood of the van. Ron pulled himself up from the floor looking startled. "What the bloody hell…?"
"Harry wrecked the van," Draco supplied, as Seamus and Justin were gingerly unbuckling and attempting to get the sliding door open. Harry glared at the blonde hard.
Blaise undid his own belt and turned around in his seat. "Is everyone alright?"
"I think we're fine," Harry said, jiggling the handle of his door. It wouldn't budge. "But we'll have to walk the rest of the way to this place and try and find a phone."
"How much longer is there to go?" Justin asked, hopping out from where they'd finally managed to slide open the door. Seamus quickly followed, then Ron. Draco, and then Blaise and Harry climbed out the same way. Neither front door would open due to the bent frame.
"We could try and fix it with magic?" Ron asked, pulling Blaise to him and leaning against the side of the van.
"Right. We know zilch about vehicular magichanics, and we don't even know where we are. It's not safe."
They stood in silence a moment, shifting unsettled gazes between the van and the tree until Blaise remembered he had been clutching the directions in his fist since the accident. He stared down at them incredulously. "If Draco wrote this down correctly," he finally said, shooting a doubting look at the blond. "Then this place is just round the corner."
"Brill! We'll just find a phone and call someone to come help us!" Draco reasoned.
"Who are we going to call, oh brilliant one," Blaise asked Draco pointedly. Harry suspected he was annoyed in general and thus felt most comfortable taking it out on Draco. He also noticed Ron tightening his grip around his boyfriend.
"Ghostbusters?" Justin deadpanned. And Harry snorted, unable to help it. Everyone else was just confused.
"We don't need to break ghosts, we need to fix our van," Seamus argued.
"We'll call Hermione!" Ron said after awhile. "Harry knows her number and who better than the muggle-born, brightest witch of her age to aid us in our issue."
Harry wasn't so sure. Nevertheless it was their only plan and he thankfully linked hands with Draco and began dragging him down the road. Seamus and Dustin had already started down the way, and Ron and Blaise were behind them. They brought up the rear, and Harry pretended not to notice Draco's nervous glances into the trees, lest he himself start to get antsy.
When they had been walking for fifteen minutes, and no pub had made itself apparent, they all began to grow weary of wandering, lost, through a wood. Blaise was swatting miserably at tiny bugs, walking along side of Ron, when Draco walked into him, stumbled back and then stopped completely. The others ceased their steps as well, turning to see why they'd stopped.
Draco sighed heavily, placing the back of his hand against the pale plane of his forehead. "Oh! Woe is me, for I grow weary of a world without shags." He batted his eyelashes pointedly in Harry's direction.
There was a heavy silence, full of everyone wondering what the hell was wrong with Draco and did he just say 'shags'?
Ron broke first. "I think the mosquitoes have sucked out his brains."
"Mosquitoes don't eat brains, they eat blood," Blaise corrected.
"They drink blood," Justin further corrected.
Meanwhile Harry found himself being dragged into the brush of trees, further and further back. As they walked, Harry noticed that branches seemed to not quite tear at his companion's clothing, the thick roots somehow managed not to trip the man. "Draco, it's not a good idea for us to go too far. We'll get lost."
"Quiet. I have an excellent sense of direction. I just don't want to be heard."
"Draco, love, this is a bad idea in general," he admitted reluctantly.
"Shhh," the blond hissed, and Harry was suddenly effectively pinned, back pressed against the sharp bark of a random tree. Draco kicked at the edges of a nearby shrub and pressed closer, fluttering his lips over the crest of Harry's cheek. "You freckle in the sun." He was smiling. Harry wondered if perhaps his partner had become delirious from lust. He wouldn't be surprised if Draco had been watching his arse for the entirety of their little escapade through the forest.
"Use a silencing charm, then, if you're going to be breaking our no-magic-rule. Don't think I didn't notice that I seemed to be the only one having any trouble walking through all the bramble." His eyes narrowed at the blond man loosely pinning him to the tree and with a quick burst of strength Harry had him firmly against a different tree.
"Ouch," Draco complained, wrinkling his fair nose up at the offending black haired young man. "You're supposed to be a gentleman, Harry! Besides it was just a little charm."
Harry attempted an exasperated look. All he managed was a highly amused smirk. Draco wiggled an arm free to brush his fingers over Harry's freckle marks. Harry began to wonder if Draco might not be happier with Ron. He blanched at his thought process. Ick. "I've half a mind to go back and tell everyone what you did and let them punish you as they see fit."
An annoyed crease formed between two pale brows as Harry suggested leaving him. But he morphed it quickly into a charming, edgy smile. "I'd much rather you punish me, Harry."
His cheek was rewarded when Harry kissed him, hard enough that he thoroughly expected bruised lips when it was over. The paler man moaned. Harry never could resist it when Draco purred his name, just so.
Meanwhile…
"I can't believe him! I. Cannot. Believe him. We wreck our car-"
"Van," put in Ron.
"…Van, whatever. We could have miles left to go. We could be lost in the middle of this godforsaken, bug infested, mudhole of a forest, and Draco bloody Malfoy stops for fucking shag. I just don't believe it."
"Blaise, are you really surprised?" Justin reasoned, digging around in Seamus' front pocket for something.
"No I'm not surprised, but I'm certainly not bloody content about it!"
Ron, who had settled down in a grassy spot with his back rested against another of the wood's seemingly endless supply of trees, allowed his boyfriends rant to continue uncontested. He knew what happened when you tried to stop Blaise when he set to bitching. Instead he tugged gently on the other man's hand.
Blaise, distracted from his rant by the threat of imbalance glanced down to assert what Ron was trying to do.
"Sit with me."
The brunette's nose scrunched up in aristocratic disgust. "It's filthy! I'm not going to sit on the ground."
"It's grass," Seamus reasoned, to no avail, from where he was already settled on his side, gazing down at a stretched-out Justin. Justin giggled at the irony and puffed on the joint he had dug out of his boyfriend's pocket.
"Sit on my lap. I promise I won't let you touch the ground. Gryffindor's honor." He held up two fingers in a peace sign. Seamus snorted, knowing perfectly well that Ron had just made that up for Blaise's benefit. Blaise raised an eyebrow, doubtful, but lowered himself gingerly into his boyfriend's lap nevertheless.
Ron arranged his legs so that, if Blaise sat sideways, no part of him was touching the grass. He wrapped an arm around the other man's lower back for support and settled back against the tree. Across the small patch of green, Justin's eyes had glazed over and Seamus was now exhaling a small stream of smoke.
Through the lulling rustle of forest sounds a heated moan echoed out at them. There was a moment in which amused smirks were exchanged all around.
"Bugger this." Seamus climbed to his feet and held out a hand for Justin. "We're going for a shag."
Justin pulled himself up and the couple wandered off into the direction opposite where the moan had resonated, trailing the potent scent of herb.
It didn't take long for Blaise to settle his lips and tongue into the task of mapping out a trail along Ron's sun-pinked neck and, for awhile, everyone forgot about the fact that they were in unfamiliar territory, and with no ideas on how to get back.