Fall From Grace
by Harikari

Pairing/Characters: Ron/Draco, Ensemble
Rating: Teen (possibly Mature in later parts)
Warnings: Violence, strong language, American English, angst, etc.
Disclaimer: Don't own em'. No copyright infringement is intended. I'm writing this for fun, not profit.

Summary: Changes and tragedies bring Ron and Draco closer together. But a new relationship isn't all the adventure they're in for.

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Prologue

A lot of surprising, unexpected, and horrible things had happened to Ron during his nearly eighteen years of life. When he was very young his twin brothers, Fred and George, had turned his teddy bear into a huge, prickly spider. At eleven years old, on the first day of his first year at Hogwarts he'd befriended Harry Potter, the Boy Who Lived.

Being almost eaten by giant arachnids, getting dragged into the Forbidden Forest by a Grimm who later turned out to be Harry's godfather, coming face to face with a group of deadly Death Eaters while inside the Ministry of Magic...these were only a few of the things the youngest Weasley brother had gone through during his years at the school of Witchcraft and Wizardry.

So, he guessed, he shouldn't have been surprised when he spotted his best friend standing just outside of Florean Fortescue's Ice-Cream Parlour snogging with his other best friend, Hermione. The girl he was sure he loved.

All summer Ron had been working a few hours a day at Weasley's Wizard Wheezes, Fred and George's joke shop. The twins had opened the shop after they'd bailed from school in the midst of their seventh year and had been doing quite well ever since. That summer, the summer before Ron's own seventh year, the twins had offered him a job. Ron, glad at the thought of having a bit of extra money in his pocket and needing the work experience (he hadn't done as well as he would've liked on his OWLs), had accepted immediately.

And so it happened that one day, about a week before the start of classes, instead of doing what he usually did and hurrying home by way of floo powder right after work Ron decided he'd like to take a walk around Diagon Alley. He felt he needed the fresh air. And purchasing the schoolbooks and supplies he would need for the coming year wasn't so bad an idea either.

He'd been strolling along the Alley, puzzling over his school list, when he'd seen them. Hermione was wrapped in Harry's arms, and the two were kissing.

It shouldn't have surprised him. Him. Ron Weasley who'd overcome many obstacles and who'd been a part to many adventures throughout the years. But it had.

He'd simply stood still and stared at them for a moment, his mouth open in shock and his hands rolled into fists. He hadn't known how to react to what he was seeing. How to feel.

Should he be happy for them? Harry had been so devastated after fifth year. After Cho and Sirius. The Boy Who Lived had trudged around Hogwarts sixth year in a severely depressed state. It was a lucky thing that Voldemort and his followers had stayed in the shadows that year. Ron didn't think Harry could've survived a misadventure.

Should he be angry? The redhead, though he hadn't had the guts to admit it to anyone yet, liked Hermione. She was just so pretty, so smart... He'd always believed that they would end up together. He'd always believed that Hermione liked him back.

Apparently not.

When his two best friends had broken their embrace Ron had spun and walked, quickly, in the opposite direction.

Absentmindedly stuffing the now unimportant school list into his pocket, he'd decided that he wasn't mad because they were together. He was mad because they hadn't told him. Hadn't told him, like he wasn't part of the circle of friends. Like he was an outsider. Like he didn't matter.

As he'd entered the twins shop and grabbed a handful of floo powder Ron had decided seeing his friends snogging in the middle of the street was the most shocking thing he'd witnessed so far. He suspected not even You-Know-Who himself, appearing out of thin air in front of him and wielding a wand, could be more shocking.

He had no idea...