Title: That Dangerous Time of Year

Author: Wufei Winner

Pairing: Ron/Draco

Rating: M

Warnings: AU, Gory imagery???

Betas: Nastassja and Hambares.

Disclaimer: I do not own anything HP related. It all belongs to JK Rowling, Bloomsbury Books, Scholastic Inc., Warner Bros., and any other entities involved.

Summary: Ron makes a horrifying discovery one morning when he wakes up in bed alone.

Author's Notes: I've started a new series; it's mostly AU and looks like it's going to be a lot of fun to write in. This is the first story out of many that will be written for this new universe I've created to play in. It is set about three years after the actual series begins, so be prepared to see more of this universe in the future.

N/A: There is a sex scene in here that I've edited out, if you would like to read it you can find it on my Livejournal, just go to my profile page and click the homepage link.

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Ron Weasley was afraid.

It was that time of year again. The time of year when his boyfriend would vanish without a trace for an unforeseeable amount of time, doing only God knows what, and then suddenly reappear again with no explanation of where he was or what he did in that time.

Ron hadn't started his day off feeling afraid though; he woke up in a great mood that morning. That was until he rolled over in bed and realized that Draco wasn't in the spot next to him 'sleeping' like he was supposed to be. After searching the rest of their home, and still finding no trace of his boyfriend anywhere, he came across the calendar on the kitchen wall. The redhead nearly slammed his skull into the doorframe for his own complete stupidity when he saw the date decorated in bold red letters.

Tomorrow was Valentine's Day.

He felt his whole body breakout into a cold sweat. How could have he forgotten something of such importance? Hasn't he already learned from his past experiences of the last three years not to let his guard down when this month rolled around? Apparently not it would seem.

Most people would not see this holiday as something to fear, but rather a time to express their deep, undying love and affection for their loved ones. Well most people didn't have a fucking Vampire for a boyfriend. A boyfriend, mind you, whose ways of showing his affection for someone were morbid and highly disturbing to say the very least. It gave the term 'undying love' a whole new meaning.

So now Ron Weasley was afraid. No, he was downright terrified.

Taking in his currant situation and thinking quickly on what he should do next, Ron decided staying inside of the house was not an option, since it was now enemy territory and all. After going back upstairs to get cleaned up and changed, he looked somewhat presentable to be out in public. Looking at his watch, the redhead dashed out of the house at breakneck speed. It was still morning and he had to search for his missing vampire and find him before the other man did something unspeakable…or find a good place to hide from his boyfriend for the next two days, whichever came first, didn't really matter to him in the end.

But before he did anything, he needed help first, some backup, and he knew exactly were to go to find it.

-----

Harry Potter was happily enjoying a good lie-in, curled up with one of his old spell books, and planned on staying that way for the rest of the morning. It was the weekend, he had nowhere he needed to be, and his psycho of a father and godfather were too busy panicking about what to do for their significant others tomorrow to pester and torture him for their own damn amusement.

No, nothing was going to get in his way of lazing around in bed all day and reading. But it appeared that fate was PMS'ing today, and had prearranged for his peaceful morning to be ruined, as not even a minute later there was a series of loud crashing sounds that seemed to be coming from the direction of the front door. Before he could get out of bed to investigate the strange sounds, he promptly fell out of it in shock as the door to his bedroom was suddenly no longer were it should have been and in its place instead was his best friend.

Ron stood there clutching the doorframe panting for breath, staring around the room with a look of complete terror. "Have you seen him?"

"Ron, what the fuck?" Harry cried out, gesturing to the remains that used to be his bedroom door scattered around them. "I've told you a million times already, stop ripping my doors off their bloody hinges!"

The redhead dropped his gaze down to the broken pieces of wood on the floor and then looked over his shoulder to see the carnage that was once a mostly clean apartment. Ron at least had the grace to look embarrassed at his own carelessness, as his face reddened into an unflattering shade of scarlet as he glanced back at the angry wizard.

"Sorry about that, I'll fix them again I swear," He promised, scratching the back of his neck nervously.

Harry rolled his eyes and turned away, grumbling about psychotic werewolves and destruction of property, and went about finding some clothes to put on since it didn't look like he was going to get that peaceful morning alone after all. Judging by the panicked look in Ron's eyes he should probably get some tea started as well. It was obvious that it was going to take awhile for the werewolf to calm himself down and explain what was going on with him.

Ron quickly fled the room to give his friend some sense of privacy and went into the kitchen to wait for the other man to finish up. He collapsed into a nearby chair and started drumming his fingers against the table in front of him nervously, trying to keep himself together. He made it though; he was safe here for the time being. Now he just had to keep himself from breaking anything else in the apartment and unleashing the wrath of the cranky wizard on himself. After what seemed to be forever, Harry finally stumbled into the room with his clothes rumpled and hair sticking up at odd angles. The wizard gave the werewolf sitting at his table a cross look as he headed straight for the kettle on the stove-top.

"So," Harry said beginning the conversation, filling the kettle with water. "What the hell was that all about?"

And all that Ron could come up with was, "Draco wasn't in bed this morning."

The dark-haired wizard gave him a look as he lit the stove. "And?"

"And?! That's all you have to say about it?" Ron asked, feeling a bit insulted that his best friend was acting so calm at a time like this. They had to sound the alarms, release the hounds, find a safe house, or possibly run away and move to another country under assumed names and make new identities for themselves!

Harry made a disgruntled sound. "Well, what do you what me to say?" He asked, grabbing two mugs from the cupboard and leaning against the counter to wait for the tea to finish brewing. "Just because your boyfriend wasn't there in bed cuddling you this morning isn't a justifiable reason to be running over here, panicking and breaking everything I own."

The redhead stared back, looking aggravated. "Tomorrow is Valentine's Day, you daft twat."

"So?" The young wizard asked indifferently pouring the tea, and sat down across from the jumpy werewolf, handing him a steaming mug.

"So?" Ron asked, holding the hot mug in a death grip looking panicked again. "You damn well know that this is a very dangerous time for me. Who knows what he's been up to or what he's done!"

Harry let his head fall back and laughed out loud. "Is that all? That's what this is all about?" He continued to laugh, banging his fist against the table unable to contain himself. "You're afraid that Draco is going to give you a gift again this year?"

Blushing brightly, Ron was barely able to keep himself from leaping across the table and ripping his 'best friends'' head right off his bloody neck. "Stop laughing, this is serious! This is a life or death situation we're in!"

But that just seemed to make Harry laugh even harder, and the wizard nearly fell out of his chair by the force of it. "Aw, come on! Listen to yourself; you're acting all crazy over nothing."

"Nothing? Nothing?" The redhead shrieked, voice growing louder by the second. "Do you remember what Draco gave me on our first Valentines Day together? A heart in a box, Harry, a real bloody human heart! And when I told him that was disgusting, he just gave me this confused look and told me he was just trying to be romantic, and he was being serious!"

The wizard scowled. "Yes Ron, I do remember that. You told me the same thing back then, after racing over here and breaking down my front door and my table, just like you did this morning, and started screaming about us having to look for someone with a missing heart and how we had to hide the evidence of a possible murder. It's kind of a hard thing to forget about."

"See what I mean? He's crazy!" Ron said thinking he finally got the point across. "And I told you I would replace your bloody doors!"

Harry just sat there staring back at him, calmly drinking his tea, not looking at all concerned by the grisly details of the past they were discussing. "Ron, do you remember when we were twelve and you gave me a dead rabbit for my birthday?"

"What does that have to with my current problem? And by the way that was different!" Ron shot back, crossing his arms defiantly.

The wizard snorted. "How is that different?" He asked.

Ron sighed. "I'm a werewolf Harry; I was merely showing my affection for you by presenting a kill from a hunt. I picked that rabbit out of a dozen others, just for you." He said, proudly.

"So how is that different from what Draco did?" Harry asked.

The redhead stared back looking uncomfortable. "You don't give people human hearts as gifts Harry, its creepy and just plain wrong! And that wasn't the only thing he did, the year after the 'Heart Incident' he composed…a sonnet."

Harry gave the werewolf a look. "And what was wrong with that? That doesn't sound bad, a little queer maybe, but nothing to get all worked up over."

"You haven't heard the rest of it yet Harry." Ron said, a shiver going down the redhead's spine. "In the sonnet Draco compared all of my 'lovely features', his words not mine, to horrible and gory events in time. And went on and on about what he would do to all of my body parts if, you know, he didn't like me alive and whole so much."

The mug he was holding almost fell out of Harry's hand. "Whoa."

"Tell me about it, after that I couldn't sleep for a week I was so terrified." Ron felt his body shiver as he relived the memories of lying awake in bed in appalling fear.

Harry still looked shocked. "Did Draco really sing it to you?" He asked in morbid curiosity.

"That's not the point Harry!" Ron shouted annoyed, kicking his friend's leg under the table causing the other man to cringe in pain.

"Whatever."

"Bloody git."

A moment of silence passed between them before Harry decided to move on and get to the heart of the matter. "Well, I can't say I pity you, as you're the one who got himself involved in a relationship with a vampire."

"Hey, he wasn't a vampire when I first met him! He was just a normal bloke like you and me," Ron said indignantly, but at the look his friend gave him he relented. "Fine, not exactly like you and me, but still! He was a normal guy and then he went and decided to go off and become a creepy vampire!"

Harry sat there staring at him for awhile in silence before sighing. "You didn't have to stay with him you know, no one was forcing you. It wasn't like you were bound to him or anything," he said.

At that, a stupid expression appeared on the redhead's face. "Yeah, but for some reason I still love this guy, creepy vampire qualities and all."

"Well it's your funeral I suppose." Harry laughed. "So what are you going to do now?" He asked.

"I'm going to stay right here with you for the next few days of course," the redhead said, looking pleased with his decided course of action.

Harry's eye began to twitch. "You can't stay here; you have a perfectly good home to go back to."

"Aw, come on Harry, you have to hide me!" Ron begged. "I'm your beast friend, I could die or something much, much worse! Could you really stand to have that resting on your conscious?" He asked, eyes pleading in a pathetic display.

"Fine." Harry sighed, caving in. "But only for tonight."

Ron let out a howl mixed with joy and relief as he downed the rest of his tea. "So, with that all settled what do you want to do now?" The redhead asked smiling.

The wizard pretended to think about the question, a sly expression crossing his face. "Oh I don't know, how about you fix those doors you broke like promised?" He suggested.

The werewolf let out a small whine, and if he was in his canine form his ears would have been drooping dejectedly. "Do I have to?" He asked.

Harry just looked smugly back at his best friend, sipping his tea.

The two friends spent the rest of the day repairing the broken items in the small apartment, joking back and forth, both trying to keep Ron's mind off of Draco and what the psychotic vampire could possibly be doing at the moment.

By the time evening came around, the redhead was so worn out from the long day of forced physical labor that he spent the entire night passed out on his favorite comfortable couch, the worries he had about Draco seemingly gone for the time being as he slept on without a care in the world. Not far away in the next room the

sounds of loud snoring coming from the unconscious werewolf kept Harry awake and contemplating homicide for most of the night.

The time for revenge was finally at-hand!

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When the sun rose that morning, it was to the sound of loud screaming, as the once sleeping werewolf was rudely awakened by a grouchy and sleep deprived wizard in the form of a large pitcher of ice water being dumped over his head.

"Bloody hell, Harry! What was that for?" Ron screamed after falling off of the couch in a tangle of wet limbs and blankets.

"That," Harry emphasized, "was for keeping me up all night with your damn snoring!" He growled out, waving the empty pitcher around threateningly, ready to bash the werewolf's head in with it at any moment.

The redhead stared up at his friend looking affronted. "I do not snore!"

The wizard rolled his eyes. "I've almost forgotten why I was so happy when you decided to move the hell out of here and live with Draco."

"It's so nice to know exactly how much you care for me." Ron said, sarcasm lacing his words. "Really, it warms my heart to its very core."

Eye twitching ominously, Harry glared. "Well now that you're finally awake, kindly get yourself dressed and get the hell out of my apartment! Go find your lost lover and leave me alone with what's left of my weekend in peace!"

Gaping in shock at his best friend, the werewolf scrambled to his feet. "You can't kick me out of here; you're supposed to hide me from him! You can't do this to me, you just can't!"

Unmoved by the redhead's plight, Harry stood his ground. "You don't have a choice in this matter."

Ron got that stubborn look on his face and planted himself onto the wet couch, arms crossed. "Well, I'm not leaving, you can't make me!"

"Watch me."

Soon after that statement was made, the redhead found himself abruptly kicked out of the apartment on his sopping, wet ass, a wrinkled ball of clothes thrown into his arms. And being told by his enraged, best friend that he was a grown man of twenty-three and should be able to handle his petty problems on his own. With that being said, the front door was slammed in his stunned, freckled face.

So there he was, alone and wet with nowhere to go but back to the very place where his adventure started from, on the most dangerous day of the year.

Ron thought to himself he was acting foolish. It was just a stupid holiday after all, nothing to be afraid of. Draco most likely learned his lesson about not doing creepy shit around him by now. He didn't need to be afraid and runaway to hide out at his asshole of a friend's place. There was no reason that he needed to avoid going back home, where he was the safest he could ever be…yeah, right.

After changing back into his old rumpled clothes, giving anyone who happened to be outside at that moment a free show, he gave one last longing look at the apartment door in front of him. Turning around quickly, before he lost his resolve, he went on his way in the direction of home, grumbling about how much of a bastard his supposedly best friend was.

But he didn't need to go home quite yet, did he? It was still early.

With that thought in mind, Ron abruptly changed directions and decided to bum around town for the rest of the morning and afternoon. If he ended up staying out longer then that it didn't really concern him. He was a grown man after all, and could stay out as long as he liked.

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It was long past nightfall when Ron finally came back home, he looked around cautiously as he closed the front door behind him, being mindful to his surroundings. He felt like some sort of thief sneaking back to the scene of a crime. He had his senses on high alert, listening for any strange sounds that might clue him in to if Draco was presently in the house or not. Unfortunately, his sense of smell wasn't as acute as most of his elder brothers' were, so it was hard to tell if the lingering sent of Draco was a few days old or only a few hours.

The werewolf searched high and low. He searched all the rooms, but could not find any evidence that anyone else was in the house with him. Not a sound was heard, and not a thing was moved from its place whilst he was away for that short time. Letting out a large breath of air in relief he headed up towards the bedroom he and Draco shared, looking forward to getting some sleep and leaving this whole stressful day behind him.

Ron felt the hair on the back of his neck stand up on end as the bedroom door shut behind him with an ominous click. His instincts were too late to warn him of the threat of something suddenly appearing behind him. Shocked, he was unable to react in time to prevent himself from being picked up abruptly and tossed onto the bed. The air was knocked out of him as something tackled and pinned him down onto the soft surface preventing him from moving.

What probably shocked the werewolf the most was being viciously kissed by the same thing that just attacked him a second ago. Ron couldn't hold back the loud moan that was ripped from his throat as he felt sure hands groping him in all the right places, arousing him instantly.

He was wrong. Apparently Draco was home after all.

Only after the vampire believed the werewolf underneath him was well and thoroughly kissed to his satisfaction did the blond let up in his assault. Draco grinned, revealing his set of sharp white fangs, as he stared down at his prey, amusement making his pale eyes appear to glow in the dim lighting of the room.

"Where have you been?" Draco asked, leaning down to nuzzle the redheads' neck. "I've been here all alone waiting for you to come home for hours now."

With a frustrated growl, Ron managed to roll them over so he was the one on top and glared down at the vampire. "Shouldn't I be the one to ask that question? It was you who got up and left in the middle of the night after all, not even leaving a note to let me know where you were."

The blond smirked back. "I'm sorry; I was unexpectedly called away on some urgent family business by my father." He apologized, though not looking at all sorry for his actions.

Ron continued to glare at his boyfriend. "That's all, that's all you were doing? Just stupid clan stuff, nothing else?" He asked suspiciously. The blond vampire looked way too pleased with himself for his liking.

"Yes, yes, just a few simple issues that had to be taken care of, nothing to worry your pretty, little furry head about." Draco reassured him, relaxing and stretching out his long limbs beneath the werewolf, making himself comfortable on the bed.

With those few reassuring words from his boyfriend, Ron felt the last remaining bits of anxiety suddenly disappear, leaving his body feeling light and energized. The vampire underneath him could sense this change and resumed his previous assault on the other mans lips, which the redhead gladly gave back as good as he got. They thrashed about on the large bed as both men fought for control of the kiss, mouths clashing and lips and teeth ripping into each other violently.

Ron let out a small gasp as one of Draco's fangs cut into his tongue. The vampire moaning in pleasure as he sucked the hot blood into his own mouth, visibly enjoying the sweet coppery flavor of it. The room quickly became overheated and the two hurriedly relieved each other of their clothing. They began clawing at one another's skin like the wild creatures they were, leaving thin welts and shallow cuts behind on naked flesh.

Sex was almost like a competition between the two of them, always testing the others strength to see who would end up on top. The intensity of most of their encounters would have killed a normal human being, which was one of the reasons why Ron didn't mind so much that Draco was turned. He no longer needed to hold back for fear that he would injure his partner in the heat of the moment. He could finally let himself go and not worry about keeping his strength in check. It was an incredibly freeing experience.

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The two remained in silence. Just enjoying the high of the afterglow from their rough bout of sex, and for Ron blood loss, both content to simply be entwined around the other on the rumpled bed. Already the redhead could feel the twin puncture wounds begin healing themselves - hyperactive healing abilities were definitely a major perk to being a werewolf, Ron thought to himself with a grin.

A short time later, Draco suddenly rolled the other man off of him. "I can't believe I almost forgot," he mumbled to himself as he climbed out of bed.

Ron watched, feeling himself starting to doze off, as the blond crossed the room naked and disappeared into the closet. The redhead could hear sounds of things being tossed across the room as Draco searched around for something from inside. Soon after, the redhead heard a shout of triumph coming from the vampire as he reappeared from the closet and returned to climb back into bed.

The werewolf sat up into a more comfortable position as Draco shifted to get closer; in his arms he was holding what looked to be a large, red velvet…Hatbox? As the vampire got closer, he could suddenly smell the faintest hint of something sweet and yet oddly metallic coming from the box in the blonde's hands.

"Happy Valentine's Day, Ron," Draco said, offering the gift to his lover.

Ron scrambled away from him in blind panic as he finally recognized the sent coming from the box, it was the sent of blood. How he missed it before was a complete mystery to him. He fully blamed the vampire for obviously distracting him with sex. The werewolf fell out of bed with a yell, getting tangled up in the bed sheets in his haste to get as far away as he could from his decidedly evil boyfriend.

Draco just watched him stumble around, reclining in his spot on the bed. "What's wrong? I thought you liked gifts." The blond pouted.

The redhead turned extremely pale when he heard the most disgusting sound coming from the package as it was shifted around. He swore he heard something go 'squish' inside the velvet box. Ron could feel himself wanting to throw up, and the look on the vampire's face wasn't helping him at all. Finally able to untangle himself from the stupid sheets that were holding him captive, the werewolf stood clutching said sheets to his body and glared at the blond still on the bed.

"Stop playing games! This is not, and never was, funny!" He growled out, starting to lose his composure.

Draco stared back at the pale redhead. "What do you mean?" He asked innocently.

That was just the last straw for Ron, and he felt the last remaining thread of his control finally snap. "What's in the box, Draco!? What's in the box!?" He screamed, pointing an accusing finger at his lover.

The only reply he received was a fanged grin from the blond vampire.

God, he really hated Valentine's Day.

..Fin..