Ron stood for a moment, watching the pure, ravenous, elephantine quality of the creature. It was huge, that much was clear. But it wasn’t just that, it was nearly the size of a person, with long arms and beefy legs. The creature's wings extended to the walls of the cave, and it’s body was covered head to toe in a thick mat of fur. The shrill, rage-filled roar that it let out, Ron couldn’t even describe it.

It was like a demon, quite literally. And, to make the situation all the more better, it was coming directly for Ron. He raised his wand, drawing an absolute blank on the spell that he was supposed to say. So, he turned and ran out of the beast's range, colliding with the rocky wall. “Cast the bloody spell!”

Draco called, wand in hand, cage in the other. “I don’t know what it is!” Ron yelled, ducking just beneath the creature's swinging arm. It’s claws shot at him like arrows, just barely scratching his patched-up jacket. “Must I do everything myself?

Take this!” He tossed the cage at him, forcing him to back into a rocky slab. He held onto the bars tightly, gripping at them as if it were his wand. But, without thinking he took a wide step sideways and tripped on a wayward skull. The cage didn’t fall, but he did, landing on the ground with a terrible thud.

He knocked his head hard, sending a jolt of pain rattling through his jaw. The creature moved up to him, pinning him down with it’s rack of knife-like claws. It opened its snout wide, tendrils of slobber falling onto Ron’s cheek. It’s teeth were coming towards his neck, hurdling like that of meteorites. He felt around for his wand, but it must have fallen out of his hands.

“Reducio!” Draco shouted, a stream of golden light shooting out of his wand. The creature shook a few times, jittering as if it were seizing. Then, rather suddenly, it shrunk to the size of an especially tiny owl. Ron lifted the cage up instantly, throwing the thing in and locking the door behind it without much care.

It flew around, agitated, knocking the bars while letting out high-pitched screeches. Ron stayed on the ground, his chest bobbing up and down. Draco walked up to him and held out his hand, “are you okay?” He asked, his face mangled in a mixture of surprise, confusion, and fear. Ron took it, noting how comforting it was to hold Draco’s gloved hand.

“. . . Yeah, I’m fine,” he said. “Have you seen my wand?” Ron asked, patting about his coat and stomping around the shadowy ground. “Here,” Draco held it out, “You dropped it when you caught that,” he said, pointing at the cage. “Right, thank you,” he said, breathing in heavily.

He was sure if Draco wasn’t there he would have had a panic attack. “Are you sure you’re okay?” Draco asked. Ron thought for a moment, “no,” he said, taking in a raspy breath. Draco looked off to the way that they came, balling his fists in frustration.

“We have to go, now.” He said, looking as if he was actually annoyed that he couldn’t stay in the cave. “Why?” Ron asked, his voice high and squeaky. Why did he ask that? He wasn’t sure.

He did want to leave, that much he was certain of. But, for some reason, the prospect of facing his argument with Harry after nearly being mauled wasn’t a very kind thought. “The time’s almost up, if we don’t go now . . . I’m not sure.”

“How do you know?” Draco looked amazed.

“Why do you have so many bloody questions?

I know because I know, now let's move.” He said, placing his blue-lit wand like a lantern in front of him. Just like that, they started running, fleeing the premise as fast as possible.

___

“Do you have any legitimate idea where you’re going?” Draco shouted, following behind Ron. They were trapped in a rather dense chunk of the forest, thick groupings of trees and snow-covered rocks which jabbed out of the ground encompassing them. Ron tripped a few times, nearly breaking his ankle with the sheer force of the movement.

“I . . . this tree looks familiar, doesn’t it?” He said, eyeing one of the million, concave trees which surrounded them. Draco looked astonished, “are you serious?” He asked, taking an aggressive step forward. The air felt heavy and the sky was pale, Ron knew it was about to rain.

“EVERY TREE LOOKS THE SAME!” Draco shouted, his face red with absolute rage. Ron grew quiet, focusing on something, anything that wasn’t Draco’s infuriated form. “Merlin, I knew this would happen, leave it to the sodding Weasley for us to get lost.” He said, pacing around.

He was flailing his arms about, reminding Ron almost disturbingly of his mother. “Me!? You’re the one who wanted to catch a demon bat!” Ron was growing angry now too, his stomach hot and his skin inflamed.

“Ha! I vaguely remember you AGREEING to said demon bat.”

“What? You forced me!”

“In what bleeding universe did I ‘force’ you to do anything? You agreed!”

“Yes well, not happily, it’s not as if I could find any inkling of enjoyment from working with a Malfoy.” Ron said, his throat was still raspy. He felt raindrops slide down his cheeks, tickling his rosey nose. Draco tore off his black fur-lined hat and tossed it into a heap of snow. “Oh, that’s entirely rich,” he said, walking up to him with a pace that was positively menacing.

“Everything you do is an atrocity! You’re like a walking mistake.” Ron was quiet at that, his face dropping to a subtle frown. And, rather suddenly, the rain started pouring down, soaking into the snow and caking Draco’s hair. “This is your fault Weasley!

We are stranded here because of you!” He said, slicking his hair back between his fingers. His coat was beginning to stick to his body, so much so that it started to look like a weighted vest. It wasn’t fair. “Wow,” Ron said darkly, “And here I thought you were actually a half-decent person.”

Draco stared at him, stunned. “Find Hogwarts yourself Malfoy, I’m leaving,” he said, beginning to walk off in some unknown direction. At that point he didn’t care to know where he was going, he just wanted to leave. To be anywhere that wasn’t next to him.

___

Ron had been walking for some time, hours, maybe. Malfoy followed behind him, remaining at an arm's length, far enough that they couldn’t see nor talk to each other. It was extremely awkward. Hearing his shoes crunch under the now sleet, his frustrated breath under the pouring rain. It made him sick, and angry, and a billion other things that he couldn’t say. But, most of all he longed for warmth, for his dorm bed, for clothes that weren’t dragging down on him.

He wanted Harry to talk to him. He kept wondering, albeit ridiculously, if they cared that he hadn’t made it back to Hogwarts. He knew the thought was dumb, of course they cared. But this small voice inside of him kept wondering. “Where are you going?” Draco called loudly, his voice covered by the sound of thunder and raindrops.

It was torrential, Ron felt like he was in a hurricane. “Anywhere that isn’t with you,” he said, refusing to turn and look at his face. His stride was quick, purposeful, as if he actually had a destination. “That’s impossible,”

“And why is that?” Ron asked, cheeks growing red.

Every few seconds he had to spit the rain water out of his mouth. Oh, and did he mention he was freezing? “Because, Ron, we are stuck in the-”

“Not listening!” Ron shouted, cutting him off. The last thing he wanted to do was listen to Malfoy justify himself. “Ron, I sai-”

“NOT listening!”

He shouted again, his pace growing to that of a run. Draco’s breath grew closer, husky and tired. “Ron will you just . . .” They struggled for a moment, Draco grabbing Ron’s arms, Ron trying to fight him off. It was a whirlwind, quite literally, yet, somehow, it ended with Ron being pinned to a tree. “Will you just listen,” he said, more like a statement than an actual question.

He held his arms back, rendering him immobile. His face was too close, his hair soggy, raindrops soaring like comets down his moonlike skin. He smelt like salt and snow, everything and nothing. “I’m sorry,” he said softly.

“I didn’t mean what I said, it was wrong of me.” They stared at each other, hazel eyes meeting grey. Where were they again?

Ron forgot. In fact, he forgot time itself. “If you’re a mistake Ron, then, well. I guess I’m just as bad as you seem to think I am.” He said, his voice nearly drowned under the ocean of rain pouring upon them.

Ron gulped, not sure how to respond, or even how to breathe. “Now, can we figure this out? Please.” Ron stared, eyes wider than they had ever been in the entirety of his existence.

“Yeah . . . Let’s go,” he said, breaking away from Draco’s grasp, beginning to walk in the same direction he had been before. But, this time, they were shoulder to shoulder.