TW- Talk of past self-harm, cussing

Before Harry could say anything to the younger students, Draco picked him up and lifted him across his shoulder out of the school and to the lake shocking both the younger students and Harry.

"Don't throw him around like that Death Eater scum!" One of the boys shouted though he didn't follow the two.

Draco ignored the boy while Harry glared at him, he started to fuss at the boy but Draco had already carried him outside of the castle.

"What are you doing Draco?" Harry asked as he looked at Draco the best he could while he was being dangled across his shoulders.

"I'm making sure you don't run your mouth and ruin your reputation," Draco answered as he walked them over to the rest of the group who were sitting under a large tree by the side of the lake.

"I don't care about my reputation,  those students should be hexed for saying those things about you!" He stated, finding it unbelievable that someone could say the things those students said to Draco.

"Why do you want to hex students?" Hermione asked as she looked up from the book she was reading aloud to Pansy.

"Because some arseholes that swarmed me before the rest of you left decided that it was a brilliant idea to say horrible things about Draco. I wanted to give them a proper piece of my mind but then Draco picked me up and carried me out here." Harry explained as Draco sat him down on the ground carefully, making sure he had his balance before taking a step back from him.

"Don't bother with them, they all only share one brain cell between the whole lot of them. I'm honestly shocked there haven't been more people insulting us because of this cursed thing." Blaise said as he pulled up his sleeve, showing his own cut-up Death Eater mark from his seat on the tree branch.

Ron looked at the mark before grabbing his wrist and pulling it down, resting his arm in his lap. "Why does it look like this?" He asked as he looked up at Blaise.

Blaise paused for a moment, not having expected Ron to react the way he did.

"Because I tried to cut it off of me, I wanted it gone. I wanted to cut the whole chunk of my arm out but I couldn't. The curse wouldn't let me." He answered honestly as he looked into Ron's worried eyes.

"Why would you do that? Why would you ever hurt yourself? I know it's not a good memory for you but that doesn't mean you should hurt yourself over it." Ron said as he looked back down at Blaise's arm, his eyes tracing all the scars around it.

"I wanted it gone," Blaise answered with a small shrug making Ron look up at him again.

"You're being way too calm about this... come on, we're going back to our dorm room." He stated before he began climbing down the tree. 

Blaise looked at him confused for a moment but complied, following him down the tree.

"We'll be in our dorm if anyone needs up," Ron stated to the group before grabbing Blaise's hand and dragging him to their room.

The other four watched them leave with a mix of confusion and amusement.

"Do you think they're going to shag or?" Pansy asked, breaking the silence.

"I doubt it, Ron's more emotional and gentle than he is anything else, especially when it comes to things like that," Harry answered as he tugged his robe sleeve down some.

Everyone noticed the movement but nobody commented on it. "I think we should go to our room too, enjoy the fresh air ladies," Draco said to Harry and then Hermione and Pansy before he began walking back inside, knowing that Harry would follow him like a loyal dog.

"Have fun you two," Hermione called to them as Harry waved them bye before following Draco inside.

"Not too much fun though!" Pansy yelled before they disappeared into the castle.

"And then there were two," Pansy said as she looked over at Hermione.

"Seems like it," She agreed with a small nod.

"Would you continue reading the story please?" Pansy asked as she rested her head against Hermione's shoulder so she could see the pages and follow along with Hermione's words.

"Of course," Hermione agreed with another nod before she opened the book again and began reading where she left off before.

~~~Focusing on Blaise and Ron~~~

Ron's hand tightened in Blaise's hand when he saw a group of students and heard them talking about Harry Potter and Death Eater scum.

He wanted to say something to them, he wanted to curse them, he wanted to yell at them and ask them how they could ever say such cruel things about people they don't even know but before he could open his mouth, Blaise put his other hand over it.

"Don't do it, just keep walking. Take me to the dorm room." He said, his voice deep and gentle, as if trying to soothe Ron into not hexing the students.

Ron nodded reluctantly before continuing their walk to their dorm room.

The rest of the walk was silent until they got into their room.

 "Sit on the bed, please." Ron said as he let go of Blaise's hand, adding the 'please' as an after thought.

Blaise did as he was asked and sat down on his bed but his eyes followed Ron's movements, wondering what he was doing.

Ron grabbed a small pouch from the trunk at the end of his bed before sitting down beside Blaise.

"May I please have your arm?" He asked as he looked up at Blaise.

Blaise nodded and held out both arms to him.

Ron took the arm with the Dark Mark on it and rested it on his lap before opening the pouch and dumping it out on the bed beside them.

A colorful array of markers fell out of the bag, sprawling all over the bedsheets.

"Pick your favorite colors." Ron instructed as his hand continued to hold Blaise's wrist in a gentle grip.

"Green, blue, and ginger." Blaise answered without looking at the markers.

"I don't think there is a ginger color marker, will normal red do?" He asked as he looked at the markers, not thinking about the color choice at all.

"That's fine," Blaise answered with a small smile and nod, finding Ron quite adorable right now.

"Okay," Ron said with a nod of his own before he began to color in the Dark Mark with Blaise's favorite colors.

"This is washable ink so it will go away after a shower or two so if you don't like it then you can't be mad at me because it will go away." Ron said after a few seconds of him silently coloring.

"I wouldn't mind if it was perminant, I'd rather have your art on my arm then what's there at the moment." Blaise said, his tone still soft and gentle even though Ron had calmed down from the hallway incident already.

Ron gave a small hum at his words as he continued to color in the mark. 

The marker felt cool against his skin, it was nice and almost tickled but at the same time was extremely relaxing.

Soon the mark was colored in but Ron didn't stop coloring, instead he grabbed some other colors and began to color other parts of his arm.

"Can you take your robes off so I can color in the rest of your arm easier please?" He asked as he looked Blaise in the eyes for the first time in a while.

"Of course, anything for you." Blaise answered before taking his robes off, being extra careful to not smudge the art already on his arm.

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1,266 Words!