Disclaimer: Don't own, don't sue.
"Ron."
I groaned, blinking sleepily as I briefly wondered why Harry was whispering
to me in the middle of the night. I rolled on to my side so that my back
faced him, and put a pillow over my head. Couldn't he see that it was
still night time?
"Ro-on."
I flipped onto my back and brought myself into a sitting position. Picking
up my pillow, I opened my curtains and threw it in the general direction of
his bed. It was a rare occasion that he slept with his curtains closed.
Lazily, I plopped back onto my bed, pillowless, but happy.
"Ouch."
He hurled my pillow back at me, hitting me square in the face. Sighing in
defeat, I picked myself off the bed and moved the terribly long five feet
to the one next to me. "You called?"
I sat on the edge of his bed and he propped himself up, and for a few
moments we were silent. This is usually what we did after he had a
nightmare, but I hadn't heard him thrashing in his sleep. Something was
bothering him. "Do you remember that time in first year, when Malfoy
offered me his friendship?"
My jaw dropped. I tried to think of rational reasons why Harry woke me up
to discuss Malfoy. "You're telling me that at three in the morning, you
decided to wake me up to have a jolly old chat about Malfoy?"
He gave me a cheeky grin. "Yup."
"You're a monster." I spat, trying to hold contempt in my voice. He's so
hard to get mad at.
Shrugging thoughtfully, he seemed to pass over that idea. "But, think
about it. If I'd taken him up on that offer, what kind of person would I
be? Would I still be friends with you?"
That was actually an interesting query. I'd have to remember to think
about it when I was half-awake. "Well, Harry, I don't know the answer to
your questions, but I do know that Gryffindor Tower wouldn't be the same."
He seemed flattered. "Really?"
"Yeah, the people in it would actually sleep." I turned, grabbing my
pillow, and stumbled back to my bed, but not before catching the amused
grin on his face.
As I laid down to fall back to sleep (mercifully), I began to wonder about
Harry's idea. I checked on him before closing my curtains, seeing his eyes
closed, sleeping peacefully. I swear, no one can fall asleep faster than
Harry Potter. If he weren't famous already, he'd probably known world wide
as the only wizard who can fall asleep in 2.5 seconds.
The whole notion that Harry would ever become something as dreadful as
Malfoy seemed preposterous, but he had once admitted that the Sorting Hat
had wanted to put him in Slytherin. I frowned. It was a very unnerving
idea, all in all. Doing my best to push it out of my head, I closed my
eyes and tried to fall asleep. But that's the thing about sleep, isn't it?
Whenever you really need to forget about something and just.sleep, it
won't let you. `
So I laid awake. And wondered about Harry, Draco, and the whole mess in
first year.
That is, until I fell asleep. Then I dreamed about Harry, Draco, and the
whole mess in first year.
~
I looked around, blinking as I realized that I was on the Hogwarts Express,
littered in mounds of candy. On my lap was a rat, which I immediately
recognized to be Peter Pettigrew, or Scabbers, at the time. My first
though was to point my wand and blow that sucker all the way black to his
bloody master, but then realized something. When was the last time this
scenario had played out?
Why, first year of course.
I looked at the boy across to me, and eleven year old Harry Potter. He,
too, was happily eating his candy. It was odd, seeing him five years
younger than what I was used to. I picked up the rat from my lap and
placed him on the seat next to me. I didn't want that foul thing touching
my robes. We were nearing a halt when the door to the compartment flew
open.
Malfoy looked funny as an eleven year old. His hair was styled completely
differently, and though he still had a snotty air, he didn't not have the
powerful conduct over a room that he now carried with him. He was merely a
little boy. I resisted the urge to laugh.
We went through the whole "offering friendship" ordeal, and I watch it
replay before my eyes. It was rather odd, reliving a memory such as this,
and for a moment I expected Harry to reply in the curt manner in which was
the norm. However, I remembered at the last moment Harry's question.
What if he'd taken his hand in friendship?
I watched in horror as Harry smiled and took Malfoy's hand, shaking it
generously. Malfoy was grinning-GRINNING. "Are we going to leave this
Weasel here?"
Harry looked uncertain, his face screwing up like he was about to say "Piss
off, Malfoy", but then he shrugged. "Well, I'd rather not just leave him
all alone.unless it's alright with you, Ron." His boyish face looked
hopeful, and I knew that I had what I had to say.
I managed a weak smile. "Fine with me, Harry. It was nice meeting you."
Malfoy gave an arrogant smirk in my direction, before take Harry's arm and
dragging him away. It was rather weird, losing your best friend that you'd
supposedly barely known.
Reality sunk in. I wasn't going into Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and
Wizardry with a friend this time. Suddenly, I'd changed the course of my
life. Rather odd feeling, actually.
A/N: Heh.I know this has been done a million times, but this fic was
really well received on fictionalley.org, so I figured I'd give it a whirl
here. I don't know what made me do it in Ron's POV, but I figured that
since Harry's his best friend, wouldn't it have a phenomenal affect on him
as well? Well, don't forget to r&r!
The author would like to thank you for your continued support. Your review has been posted.