"I can't believe that git actually saved Hermione," said Fred Weasely.
"That means he touched her. Ha! I wish I had seen the look on his face when he realized that he was holding on to a Muggle-born," George replied, sending his brother into fits of laughter.
"The little ferret probably went crying to his Daddy saying that he is unclean now!"
"Excuse me." The drawling voice of Draco Malfoy quieted the Weasely's laughter in a heartbeat. "You seem to be speaking about me. I would like to assure you that I am, in fact, attempting to be sociable with the insufferable trash that Granger enjoys to associate herself with. You attempting to make fun of me isn't really helping me much. Be very glad that there isn't anyone else around, because believe me, if there were, you two would not get off as easy. Have a nice day gentlemen, and please refrain from calling me a ferret. It is unbecoming to the two of you."
Fred and George just gawked at Malfoy and the flying books behind him as he walked into the Hospital Wing for the second time that day.
"Hermione, you surely must realize that Malfoy is still a git. Just because he happened to save your life doesn't mean that you should continue to cry over him. He's a Slytherin, for Merlin's sake. Think of all the times he has made your life a living hell. Saving you somehow helped him out; otherwise he wouldn't have done it. You've got to realize that, Hermione. The sooner you do, the sooner you can help me with my Astronomy homework."
"Ron, I can't just stop thinking about the person that saved my life. Maybe he didn't have an ulterior motive for saving me. Maybe he just did it out of the goodness of his heart, however small of an amount that may be."
"Oh, please! If the git actually did have a heart, I don't think that there would be any goodness in there at all!"
"Thank you for your faith in me, Potter. It just makes me feel so much better that you think so kindly of me since I did save the resident know-it-all from a painful death that even the 'Great Harry Potter' should flinch at," Malfoy butted into the conversation. It seemed to him that everyone was talking bad about him these days. Little did he know that this was an everyday occurrence, he just happened to be walking in on them a lot more than usual.
"What are you doing here, Malfoy? Did you come to gloat on how we would be no where without your help? Did you come to see if you could get something out of saving Hermione? Well, you can just leave, because we don't have anything to say to you!" Ron turned around quickly to face the opposite direction. He tripped over his own two feet and almost fell flat on his face, but ended up catching himself just in time.
Malfoy held back a laugh. "No, Weasely, my intentions are not that ill. I just came to give Granger her books. McGonagall told me to get them for her. Besides, I only have a small request that shouldn't take too much effort on your part. It kills me to ask you this, because, well, as you said, I'm a Slytherin, and Slytherins don't ask for anything from a Gryffindor."
"Just hurry up and ask, Malfoy. The sooner you do, the sooner we can get out of here and forget this whole thing ever happened," Harry pressured.
"Fine, I'll ask. Don't get your knickers in a twist. The other Slytherins aren't taking to well to the idea that I saved a Mudblood. Sorry, Muggle-born. Because of this, everyone has turned against me. Even Crabbe and Goyle, who I thought had pudding for brains, have refused to speak to me. That's why I've been holed up in here for days.
"My father received word of what happened and has told me to not bother coming home during Christmas break and over the summer holidays. He says that I am a disgrace to the Malfoy name. He has disowned me for saving you, Granger. At this point, I have nothing. I have no friends, no family, and no inheritance. I'm on my own. All I ask of you is… well… to umm… be my friends? I mean, I don't want you to include me in everything that you do. I just want you to… well… you know… help me out with this little rough patch that I'm having."
Malfoy looked down at the ground. He was beating himself up for laying his heart out for the Gryffindors to see. He glanced up at their faces as he tried to gauge their reactions. Harry had a look on his face that said, 'Why does he want to be friends with us?' Ron's face said, 'What the hell?' He looked at Hermione. Her face said, 'I'm asleep,' and indeed she was.
After a minute's pause, Harry decided to address the asker. "Malfoy, you do realize that we are going to have to think about this. We can't just agree to something without talking it over. We will consider your request. We will give you an answer as soon as we talk to Hermione about it. She's the one that will have to most say on this. It's up to her really."