"Um... Malfoy?" Harry questioned quietly. "What are you doing?"

The sudden affectionate gesture certainly wasn't expected. Harry was having a difficult time figuring out if Malfoy was being serious or not. It was becoming hard to tell lately.

Draco felt Harry release the grip on his arm. He knew the boy was just standing there, not knowing what to do. And now, of all times. "Resting against you," Draco muttered against Harry's shoulder. His arms snaked up around the Gryffindor's neck, so that he wouldn't feel so awkward just standing there.

"Ok, well I think that's enough," Harry said, sounding confused and a little uneasy.

"You can get me to stop. I won't stop you," Draco replied lightly.

So Harry did. He lifted up his arms to wrap his hands around Draco's. From there he gently pulled the Slytherin's arms off from around him. Draco let him do so without a fight; he was feeling quite tired, and he really didn't care what Harry did at this point.

"Do you really want to help me?" Draco asked quietly. He hadn't moved away when Harry made sure they weren't physically touching anymore, but let his gaze fall to the floor. "Or is this still about my father?"

Harry watched him carefully, his eyebrows furrowing. "Well, I guess... he can wait."

Draco appeared to laugh softly, but it was hardly audible. "A Death Eater can wait? I don't remember you ever caring about me before he escaped from prison, Potter."

"Everyone's noticed that you look more sick than normal. Less like yourself. Someone needs to care, and even though I'd really... well, enjoy catching your father..."

"Right," Draco said shortly. "Well that's expected, but my house hasn't noticed."

Harry shrugged. "I don't know what to say about that, but the Gryffindors have." Harry bit his lip, thinking hard about something. It seemed to take a while, so he must've thought this decision to help Draco was complicated. "I can try and believe that Lucius isn't the cause of you being like this, since you said he wasn't. But I don't know what else would've done that to you in the forest."

Draco looked up at Harry, hands slipping into his pockets. He needed something to distract himself from looking or speaking directly at Potter. "Good."

"Was it Blaise?" Harry asked hesitantly.

Draco shook his head. "No."

"Then what...?"

"I don't know what he was doing just now. Just drop it. You want to help me . I don't want to bring anyone else into this."

"But finding out who did this will make it easier, so nothing'll happen again!"

"I don't want anyone else in this." Draco's eyes narrowed. "I can easily change my mind about trusting you, you know."

Harry sighed heavily. "Fine."

They stood there for a few more minutes in silence, before Draco spoke up so loudly that it caused Harry to jump. "So," he started, "Why don't you tell me why you were in the dungeons to begin with? Spying on me, were you?"

"No! I was just... you know, because of last time..."

"You wanted to make sure you didn't have to drag me out of the forest again?"

Harry shrugged, blushing a slight shade of red. Luckily, not much could be seen in the hallway. "Yeah, I guess so... and I wasn't expecting to find you like that."

"Well you could've left me there. I wouldn't have been surprised or offended."

"If you saw me laying like that in the forest, you'd probably want to do something too, even if it was me."

"I wouldn't bet your life on that," Draco said quickly. Harry glared.

Yet, he instantly tried to change the subject. "So if you won't tell me who did it, can you at least tell me what happened?"

"I think you know what happened," Draco muttered, "After all, you keep on asking 'who did it.' You must know what the 'it' is." He looked up at Harry for a moment, before walking past him and toward the wall. It was darker there, and he'd prefer not to have Harry looking at him the entire time they had this conversation. Sighing, he leaned his back against it, looking down again.

Harry had followed him over, "Well, I can tell you what I think. Will you let me know if I'm right?" The boy ran a restless hand through his hair while he glanced over at Draco.

"No. If I want to tell you, I'll just say it."

"You're really making this difficult for me."

"You're the one who wanted to take the challenge of trying to help me. So deal with it."

Harry glared again, and Draco knew he was getting on his nerves. But he didn't quite care either. They were having a civil enough conversation, and that was a first for the both of them. He just hoped that Harry would keep all of this to himself, unlike before.

"You won't be telling Weasley and Granger any of this," he stated plainly.

"They wouldn't believe me anyway," Harry said.

"I don't care. Don't tell them even if you know they'll keep it a secret."

"Fine."

Draco frowned. This was getting a bit frustrating. Working with Potter now seemed to be harder than he thought. Then again, he wasn't used to getting help from someone like him, let alone anyone. Maybe he had to get used to it. Or maybe he was doing the wrong thing.

"I have to go now." Draco pushed himself away from the wall, watching Harry as if waiting to be excused. The boy only looked at him with a blank expression.

"Ok, see you sometime soon, then..." Harry mumbled.

Draco nodded, "Sure." Then he turned around and started walking back toward the dungeons. He heard footsteps going in the opposite direction behind him.

That was definitely interesting.

Draco didn't even notice that he wasn't worrying about anything else, other than how he was going to go about getting this 'help' from the savior of the school.