What if?

"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 my pillow 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 sat up, and for a few moments we sat in silence. This is usually what we did after he had a nightmare, but I hadn't heard his 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 question. 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 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 fowl thing touching me 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. 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.