This is it! I still own nothing. Not Harry Potter, not the song lyrics I used- I hope you notice the pattern- not the various allusions. Please tell me someone noticed the Kafka references. Anyway! Enjoy, and thank you for sharing the ride with me.

Morning light filtered through clean windows. Harry and Malfoy had been moved back to Hogwarts, to the Hospital Wing. Harry had never thought he would appreciate being in the Hospital Wing, but as Madame Pomfrey bustled around them, clucking her tongue at the Ministry's poor handling of them, Harry suddenly knew he was home.

"Treating you like- like-" Madame Pomfrey seemed to be unable to finish her thought in her disgusted distress, and bustled off.

Malfoy noticed Harry watching him. "Like a dog," he finished quietly, although Madame Pomfrey was not within earshot.

Harry frowned, thinking of Sirius. He'd never gotten a trial, but he hadn't endured what the Ministry had put Malfoy through. "Dogs deserve better," he managed.

After that, they mostly tried not to talk about the Ministry. Of course, that was made difficult by the fact that several Ministry employees worked at their school. A few days later, Essen Tod stood up at the beginning of dinner to make an announcement.

"If you remember, the Ministry has declared a competition to name the war," she started. Harry hadn't remembered, but he thought that was excusable, all things considered. "Previously, entries were to be submitted with the contenders' names. However, the Ministry has decided that from now on, all entries will be anonymous. Thank you."

The Hall was buzzing. Harry couldn't help but grin as he saw Hermione gesticulating wildly as she explained the connotations of this change, and grinned wider when he saw Ron watching her fondly. It was nice to see the Ministry taking steps to become a bit more impartial in judging. Also, he was proud of his Head of House for making an entire public address without stammering.

Glancing across the Hall, Harry noticed that Malfoy seemed stunned, and his smile faltered. It was a bit unnerving to see the Ministry make such a quick turnaround. And it seemed a bit unfair that the Ministry would do something good, now, because that meant people would praise them. Despite them making a step in the right direction, the Ministry didn't seem very worthy of honor to Harry.

He realized he was halfway across the Hall to the Slytherin table. Dinner wasn't over, although people were starting to leave, Ron and Hermione included. They glanced at him, and continued, unconcerned. When had this become normal? For his presence among the Slytherins to be so natural no one thought anything of it?

Harry sat down across from Malfoy. He didn't know how to ask for his thoughts on the change, but luckily he didn't have to: it was already the talk of the table.

Harry tried to follow, but for once the Slytherins were excited and talking quickly. He looked to Malfoy. "How did that happen?" he asked. He hadn't meant to, but quickly realized that that question really was the crux of the matter; he had no idea why the Ministry would do such a thing.

"It was her," Malfoy said.

"Who, Tod?"

At Malfoy's nod, Harry fell silent for a moment. It was true that she'd changed a lot since the beginning of the year, but he hadn't known she was able or wanted to effect legislative change. "How did she…?"

"Tod has a history of leading the Ministry," Malfoy began. His eyes said that he still couldn't believe this was happening. "The last time she took charge, she had everyone who agreed with any of Voldemort's views arrested."

Harry frowned a little. While Voldemort was undeniably evil and should not, in general, be agreed with, he'd at least known that some Muggles were not kind to magical children. Harry also knew that, and wondered if that counted as agreeing. It was a stretch, so it might not. And it might have been good for the wizarding community to weed out those who agreed with his more extremist views, so why-

Malfoy must have seen the question in his face. "She started with her own family."

Oh.

"To be fair," Malfoy said, almost hastily, "her family was raising her to be a Death Eater, and sending in donations. But it gave her a rather ruthless reputation."

Harry was quiet for another minute. "I guess she's changed." That's what they'd wanted, right? For people to see that their bias was incorrect, and get over themselves?

"One person has changed," Malfoy agreed, and it felt heavy and solemn, not enough. But then he smiled- a real smile, and Harry knew that if Malfoy could smile, the world could change.

Harry ended up at the Slytherin common room, somehow. He'd meant to go to Gryffindor Tower, but figured it wouldn't hurt to stay for a few minutes. Malfoy was asking him about when he'd tried to send his wand- one more thing Harry had temporarily forgotten about, and then they were looking at tracking spells that may or may not work, and then Harry realized that while he had time before curfew, he had to travel from the lowest point in the school to one of the highest points in the school, and should probably start that journey.

Harry said his goodbyes and pushed open the door, but before he could go through it, something else came in.

It was an owl. Harry wished he had a camera; the Slytherins all looked shocked. Since they slept so far underground, and had no windows, Harry could guess that owls in the common room were not a common occurrence.

The owl fluttered over to Malfoy, and Harry followed, his plans of giving himself enough time forgotten.

Malfoy took the small box the owl offered him, and shook it lightly, seemingly bewildered. When he opened it, Harry could understand why- all it contained was a sheet of parchment. Then the paper came to life, crinkling into a perfect wafer-thin butterfly. The quaver of its wings somehow brought it to hover before Malfoy, who was starting to smile. Then the wings unfolded, and Harry was sure parchment didn't fold like that, but somehow Malfoy was left with an unwrinkled page.

Harry and the Slytherins watched as Malfoy read his letter, which still hung suspended in front of him. Finally, Malfoy sighed.

"They're shortening the length of Mother's house arrest," he told them, somewhat absently, as he began writing a reply.

Harry wasn't sure if he'd heard right; he hadn't heard anything about Narcissa Malfoy being under house arrest. A glance at the Slytherins confirmed that they were just as surprised as he was.

"Something you forgot to tell us?" Pansy asked wryly.

"No?" Malfoy blinked up at them, confused, then his eyes widened abruptly. "Maybe?"

Everyone sighed then, and muttered, but nobody was pushing Malfoy to share anything when it was so late.

Harry suddenly remembered that he had been going, and repeated the process of getting up and opening the door. This time, the owl flew out with him.

As Harry watched the owl spiral higher faster than he could climb the staircases, he wondered if Malfoy's previous omission had been intentional, or if he'd actually forgotten to share the news. Either way, it was nice to know he was as mortal as the rest of them. And that he trusted them (now, anyway) enough to be relaxed enough to casually spill secrets.

It wasn't until breakfast the next morning that Harry realized exactly what he had seen. What Narcissa had sent looked a lot like what Neville had described- paperflies?

It seemed some of the old traditions were coming back. Harry decided he liked it.

He liked it even more when, glancing down the Gryffindor table, he noticed Ginny had somehow grafted a live flower onto her headband. The white petals were bright against her hair. She noticed him staring and grinned at him.

Harry grinned back, then looked away before he managed to embarrass himself.

He noticed several others, including the Slytherins, admire her achievement. Hopefully the idea would spread.

There was time between breakfast and his first class, so Harry fell in step next to Malfoy, despite not knowing where he was headed. Malfoy glanced at him and immediately began talking.

"I was thinking about that binding spell," Malfoy said. He almost blurted it out, it was so sudden. But then he said nothing, leaving Harry to wonder.

"And?"

"And how we moved it, how it moved itself." For something he'd wanted to say so badly, he wasn't saying much.

"What about it?"

"Well…" It was unusual for Malfoy to be this tentative. "What if the curse on the Sorting Hat is sort of like that?"

"You mean, we just have to convince it to move, not break it."

"Exactly, I don't know if it will work, but-"

"You don't know it won't," Harry said firmly. "Bill's coming next week, right?"

Malfoy nodded, at peace now that he had shared his idea.

"So, what, we would need something else to move the curse onto?" Harry thought aloud. "Would it have to be something technically capable of making choices?"

"Ask Bill," Malfoy suggested, apparently done speculating about the curse for the moment.

They walked in comfortable silence for a ways.

"Where are we going, anyway?" Harry asked.

"No idea," Malfoy replied.

Harry laughed, and Malfoy did too.

Then Harry stopped. In fact, his whole world seemed to stop. How had he not seen this sooner?

"I just realized," he said to Malfoy. "We're friends."

Malfoy nodded cautiously, not seeming to know what to do with a Harry that was staring blankly ahead.

Harry groaned and sank to his knees. "You have to tell me these things, I don't notice them until it's too late…"

"Well," Malfoy said, tentatively. "Like you said. It's too late."

Harry looked up at him. He was extending his hand.

"Yeah," Harry agreed, and took his hand. "It is."

Chapter word count: 1634

Story word count: 50031

It's... over?

I will always be curious as to what you think. Please, no matter when you read this, leave a review! If you put a * in it I'll PM you. I'd love to talk about this and Harry Potter! Anyway... THANK YOU, and goodbye.