SINCE THE CONFRONTATION in the Great Hall, Saros hadn't spoken to Angelina, Fred, or George. Instead, he took to distancing himself before he ended up saying the wrong thing and jeopardising any relationship he had. He sure it wasn't the best way to go about things, but Saros found himself rather troubled with how he was meant to proceed with things. Angelina and Fred were right in their own respects, he couldn't expect people to forgive Draco right away. But at the same time, Saros wasn't sure how the others expected anything to change if they weren't going to give out second chances.

Yes, his little brother had many moments where he proved himself to be a bigoted git. However, Draco wasn't going to just change his ways without some support. Saros didn't know if he and Luna would be enough to convince Draco, after years of having loyalty to their parents and their preachings. As big as his mouth could be on some days, Draco did not like confrontation, especially if he was the one being confronted. He liked to hide behind snide remarks, and always had numbers on his side.

It was probably the reason why Draco kept Crabbe and Goyle so close, along with Blaise, Theo, and Pansy around. They were just extra numbers, just in case, someone decided to confront him.

A few days after Fred had stormed off and the others made it clear that they weren't ready to give Draco their support, Saros found himself in the Slytherin dorms, sitting at the end of his bed. He was observing something in his hand when there was a knock at the door.

"Come in," he called out, figuring it had something to do with Head Boy business. It was Draco that poked his head in, clearing his throat and focusing his gaze on the floor.

"Do you have a minute?"

Draco had never been as polite as he had been acting the last several days unless Saros counted the times when their parents were around in the manor. But since Draco made the decision to change, he had become rather quiet. He only spoke to Saros, maybe Luna but only if she prompted him with a question first. And he mostly hid away somewhere in the castle when he wasn't in class.

Saros' dorm room had become a sanctuary for him, especially since Draco did not wish to be confronted by his former friends that were questioning his thought process. Pansy had been the first to ask "what the hell do you think you're doing?" once she noticed what Draco was doing. And when he finally confessed that he believed Saros was on the right path, he found himself alone. His friends that had once been at his beck and call wouldn't even look in his direction in the classrooms or the corridors.

The silent treatment, Saros knew it all too well. It was the same cycle that all prejudiced pureblooded families liked to pull when someone began wavering in their beliefs. Saros only prayed that Draco would be strong enough to withstand it.

With a nod of his head, Saros invited his brother in the room. Draco quickly took the invitation and hurried inside, closing the door behind him as if something were chasing after him. However, as Draco stood by the door, he took note of what was resting in Saros' hand at the moment.

Several dried out papaya seeds sat in the centre of his hand, looking more like little rat droppings. Draco wasn't going to tell him that though. Instead, he walked over and sat beside Saros on the edge of the bed.

"I can't bring myself to throw these things away," Saros said after a moment of silence, " I have no idea what the significance is, but I just know they're important to me. Brings me comfort to just hold them in my hand. Sad, isn't it?"

Draco didn't say anything right away, only observing quietly as Saros continued to stare at the seeds. There was a faint smile on his face before he let out a small sigh and then returned the seeds to an envelope. He tucked them into the drawer of his nightstand before turning his full attention to Draco.

"How are you doing? Are you alright? I know it's been a rough few days for you. Don't listen to the likes of Pansy and the others. They're just a bunch of sheep reciting the words of their parents-"

"They're not talking to you because of me," Draco interjected, leaving his brother to fall silent. " Angelina, the twins, you haven't spoken to them in days and it's because of me."

"Wh- no, it's not like that-" Saros attempted to word it in a way that didn't seem like Draco was to blame. " It's complicated, Draco. But even if they haven't reached out to me, I haven't exactly reached out to them either. I need some time to myself, I'm still recovering with memories coming back to me. It's best to limit my stress as Luna says."

"But I'm the cause of that stress. They don't want to talk to you because of me. I'm not stupid, I know they think I'm up to something."

"Well, are you?"

Draco was caught off guard by his brother's sudden question, but he quickly responded with a shake of his head. "No, I'm trying!"

"Draco, this isn't a matter of trying," Saros said. "Either you believe that our former beliefs were wrong or you still believe they are right. You have to come to the realisation on your own if you haven't already. The things you've said in the past, they weren't right and it hurt people. People like the Weasley family and Hermione Granger. They took offence to that, do you understand why?"

"Yes, but I was trying to say that I'm trying to make things better!" he told Saros. "But I don't know how. I want to believe that I'm on the right path like you said, but now I feel like everyone hates me. Except you and...Loon...Lovegood."

"Luna, call her Luna."

"Whatever, I thought that when I followed you that...that things would be different. They're not going to forgive me, so what's the point?"

"The point?" Saros raised a brow. "The point, Draco, is that you're doing the right thing. You're not discriminating against a population for something that is no fault of their own. You're not doing it to get people to like you. You're not entitled to forgiveness. It would be nice if those who you hurt did forgive you, but you are not entitled to it. But I would hope that if your heart is in the right place, that the others would offer you a second chance. Because if there isn't a chance to be seen different, I don't see others that were once in our shoes following in our steps."

An awkward silence fell over them again before Saros glanced over at Draco to see the frown.

The turmoil on Draco's face brought forth another memory, one finally involving Angelina. It was back when Saros and the other students had been anxiously awaiting the results of who would be the selected champions of the Triwizard Tournament. Once Saros' name had been called, he had been greeted initially with nothing but silence, feeling quite alone in that moment. He remembered Draco pushing him up to his feet and then there was clapping.

It didn't come from the Slytherin table, but from Gryffindor, as he spotted Angelina standing up and clapping her hands in applause. She had a smile on her face and she looked so damn proud of him.  And shortly after, Luna jumped up to join in. That had been one of the turning points for Saros because after that he didn't feel alone.

"You don't need the entire school on your side, Draco," Saros reassured him, " support will come. You have some now, Luna and I are here for you. Others will eventually see what you're doing too. Just give it more time. Now, I don't think you came here to be lectured by me, so what did you want to talk about?"

"Uh well, I was going to tell you that there are Quidditch tryouts today."

Suddenly, Saros was feeling quite excited after Draco's little announcement. He knew the tryouts had been coming out as he had spoken to Angelina about them a little while ago. However, the excitement quickly turned into nerves as he glanced down at his legs.

"Oh, I don't know if I should-"

"You're joking, right?" Draco scoffed with a roll of his eyes. "You flew like a pro over the summer and now you're going to act like you can't do it? Get over yourself, Saros. You're going to go out there and do great. Your leg hasn't stopped you from doing anything before, why do you think it's going to stop you now? You were a Triwizard Tournament Champion. You won the damn thing, despite what anyone says!"

Saros didn't have any time to argue as Draco pushed him up to his feet and began pushing him towards the door.

"Let's go!"

Speaking of Quidditch, Angelina found herself fretting over her own tryouts that would be taking place later on that evening. Oliver Wood had left quite the legacy behind for the Gryffindor team and she wanted to make sure that she would keep leading the team to victory. However, they were down a fine Keeper, and if Harry didn't stop getting in trouble with Umbridge, she was going to be out a Seeker as well. She could always rely on the twins as Beaters, along with Katie and Alicia to be her fellow Chasers, but a good Keeper was a key to winning.

She heard about a few fellow Gryffindors showing up to the tryouts but she wasn't sure how it was going to go. At such a time, she wanted to rant to Saros because he was usually able to make her laugh or offer some words of comfort. However, they hadn't spoken since the little spat in the Great Hall involving Fred and George. Truth be told, she didn't know what to say to Saros after it all went down.

She wanted to be there for him, but part of her was paranoid that Draco's intentions to be "good" weren't as innocent as it appeared. The Malfoys had proved over the summer to be manipulators and Draco having a sudden change of heart didn't seem likely. Of course, Saros wanted to give his little brother the benefit of the doubt, blinded by the love for his family. The same love that kept him from testifying against his own father, even though he remembered the events of that night.

"There's our favourite captain!"

Looking up, Angelina was greeted by Fred and George, who took their seats across from her at the table.

"Shouldn't you two be selling products behind my back?" she questioned.

"Well, that's no way to greet us," George said, crossing his arms over his chest and looking away, slightly offended.

"And besides," Fred interjected, " we sell them behind Hermione's back, not yours."

"You two forget, I'm Head Girl, anything else you'd like to say?"

The twins exchanged glances with one another before shaking their heads.

"Yeah, that's what I thought," she said, " but now that I got you here, have either one of you spoken to Saros lately?"

"No," Fred replied, " don't plan on it if he's going to shoving Draco at us. He's mental if he thinks we're going to best friends with him."

"Don't flatter yourself, Weasley."

To their surprise, the group looked up to see Draco standing off to the side. He looked annoyed, more than likely due to overhearing what Fred had said.

"What do you want, Malfoy?" Fred sneered at him.

"I don't want anything from you," Draco told him, "I didn't even come to talk to you. I came to talk to her."

All eyes were suddenly on Angelina. "What did you want to talk about?"

"Saros," he said, " I just dragged him to the Quidditch pitch for Slytherin tryouts, but he's nervous. He overthinks about his leg and now he thinks he's not good enough to make the team. But I know he can. I've seen him fly and he's better than any of you, he just doesn't believe that. So, for his sake, could you go show him support?"