Tiniest Wish: Unsettling Information, Part 25.
Rating: G
Summary: Severus has made big changes in our little waif's life, but as they are both about to discover, changes aren't always comfortable. Italics – flashback. [Brackets and italics indicate cut and pastes from COS.
Finishing quickly, he leaned back into his pillows, and closed his eyes
to enjoy a moment of relaxation before the day's events, in which he would
likely have no chance to relax at all. He knew that accepting the Malfoys' offer
to join them for their annual school shopping trip would mean tolerating the
antics of both Narcissa and Miss Tonks as the young lady had been invited
to several 'family' activities since Harry's birthday. The thought had been
trying enough, as Severus had no idea what to make of the young woman,
who had presumptuously accepted a proposal that he had not even tendered,
yet, and on the basis of less than an hour's familiarity. Harry's bright smile
at the invitation had been irrefutable, however, so Severus reluctantly agreed...
Part 25
Harry dug his heels in as an overdressed blond wizard, wearing gilt edged robes in forget-me-not blue with a matching pointed hat that reminded Harry rather of a dunce cap with bouncing gold tassels, grabbed his arm and began pulling him toward a table that Harry had just spotted. The table was surrounded by large pictures of the wizard with broad bright, spurious smiles of the sort that reminded Harry of the way his cousin would flash a roughly acceptable, brace straightened, and bleach whitened smile when he knew that his smile was likely to be more impressive than anything he could say. Dudley showed his teeth off a lot. Apparently the wizard liked to as well because his portraits seemed to be engaged in out posing each other – all winking- as they flashed ludicrously bright, almost iridescent smiles.
"Tut, Tut, Harry." The blonde wizard chastised lightly. "Readers will love a bashful hero, but will rarely forgive a reluctant hero who seems to drag his heels at the prospect of meeting them."
The foppish wizard chattered in Harry's ear as he continued to pull Harry toward the table where a [short irritable man was dancing around the photographs with a large black camera that emitted puffs of purple smoke with every blinding flash.
"Sir, I hardly know what you are talking about." Harry countered in a voice that was a shade to irritated to sound properly slytherin.
Harry knew that he shouldn't let the man's behavior break his composure, but he really really didn't like being drug around like this. His uncle used to a to it a lot, and it never ended well for him. He really didn't like being pulled around at all.
"The cameras, Harry, the press. With you in the shot... with us, it's bound to make the front page."
A table of books nearby shuddered convulsively and dropped several books to the floor, but the blond fop took no notice as he stepped around behind Harry and caught Harry's other shoulder with his free hand, then tried to push Harry toward the table. This time it took Harry several steps before he was able to put enough weight behind his stance to stop their forward progress.
"Now, Now, Harry." The vexing wizard's voice became more imperative as he realized that several of his more impatient readers were beginning to notice and recognize Harry.
["It can't be Harry Potter?" one positively shouted and [the crowd parted, whispering excitedly; the wizard seized Harry's arm, and pulled him to the front. The crowd burst into applause. Harry's face burned as the wizard shook his hand for the photographer, who was clicking away madly, wafting thick smoke.
["Nice big smile, Harry." said the wizard, through his own gleaming teeth. "Celebrity is as celebrity does, and we certainly don't want your adoring public to think that you're ungrateful of their attentions.
Harry almost relented at that suggestion; he really didn't want anyone who had attended his birthday party to think he wasn't happy that they had come or that now he was being snobbish. But, as the wizard finally let go, only to throw his arm around Harry's shoulders and clamp him tightly into his side, that concern evaporated. Hadn't he just spent a whole week writing personal 'thank you' notes to everyone who had attended his birthday, at Lady Malfoy's insistence, of course, but also with the help of the small personality file that she had given him as a secondary present. The file had listed pertinent details about each of the guests who had attended his birthday, even down to a mention of what parties or meetings they had canceled out of to attend his (though Harry hadn't mentioned any thing like that in his notes), and he had studied each expandable notecard carefully before writing that guest's thank you note, so there was no reason to think that any of them felt left out. That was just another of the sort of insults that his uncle used to use.
The nearby table jumped with an odd tremor before spilling the entire stake of books on the floor, but again the exasperating wizard failed to take notice. This time, his attention was focused on his audience as he waved his free hand for silence.
["Ladies and Gentlemen," he said loudly, waving for quiet."What an extraordinary moment this is! The perfect moment for me to make a little announcement I've been sitting on for some time!"
"When young Harry here stepped into Flourish and Blotts today, he only wanted to buy my autobiography – which I shall be happy to present him, now free of charge --" The crowd applauded again. "He had no idea," the wizard continued, giving Harry a little shake that made his glasses slip to the end of his nose,"that he would shortly be getting much more than my book, Magical Me. He and his schoolmates will, in fact, be getting the real magical me.Yes, Ladies and Gentlemen, I have the great pleasure and pride in announcing that this September, I will be taking up the post of Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry!"
The crowd cheered and clapped and Harry found himself being presented with the Entire Works of Gilderoy Lockhart. Staggering slightly under the weight, he managed to make his way out of the limelight to the edge of the room, where a red-headed girl, who looked somewhat familiar, was standing next to her new cauldron.
"You have these," Harry mumbled to her, tipping the books into the cauldron. "I'll buy my own."
"Bet you loved that, didn't you, Potter?" said a voice Harry had no trouble recognizing. He straightened up and found himself face-to-face with Ronald Weasley, who was wearing the same heavy brown robes and cloak that Harry had seen him in at King's Cross when the Durmstrang Train had arrived just a few moments after the Hogwart's express.
"The Famous Harry Potter... Can't even go into a bookshop without making the front page.
"Leave him alone, he didn't want all that." Millicent growled as she and Draco came down the
steps from the upper balcony.
"Potter, you've got yourself a girlfriend!" Ron snarled with a tone of disgust then laughed harshly as her face flushed a brilliant crimson as Hermione Granger and Neville Longbottom broke away from the grasping crowds, both carrying wobbly stacks of Lockhart's books. He looked at Draco as if he were something unpleasant on the sole of his shoe and challenged. "Bet you're surprised, Malfoy, to see me here, eh?"
"Not as surprised as I am to see you in a shop," retorted Malfoy, "I suppose your parents will go hungry for a month to pay for all those." Draco's gesture took in to the two thick stacks of Durmstrang texts that Weasley was carrying as well as the thick brown robes and beaver fur cap that his sister was wearing.
Ron and Ginny flushed alarming shades of scarlet. Ron dropped their books into the cauldron, too, and started toward Draco, but Hermione and Neville caught the back of his cloak and pulled hard enough to pull him off balance causing him to land on his seat on the floor. While Draco and Millicent laughed openly at the red-faced and humiliated former Gryffindor, Harry felt he had been in a similar position to many times and couldn't find the humor. He offered his hand down to Ron, who looked at it oddly, then looked him up and down, noticing for the first time, the small French gorget that Harry wore almost constantly, now. When his eyes settled on the collar that Severus had shrunk for him until it looked like little more than an ornate men's necklace, they narrowed at the sight of the twisted snake on the Prince family crest.
"I don't need help from a snake." Ron snarled practically smacking his hand away.
Sighing in frustration, Harry nodded to Hermione and Neville and murmured his thanks before turning back to Draco.
"Let's go find your mum, Draco." Harry requested quietly, sorry that he suite mates had been drug into another unpleasant conflict because of him.
"Sure, Harry. We can come back after lunch." Draco gestured for Millicent to proceed up the stairs ahead of him. He scowled lightly when Harry gestured for him to move up next, but recognized the wisdom of it. Even a hot-head like Ronald Weasley wasn't as likely to take a public pot-shot at the boy-who-lived when he was retreating and had his back turned.
What they all had failed to take into account, however, was Ronald's sister, who had not yet even spoken. Grabbing her cauldron handle, with all of the strength that she had built up helping her mother and simply surviving in a family with six brothers, Ginevra Weasley flung the cauldron packed with the entire set of Lockhart's works, and both heavy sets of their Durmstrang text books – directly at the back of Harry's head just as he turned to follow Draco up.
"Gin!" "Protego!" "Carpe Lo!" Ron, Hermione, and Neville cried out simultaneously, causing Draco and Millicent to spin on their respective steps and cry out a warning to their friend.
"Petrificus Totalus," Lord Malfoy's voice rang out last, freezing Ron's sister – still wearing a vindictive grimace with her arm still extended from throwing the cauldron.
"Well," Lord Malfoy murmured as he took the steps with a quick gait that somehow looked slow and regal as he descended, commenting "Well," as he reached the middle stair, and again as he range the bottom stair, "Well...What do I see here?"
Stepping around Harry, who had turned and was staring at the frozen cauldron with shock, Lucius studied the cauldron for a moment before scanning his eyes across the scene again.
"Quite a lively, if somewhat one-sided, exchange. Let me see. My Son and Heir, Draco; Young Lord Potter; and Young Miss Bulstrode, I am –of course– familiar with, then we have Young Lord Longbottom, of whom I have a passing acquaintance with, and... hmmm..." he paused as he circled Hermione, who was staring at him defiantly as he studied her with frank appraisal.
"Untameable hair, an unbefittingly forward manner, and an indelicate desire to prove yourself the superior in all acquaintances... A word to the wise, Miss Granger: it has rarely been my experience to find a know-it-all even worth knowing."
Ignoring her wounded expression, Draco's father stepped past her to consider Ron and his sister.
"Which leaves... hmm... Red hair, brutish manners, and an apparent proclivity for unprovoked violence... clearly, we must be in the presence of Weasleys. Accio Durmstrang text."
Flipping through the text for several seconds, Lord Malfoy seemed to pause at points, read a passage, then shake his head in a condescending way before he finally snapped the book shut and held it out to Ron, who had climbed to his feet and was watching Draco's father with a look that was a mixture of shame and loathing.
"Your father has put in quite a large amount of overtime and has exchanged a fair number of favors to secure an alternative education for yourself and your sister; it really wouldn't do for a scene like this to proceed your arrival at Durmstrang." Malfoy threatened quietly as he pushed the text into the redhead's hand. "You might consider the repercussions of that and remind your sister of that as well. Regardless of your true loyalties, in the current political climate, it would be advisable to present even a pretense of supporting the Boy Who Lived – if only for the sake of your father's continued employment. Finite Incantatem."
The red-haired witch suddenly jerked as she was released from the spell and glared at Malfoy, obviously uncomfortable at finding the wizard so close, before she turned back to Harry and snarled, "We don't need charity from some death eater wannabe, Potter, so keep your bloody books. Bet your mum's just rollin' over in her grave at how you turned out –"
Whatever else she might have said was silenced when Hermione closed the distance between them and struck her a resounding slap that rocked her back a step. Her eyes were on Ron though as she chastised the younger witch, "You don't even know Harry, and have no right to be so cruel."
A soft uncomfortable silence seemed to settle over the children, and Harry shifted awkwardly not knowing what to say and terribly disturbed by the entire event.
"Crude, but effective, Miss Granger. Boys, Miss Bulstrode, I believe the remainder of our party are waiting for us at Florean Fortescue's." Lord Malfoy gestured for them to continue up the stairs ahead of him, but remained where he stood commenting, "Let Narcissa know that I will join you momentarily, after I have a brief discussion with a certain set of overly lenient parents."
"Sir..." Harry hesitated before leaving the stairs to join to Draco's father. "Do you really have to talk to Mr. and Mrs. Weasley? I would prefer to..."
"What? Let it pass?" Lucius asked him with flare of something in his gaze that almost frightened Harry.
"No, Sir," Harry rushed to answer. In the Slytherin House, as well as during Lord Malfoy's and even Millicent's tutorials, it had been drilled into Harry that in the Magical community, a wizard's reputation was incredibly critical, carefully built, and fiercely guarded. A slight or slur to one's reputation, particularly a slight made in public, was to be dealt with harshly. "No, Sir, but not draw more attention and perhaps rumor to the fact that it was said by approaching them in public. Wouldn't it be better for me to ask Professor Snape, as my guardian to arrange a private meeting instead of broaching it not very far from a bunch of people and a reporter?"
Following Harry's gaze to the curious row of people still waiting for Lockhart's signature and the reporter, who was now wandering around the bookstore taking aimless shots anything that caught his interest, Lord Malfoy nodded abruptly.
"An astute observation, Lord Potter. Very well. I will wish to attend this meeting, however."
"Yes, Sir."
"Now, if we may adjourn. I am not entirely certain that Narcissa or your father would be as content to let matters be delayed."
"My father?" Harry stared up at him with a look of shock.
"Have you forgotten the guardianship agreement so quickly?"
"No, but doesn't that just make him my guardian until..." Harry asked uncertainly, but not without clear tinges of excitement and hope coloring his tone.
"Until your meeting at the conclusion of the year, yes; however, based on your response to the announcement of it, I had presumed that you were quite amenable to the prospect."
"I am!" Harry assured him with an exuberant nod.
"And... you have seemed content with his care to date?"
"I am!"
"Then, I see no reason to predict that within a year's time, you will suddenly decide that you wish to return to your uncle's care and reject the Professor's offer of adoption."
"But, what about the court? I can't just say that I want it and have them agree to it, can I?"
"Harry, that is exactly what will happen." Lucius explained with amusement as he watched the variety of expressions crossing the other children's faces. "Severus has already testified under veritaserum to his good intent and has taken an unbreakable oath to stating that he will never knowingly or willingly act counter to your best interests. All that remains is the traditional 'trial period' that will allow you to judge his care as a guardian and decide if you wish to accept his offer."
"I know that now!" Harry burbled in a rush. "Can't I just tell them now? I've been in his care for a year already. I know what I want."
"But, not as his ward; and a year is such a little time to wait."
Harry seemed about to protest, thinking that a year was actually quite a lot of time, but decided from the looks that Millicent and Draco were giving him that there had already been more than enough discussed in public.
"Yes, Sir. Thank you for explaining that."
"You are quite welcome. Now, as I believe I mentioned, Narcissa and your father are waiting for us."
"Yes, Sir." Harry answered having suddenly forgotten the entire unpleasant experience in the bookshop as his thoughts were overwhelmed at the prospect that Severus was his father because there was no way that Harry wasn't going to say "yes". He had a father.
The thought was so much on his mind that he was hardly aware of taking the steps back up to the street level where Millicent and Draco were waiting for him. When he reached them, his excitement overtook his common sense, and he chirped, "Did you hear that? I have a father."
The red-haired witch, on the level below, wasn't quite finished with Harry though, and yelled in response, "You already had a father, Potter, and guess what he hated Snape. They were enemies everyone knows that; Snape hated your mum and your dad, too. Even fought against them in the war and on the wrong side, too. He's probably the reason they're dead in the first place. But, I'm glad that you're soooo happy. I'm sure they don't mind at all that you want to live with a wizard they hated so much. Good luck on your new family. You deserve each other."
This time both Neville and Hermione were too stunned to respond to the girl's hateful comments. For his part, Malfoy's wand was stayed by the fact that the girl's shrieking had drawn her older brothers and parents, all of whom, he knew would be only to happy to hex him without consideration – as well as the attention of most of the onlookers. Harry's adoption would certainly not be news to the onlookers after the events of his birthday had made the paper, but remaining to argue the comments would only give the repugnant child the opportunity to further vent her spleen and perhaps mention something that should be left alone.
Harry's only response was to grab Draco's and Millicent's hands and pull them out the door. If he looked paler than usual, they didn't say anything about it – or about how tightly he was gripping their hands – or about how silent he was as they 'enjoyed' their ice creams. They didn't say anything when Draco's father quietly drew Professor Snape aside and apprised him of the scene in the bookstore, or when the Professor quietly drew Harry aside and after a moment's discussion, returned to make their apologies for leaving earlier than expected.
Later that evening, however, Draco's owl carried a piece of the charmed parchment to Millicent and many things were said, dangerous decisions discussed, and plans made that might have alarmed their families and friends, were they privy to the discussion. They debated their plans freely, on their charmed parchment, unaware that their's were not the only sets of eyes scanning give-and-take.
In her study, Narcissa accepted the rose petal handkerchief that Dobby offered her to blot her eyes then shooed him away before pulling out the master parchment that Severus had given her, which she had used to copy and ghost read the contents of all the parchments she doled out to her husband and son. As troubling as she found many of her husband's missives, her son's declarations troubled her more, for in them, she recognized that her son was setting himself on a path that he only partly understood. In them, she saw that he was simultaneously writing with an innocent cunning and a jaded innocence that made him paranoid enough to seek out a secure means of communication, but not wary enough to realize that any material he did not charm himself was suspect. The plans they wrote of, though simple and lacking the necessary complexity to truly further their stated aims, were generally sound, and in no way contradicting or obstructive to her own plans. So, Narcissa decide let them continue in their innocence until it was necessary to confront them with what in some eyes, would have constituted a betrayal of the bitterly protected pureblood values that both of their families espoused.
Elsewhere, Severus stalked across the narrow hallway outside of Harry's room. He had been about to join his ward, who had spent the rest of the miserable afternoon huddled around his pillow claiming that he didn't want to talk with eyes that begged the uncomfortable questions, when he felt one of the charmed parchments that he kept with him suddenly warm and start to expand. As he read it, he swore softly to himself, then cast a strong silencing charm so he could curse the entire misbegotten Weasley clan that would have allowed the witch to grow up so wayward without correction. It was only her greatest luck that she was going to Karkaroff's school, for it was incredibly unlikely that she would have passed a single potions exam in her entire time at Hogwarts.
When the children's discussion evolved from an analysis of "current political climates" and a individuals who might be showing a "pretense of support" into intense and immediate concrete plans for testing such pretense, he practically shuddered, cursing himself and Lucius for not realizing how transparent they had somehow allowed themselves to be in Draco's presence. By the time he read through the entire tete a tete, he was beyond cursing and in need of a pain relief potion that could be mixed with ample amounts of Firewhiskey to banish his rapidly growing migraine. His discussion with Harry would have to wait until morning.