Chapter 25
Worldly Miscalculations Part 2
When they arrived back in his study at Malfoy Manor, Draco said, "Let's have a little chat, Sev."
The intake of breath at that sentence, and the zipped way it was done, told Draco that he probably also had "little chats" in Sev's old world and that they meant trouble in both places. The boy's demeanor totally changed. Those grey eyes looked up at him, braced.
Draco leaned back against the edge of his desk. The Gryffindors had no idea what they were dealing with at all. Maybe he had not fully appreciated either. A year's worth of Death Eater company at his house when he was nearly an adult was not the same thing as the thirteen years Sev had experienced in the absence of anything else.
Draco had experienced something else in the world first. Something better. Something he had wanted back. Professor Snape's son had experienced only one thing, and his father was the only exception.
He was seeing that more clearly now.
"Did you use magic to spy on me with the Minister in the café?"
"Yes, sir..."
Children who had been called out generally wore an obvious and terrified look on their face, but Sev didn't. They usually also tried to lie their way out of it, and Sev didn't do that either. At least he got that much respect.
Draco did not have any real intention of punishing the boy for things that benefit his survival in his old world, but he needed Sev to start thinking about what was adaptive and appropriate for this world. If Scorpius had done that, he would have been irate. Draco understood there was a difference, but he knew from first-hand experience that people in this world did not. The kid did not need other adults to start questioning his behavior without the frame of mind to get it.
Draco had been forced to make his own less dramatic transition. He had been forced to rewrite a lot of habits.
There were marks that did not come off in this world, things that impacted how everyone would see your actions, and Draco was certain previous Dark World would prove just as challenging as previous Dark Mark over time. Every action Sev was ever going to take was going to be filtered through where he came from, and unfortunately some of those old survival habits were going to serve the opposite purpose here.
One thing was certain: he needed to start earning the kid's trust and respect quickly.
"Was the other me from your world not powerful enough to sense that spell? Because I doubt you would have tried that stunt in your world," Draco asked, "Or did you just think this me wasn't powerful enough?"
He seriously doubted Sev would have spied on his world's equivalent of the Minister. That might have been an actual death wish, not just a idiomatic one.
This world was so different from Sev's own that he miscalculated. This world's lack of magical rigor, knowledge, and responsibility had led him to believe that everyone was less capable here than most adults in his world.
Mr. Malfoy, on the other hand, simply seemed less…Dark…than his World 1.0 self, and just as equally everything else. He mentally kicked himself for underestimating that, because he had already decided his ease with the blond was because Mr. Malfoy was most similar to his other self.
"No, sir, I could not have passed that spell by the other you either." Sev looked him in the eyes as he said it. Mr. Malfoy's grey eyes were not as cold here, ever, even now. They were very expressive.
He didn't answer the second question. Saying it aloud seemed rude. The answer was obvious; if he had thought Mr. Malfoy powerful enough to notice it, then he would not have done it. Even if it only would have been ingrained habit from his other world and the other Mr. Malfoy.
"So you thought I wouldn't notice that? Right at my feet?" Draco scoffed. "If you think you can play me that easily here, you are very wrong, Severus."
He'd thought none of it really mattered because he wouldn't get caught. His father would have thought that a dangerously stupid notion, he knew, very risky. He regretted it now.
"And you obviously thought it worth the risk if you were found out." Mr. Malfoy said that with amazing incredulity. His father oft said the very same thing whenever he had done something idiotic.
Sev moved the notches about how badly he had miscalculated even further as he stood there with his hands behind his back. There was still no good way to reply to that…most risks here probably seemed worth it to him by comparison. That seemed an exceedingly cheeky thing to say.
"Did you think I would shake a finger at you and tell you off, give you a good ticking, or something? 'You're a very bad boy'?" The man shook a ridiculous, dramatic finger as example.
Mr. Malfoy's voice was turning to that tone and volume that suggested Sev better say something, even if there was nothing smart to say.
"I don't know exactly, sir." And that was true. He did not really think about what would happen if he got caught, merely that whatever it was, he did not think it would be bad enough to make it not worth the risk. "I…did not think it would be very bad, sir. I can see I was wrong, sir."
"You can see you were wrong about the consequences being tame and me being an idiot, you mean! Well thank Merlin for that!" Mr. Malfoy threw up an arm and then put the hand to his face, shaking his head in some disbelief.
There was not much to be done. He'd made the choice; he would just have to bear it out to its conclusion.
"That was wildly disrespectful and just unacceptable of you, for whatever world," Mr. Malfoy said.
"I know that, sir…" Sev knew all adults did not like kids eavesdropping or spying on them. He was well-aware that behavior was disrespectful in the minds of most adults, probably everywhere. He knew it was against all those adult rules. The problem was that some of those rules had never applied in some situations.
"You know that! And you just plowed on ahead? Why?"
"In this world I just felt I needed to know what was said about me so that I could protect myself…She's not my mother, sir. She's the Minister here. I knew you sent me away to talk about me. What she thinks is important. It wasn't you, in particular, I was listening to, sir."
"I believe you told yourself that. Especially about the Minister. I think you also thought it didn't matter because you could get away with it in this world."
"I thought both those things, sir." There was no point in lying or denying it now. That generally only made things worse in his experience. Accepting consequences and arguing didn't go together.
"I am surprised you gave me no more credit than the Minister and acted as if you did not trust me one bit either."
"I…" Sev licked his lips. "I think I do trust you, some, after listening, sir."
"Then trust me on this. I know there is no version of your father that would have tolerated what you did if it were him. There is no version of me that would either."
It had been a long time since he had wildly miscalculated in World 1.0, but this was a wild amount of miscalculation for Sev. "Yes, sir. I see that."
"Tell me, what would your father have done if you had disrespected him like this?"
Sev could tell from the sudden dryness of his eyes that he hadn't blinked, so he knew his pause had been a long one as his mind whirred at the thought of what his father would have done if he spied on him like that.
"Well?"
He decided he was not going to make the mistake of underestimating Mr. Malfoy again. That would be foolish.
"He would have been very angry." It was not the same situation, though. His father wouldn't have been universally and indiscriminately angry; how precisely did Mr. Malfoy think he learned those spells? Even his Hogwarts wasn't going to teach a bunch of teenagers how to eavesdrop more effectively…
"Obviously. I did not ask you that. I asked you what he would have done, what your punishment would have been. You are trying my patience now because you know exactly what I asked."
It made him uncomfortable to think about disappointing his father that way, were his father alive to be so and if he was stupid enough to try that on his father (again). It would not have been pretty. The most serious, and his least favorite, punishment would have been employed for this level of idiocy and misbehavior.
It was also his father's least favorite and reserved for foolishness of epic proportions, like doing something his father forbid, and then doing it again, and again, and this would have been more than the third again. If he had, indeed, done this to his father.
But Mr. Malfoy was not his father.
He had a good idea why Mr. Malfoy was asking, though; he intended to do the same thing his father would have in that situation. It made lunch sit like a rock in his stomach.
"My father would have let you choose whatever you thought appropriate if I had done that to you, sir," he finally said, somewhat skirting the actual question.
There were now crossed arms. "That is also not what I asked. One more time." He held up the one more time finger.
Sev's eyes went wide with recognition. Just like "little chat," he knew what "one more time" preceded. His heart sped up a little realizing that disrespecting this Mr. Malfoy was probably not going to be very different from disrespecting the other one. You didn't want to hear a "one more time" during a "little chat." It meant smarten up and heed that last warning, or else.
He wasn't entirely sure what or else would be. By the look on Mr. Malfoy's face, he was sure he would not like it. The blond was not playing.
Sev ran his lips together before saying, "He would have belted me if I spied on him like that, sir."
Mr. Malfoy nodded at him, stern look accompanying. "Now that I'm getting real answers, what would the other me have done?"
"Probably the same, sir."
What he had found out by listening, in retrospect, had probably not been worth the risk. Maybe hearing what Mr. Malfoy had said had been worth the embarrassment, to think about trusting him, but there were not many things he generally found worth that price. He'd take one of Carrow's Cruciatuses before he'd do anything that merited that punishment. He avoided upsetting his father in general, so he didn't often need to worry about it.
For Draco the only good thing about this little chat was the boy answered him honestly, if with some prodding at the end, and didn't bother with foolish lying. Sev knew he was in some kind of trouble. He clearly knew how to act once busted. That was more than could be said for most teenagers.
It didn't make him less bothered, even if it was something he might have done, even if he understood precisely why the boy did not trust anyone. He didn't take it personally, but he at least thought himself deserving of not being spied upon in a café. What did the boy think he was going to talk about in a bloody café that was so worth knowing!
The kid had the balls to not just spy on him but the actual Minister (even if it was Hermione Granger). Who, thankfully, either could not sense the magic at their feet or was too busy being selfish to notice. Whether it was right or not, Draco was not going to tell her. Some of these survival mechanisms could come off the wrong way. He knew that firsthand. He understood, but he did not think them really capable of understanding.
It wasn't all kittens in the Dark World, and he had to adjust his own predispositions from dealing with Scorpius. His son was made up of different stuff than Sev, and their worlds were made up of different dangers and consequences. This world's tactics were not wholly going to work on another world's teenager. This teenager who was assessing every single one of them for weaknesses; he had found out Draco's were not what he had thought today.
It benefit him for the moment to let Sev think he was actually going to give him a few smart whacks even if he wasn't.
"You didn't see that kind of punishment coming here, did you? You overestimated yourself and underestimated me. I'm not a pushover."
He was very sure the kid could school his face if he wished to, but he didn't, that was something at least. It was its own kind of trust and respect, not to just pull the walls up and wait for it to be over.
Draco shook his head and huffed out his breath. "I think we understand each other now. Just today, this once, and I mean only this once, you get a pass. Do something like that to me ever again, and the consequences will be the same as your dad's. I understand you learn habits to protect yourself in the situations you've lived through. I'm not punishing you for them. I've lived through some of them, I've done things like this. Next time, ask me what was said, if it's appropriate I'll tell you or show you in my pensieve." He made a little circle in front of him with his finger. "This was inappropriate for this world."
"You would have told me or showed me if I asked, sir?" A surprised and perhaps suspicious eyebrow was raised.
"I would, if it makes you feel safe, that's important to me, though I think it should be below your skill level to think that we would talk about anything important to do with you in a public café." It would have been different if they had done it at the Ministry, far more suspicious of a location for Sev, which was one of the reasons why he had not done that. "As you heard, it was more about her than you."
"I didn't really have enough time to contemplate all those things before making a decision, sir." In Sev's old world, he could rely on quick judgements and instinct. Here, well, who was to say these adults wouldn't discuss such things in a café. The Minister left an illegal Time-Turner where kids found it.
"Obviously you didn't think it through. A café, really, Sev?" Draco could not help but roll his eyes. He had not contemplated that Hermione might be idiot enough to say something inappropriate in a public place. "There are a lot of things I would tell you or show you. Things the others probably would not want me to because you're thirteen. In your case, age is just a very misleading number, and they're silly to think otherwise and put any weight on it at all. I know you can handle serious things; I'm sure your father told you a lot, but I'm sure there were also things he protected you from if they didn't impact your survival."
"Both those things are true, sir. He did…" There was a lengthy pause. "But he was my dad, Mr. Malfoy…I didn't have to ever question if he would protect me…and he also taught me how to protect myself."
"Listen," he leaned forward and squeezed the boy's shoulder. "I want you to feel that you can protect yourself here, too, but until you understand this world better, you need adult help navigating it. I know you're scared here, even if you hide it, because you don't feel you can protect yourself and you aren't used to that. You need to make a choice to start trusting me. I know I will have to earn it."
"…I…trust you more than the others, sir…I do understand you more than them…"
"Good. We can work with that. Both of us." He expected both were going to have to make concessions, that was the work of it. Sev was going to have to allow some vulnerability, and he was going to have to be patient.
"Yes, sir…and thank you for being direct, I understand direct. The others…"
"You feel they mess about with you because they act in a way that doesn't exist in your world. You don't understand them, their motivations, or words. They're warmth is saccharine and they're too timid, simpering, and soft. You don't see them as capable. I get it."
He's impressed the kid with that clairvoyance. The truth was Draco saw them the precise same way. That is why he had not let them attempt to push him out at the beginning. Why would Sev ever feel safe with them? How could they protect him when they couldn't protect a bloody Time Turner from resurrecting the Dark Lord, not by former Death Eaters, but by their own children?
"One more final thing while we're at it," he added. "The lying about the Quidditch store. You did that too well. Right to my face. With a thank you and a smile. I know why you did and why you're so good at it, but never again. Not to me." He shook his finger to emphasize. "You don't need to lie to me. I mean it when I say I will protect you, and you have now overheard it firsthand. I don't want to have to question what you tell me. I can't protect you that way. Every one of these adults realizes you could lie to the Dark Lord's face and a bunch of Death Eaters too. If they think they can't ever believe you, Severus, about anything, that won't be a good thing."
"I don't make a habit of lying in general, sir."
"Do you realize how stupid that sounds right now?" Draco asked, throwing up an arm in exasperation.
"I, erm, well, yes, sir. It was usually only out of necessity in my old world. I don't just, erm, lie indiscriminately."
"Mm hm, and did you lie to your father out of necessity too?"
"No, sir. The reverse was the necessity. He didn't tolerate me lying to him."
"When I first came to see you at Kingsley's, you said I was your godfather in your world. I told you that I would still like to be if you wished it. I'm not other world me, who it is okay to keep secrets from and lie to out of necessity. I know you could power through this mostly on your own, suffer through it, and seem fine to everyone until you're of age. Your father might have prepared you to survive anything but doing this alone if you don't have to is not what he would have wanted. He sent you with Scorpius, my Scorpius."
His dark grey eyes took in Mr. Malfoy's grey eyes carefully as he spoke. Sev could tell from the tone of voice he felt very strongly. That time at Kingsley's he had felt rather…touched…by what Mr. Malfoy had said and done for him. It was familiar. In a distant way. Not the same. Just familiar. He was becoming even more familiar now.
"Sir…why do you want to do this for me?" he asked. "The Minister clearly doesn't want to and we share genetics, blood, at least."
"I see some of the things that happened to me all over again in you. I don't want you to feel like I did then when the world was suddenly different, but I wasn't," he replied, candidly. "The rest maybe you'll only understand when you're a father, but yours ended your world to end the Dark Lord again and send Scorpius back to me, to send me back to a better me. Poofed you into nothing as much as he knew at the time. But then you just happened at the precise moment he could try to send you with my son and die knowing you'd be safe. Your father would have wanted me to protect you; he would have known that I would."
"I would have been happily poofed into nothing to rid the world of the Dark Lord, sir." He had always been prepared for a relatively meaningless death, so a death with meaning was far preferrable...but maybe nothing had prepared him to really live. It was a strange thought.
"Your father was an incomparably strong man to do, always, what needed to be done, no matter the cost. That's a level of selflessness and empathy most people don't have, and he still had it after decades of doing and being around Dark magic. If your father was your only real person there, I want to be that person here for you. I don't think the trauma you're experiencing is just your old life; I think it is the loss of your dad and having to live here, forever, in a strange place. I might be the only one that understands that. The Dark World didn't break you, you survived it's breaking."
AN - Ridiculously tough chapter to write. I'll probably never be fully happy with it, but here it is! Let me know what you think!
