Severus was beyond bored, his patience tested again and again by Narcissa's incessant matchmaking. He was coming to the point where he would generally storm off, which was good, as he hadn't learned a jot about what he had come here for. Not a word about their son, and that boded ill. Very poorly, if he dwelled on it, which he had plenty of time to do, as Narcissa had just moved onto Miss Cooper, regaling him with her mostly invented virtues. For you see, Severus knew about Miss Cooper's virtues, in fact, he could count them on one thumb. Green, of course. In one of those little ironies, she was prone to jealousy as well. It would be a horrible match, but Narcissa seemed determined to dredge up every single one of her friends, acquaintances, and even the "we've met, I think" set. Not that it worked, Severus wasn't interested in any of them. Not that he wanted her knowing that, of course. He really didn't need her remembering why he might not be interested. After all, that was the trouble with old friends, they knew too much. He merely pretended to be a committed bachelor, waiting for the "right woman" to come along. At least this time he had dropped by unannounced - give Narcissa a moment and she'd drop three Misses on his head, and have them all vying for his company. Not that any of them could really stand him, and if he showed the leastest scrap of interest, half the Ravenclaws and Hufflepuffs would blush and disapparate. But he'd learned his lesson after the last witch he had scared off, when Narcissa kept "accidentally" inviting them to teatimes together. It went on for months, and she was worse than usual if he declined.
Lucius, the bloody bastard, just looked at his friend, and smirked. He'd have his time to speak, too, when they were in the Smoking Room. But Severus already knew the outcome there - if Draco had been at the house, Narcissa would have mentioned it. Hell and blazes, if Draco was the leastest bit upset with Hogwarts, Narcissa would have mentioned it... Or if he was hiding at a friend's house (what friends? Severus' brain responded drolly).
Harry Potter shook his head, thinking about exactly what it was like to learn everything you thought knew was a lie. "You know I grew up Muggle, right? My uncle told me that my parents had died in a drunken driving accident. When Hagrid showed up - the night before I met you, actually, I learned the truth. Before that, war had looked like something that happened a long way away, and certainly didn't happen to anyone's mother."
"So you didn't grow up as the Hero of the Wizarding World?" Draco said with a sharp, toothy smile.
"Nope, not that Snape ever would listen to that..." Potter responded.
"You'd have to have the balls to tell him first, wouldn't you?" And Draco's voice was mocking, but not nearly as mean as it would have been at Hogwarts.
"Sir, Sir Snape, please, you've got me all wrong. I'm not arrogant, and I'm not my father, and my breath isn't bad enough to break Potions."
At that, Draco was guffawing, the black dog too looked to be laughing, his tail wagging.
Draco listened to this intently, less for what exactly Harry was saying, than for what Harry wasn't saying. Beside him, the big black dog whined, and rubbed himself against Potter. Through Draco's head the question ran, round and round again, What was Potter hiding?
"Okay, so where was I? Oh, Harry Potter's the Saviour Day." Harry Potter said snarkily.
"You're getting better at this snark thing." Draco said appreciatively.
With an air of boyish excitement, Draco continued, "So what exactly happened on Halloween?", recalling all the wild tales he had heard, most of which had three Gryffindors encountering a mountain troll. Of course all accounts varied on how this happened, and why, and most importantly, what the results were. He was nearly certain the ones that sent all three kids to the infirmary were wrong, as he had been there himself (out of pure curiosity, because why not?), and they hadn't been there the next day... Draco was starting to realize exactly how interesting (in mostly a bad way) Potter's magical life had been.
"Well, the whole thing really seemed silly to me, you know? They're celebrating the day my parents died, you know? And with candies and sugarplums and puddings! But... um... any excuse for a bite to eat?"
"Now you sound like Weasel"
"Yeah, well, I was down there, and I know you were too... When Quirrell started yelling about there being a troll in the dungeons..."
"... and?"
"Well, earlier in the day, Ron had said that Hermione was such a collossal know-it-all and that was why she didn't have any friends..."
"Wow, and here I thought you Gryffindors were going to stick together!"
"Well, we weren't her friends then, and I know, that's really not much of an excuse. But when they started to gather everyone towards the Houses, we noticed that Hermione wasn't there."
"Typical Granger - skipping the sweets for a library treat?"
"Hardly, she was still in the lav, balling her eyes out"
"And how'd you know that, Potter, were you peeping?" Draco's eyes sparkled merrily.
"Nah, Lavender had seen Granger there before the feast... And Ron wasn't about to leave Hermione there, not with no warning about the troll...and I came too, I guess." Harry shrugged, "Maybe I felt guilty about not saying something to her earlier, after all, Ron had blown up at her for no reason - she was really just trying to help."
"Gryffindors." Malfoy said, as if it explained everything. And in this case, it probably did.
"So we went looking for her... but as we went down into the dungeons, we saw Professor Snape headed the other way, and in quite a hurry. Suspicious, no? When all the other Heads were accompanying their students? So, we decided to follow him..."
"You followed Professor Snape - while a classmate of yours was in danger? Weren't you worried he'd have your guts for garters?"
"Of course, but... as we were following him, we smelled this incredibly foul odor, and turned to follow that...It led us straight to a mountain troll, as big as a dungeon corridor."
"A mountain troll. You actually managed to find the one place in Hogwarts that had a Mountain Troll?"
"Yeah, I know, my luck sucks. And two places, actually." Draco badly wanted to ask about that one, but figured he'd better keep quiet.
"We locked the mountain troll into the room it had just entered..."
"Finally, some common sense... and then you went to get a teacher, and everything turned sunshine and roses." Draco smiled.
"Well, that was the plan, until Hermione screamed... from inside the room with the troll."
"There really aren't enough words in the English language to describe your stupidity, are there, Potter?"
Harry smirked back, "I rather think Snape thinks up new ones every year..."
"And then what happened?"
"well, not even you'd leave her there, right?"
"I'd have gotten a prefect in the first place! But... yeah... even if it was bloody Granger..." Malfoy said, as Potter eyed him closely.
"So we both rushed in there to distract it - because firsties don't kill trolls, ever...I wound up with my wand stuck up its nose, and Ron levitated its club over its head, and knocked it unconscious."
"Wow, you really managed that? Impressive, although I must confess I liked the story where you splattered the walls with it's corpse..."
Harry shudders and says, "we weren't out of the woods yet, because just then the teachers arrived. McGonagall, Snape and Quirrell - who was back to being utterly useless, as opposed to spreading panic in the great hall. I thought Snape was going to give me detention for a month"
"Isn't that your usual punishment for say forgetting your homework?"
"Yeah, but I was still tryng in his class, and hadn't gotten that particular punishment yet... And he seemed furious. But then Hermione spoke up, and lied to protect us, telling the teachers that she was the one who went searching for the troll."
Malfoy was laughing, "You think anyone believed her?"
"Now? Of course not! Well, maybe Quirrel, one could never tell with that man." Harry shook his head and said, "They didn't call her on it, and we wound up getting 5 points cumulative for rescuing her."
"You took on a mountain troll, and actually won points? Five points?" Malfoy was rolling on the ground laughing.
"Pathetic, isn't it? I guess points for bravery are a bit more common when you're dealing with McGonagall." Potter said.
"I wouldn't know."
"That's nearly the end of the story, other than noticing Snape walking with a limp a few days after... He had nicked a library book that I was reading, and I wanted him to give it back, so I followed him... I found him being bandaged by Filch, and talking about that three-headed dog - and when he noticed i was there, he yelled at me to get out. Suspicious, I thought - not his words, but why was he with Fluffy?"
"I'm not sure I've ever seen Snape go near Hagrids creatures except when he wanted potion ingredients..." Draco nodded, and said, "My turn."
"When I was four and a half, I refused to eat anything other than brussel sprouts. I know, I was an odd child, and they were good."
Harry was sniggering at the choice, "brussel sprouts" he gasped breathlessly.
"Well, my parents were beside themselves. The house elves were beside themselves. Even my grandparents were beside themselves."
"You were a stubborn kid, weren't you?"
"Yes, this had gone on for weeks, before my parents plead with my godfather to fix it."
"You've got a godfather?"
"Yes, he's not as entertaining as your godfather, but he's actually pretty decent."
"Wait, I've got a godfather?!" Harry started to see red, and he knew his face was turning the color of a well-ripened tomato. "Why doesn't anyone ever tell me anything!"
[a/n: Snerk. Draco assumes people actually bothered to tell Harry about things he has a right to know about. Silly Draco]
Severus Snape slunk into his bedroom, dead tired from the tender mercies of his "friends" the Malfoys. Lucius had taken up even more time talking with him about his current triumphs at the Ministry. Not to mention the budget for Hogwarts. Not that Snape would ever dare ask for a pay raise... Lucius spent most of his time talking Dumbledore down from his outlandish budgets... Snape sometimes wondered if they merely argued to have something to do at the Board Meetings other than glare at each other. Because that would take all day. It was far too late for Snape to be buggered into bothering finding out where his blasted Godson had got off to, anyway. Muttering to himself, he cast a spell more notable for its abscence than its presence... it was a diagnostic spell that could be cast on anyone, so long as you knew his true name. Snape had even had occasion to use it on Tom Riddle himself, at a point he'd rather not dwell on. As he saw the results of the spell, Snape felt a chill crawl over his lanky limbs, his hair standing on end. If Draco was safe, it should give an indication of what health he was in. And, in the first moment, it had looked like Draco was fine... But, as Snape stared in horror, he saw the dial ticking down, as if someone was draining Draco's life force. But who? And why? He'd have believed it if it was Potter, of course, the Dark Lord was out for his blood, and even insubstantial as he hopefully was, he remained a deadly threat.
[a/n: And a dire portent for the ending! Sorry for the suspense, except nope i'm not!
Read and review, particularly if you know what's going on with the wellness spell!]