My Father's Shadow
A/N: Please read my other story Blood of a Malfoy
Chapter Ten
Two is Better Than One
Two disgruntled teens, one under the heaviest concealment charm that Severus could manage, followed their Potions Master downstairs to the Great Hall. As soon as they entered, the Hall grew silent. The Slytherins turned malevolent glares toward the ex-Malfoy heir and a mixture of concerned and confused faces regarded Harry.
Spotting the gesturing headmaster Draco made his way up to the Head Table, clearly relieved. Harry started towards the Gryffindor Table, where his friends were waving and patting an empty seat, but was stopped by a hand from his father on his shoulder, which gently guided him to the Head Table as well. As the trio sat down, the Headmaster rose, addressing the hall.
"Due to recent events, we have a student who will be resorted tonight. Draco if you will?"
Draco gripped the Hat that was passed to him, and with an uneasy glance around the hall placed it on his head.
'Well, well, well,' the Sorting Hat muttered inside his head, 'Draco Malfoy. You are by far, the last person I ever would have expected to request a resorting.'
"Slytherin is no longer safe for me," Draco informed it.
'And yet you remain Slytherin to the core, even this action is an act of self-preservation, a very Slytherin trait. Very well. Lets go through our options. Hufflepuff is no a consideration for you. Though you are loyal and faithful once you have found a cause worth being loyal and faithful to, House Hufflepuff is full of muggle-borns and your ruthlessness and prejudice would turn the entire house against you.
'At one point in time Gryffindor may have been acceptable for you. You are courageous to a fault after all. Yet your years have made you cunning and Slytherin has made you hard. You are many things Draco Malfoy, but foolishness and 'idiotic bravery' as you so term it, is not one of them. Not only that, you do things in order to preserve your life, almost selfishly. House Gryffindor would never accept that.'
Draco tensed. Not Gryffindor or Hufflepuff then. He supposed Ravenclaw was good enough...
'Yet, I can not place you in Ravenclaw either. Ravenclaws learn simply for the sake of learning. Their intelligence is derived from years of bookish intent. It's true that you are intelligent Mr. Malfoy, but your intelligence is derived from ambition and a yearning to prove yourself. Ravenclaws would never understand ambition. And another thing is that you are practical, while the majority of House Ravenclaw lacks any common sense. No, I can not place you in Ravenclaw when I know you would become an outcast.'
Draco froze. Not Gryffindor, Hufflepuff, or Ravenclaw? And Slytherin was no longer safe for him? Was he going to have to be thrown out of Hogwarts for his protection?
The Sorting Hat sat silent and Draco felt the uncomfortable stares of his fellow classmates upon him. Then....
'Yes!' the Hat cried excitedly. 'Yes, that just might work. Mr. Malfoy, will you please tell Headmaster Dumbledore that I wish to speak with him?'
Exasperated, Draco tore off the Hat, earning him shocked looks. Well, Draco thought
grimly, they're going to be even more shocked in a minute.
"Professor Dumbledore, the Hat would like a word with you."
Taking the Hat as though it was nothing out of the usual, the Headmaster plopped it down on his gray head cheerfully.
"Yes Hat?" he inquired.
'Headmaster, Draco Malfoy does not belong anywhere other than Slytherin...'
"It is dangerous for him to remain there," Dumbledore interrupted.
'Yes, yes,' said an irate Hat. 'If you would be so kind as to let me finish?'
"Of course."
'Though he is unsuitable for any of the other houses I do have a suggestion. Apprenticeship. He's magically strong enough and intellectually capable.'
Dumbledore was quiet for a long moment. "It hasn't been done in decades."
'You were one.'
"Hat?" Dumbledore queried. "Will you resort another student while I consider it?"
'Another student?'
"Harry Potter."
'Ah, the young Snape heir. Unhappy in Gryffindor?'
"Unhappy yes, but not for that reason. I don't believe Gryffindor is suited for him any longer."
'You want me to spy on his mind,' the Sorting Hat's voice was short, blunt.
"For his own protection, yes."
'I will not do it Headmaster. Some things are meant to be kept secret. Trust is built upon the foundation of privacy, of knowing when not to pry. There are some things that shouldn't be broken and trust is one of them.'
Dumbledore seemed to accept that with too little argument for the Sorting Hat's suspicions. A feeling that was full of dread filled it.
"But you will resort him?"
'If that is what he wants, yes.'
"Very well. I'll discuss Draco with ;you after you've sorted Harry."
Dumbledore removed the Hat from his head and addressed the Hall once again. "The Sorting Hat has recommended that special accommodations be made for Mr. Malfoy. While I am considering these recommendations we will have another resorting. Mr. Potter? If you would?"
Raging, but determined not to attract more attention that what was already focused on him, Harry calmly snatched the wretched hat from the Headmaster, understanding Dumbledore's intentions immediately. Growling he forced his Occlumency walls in place, before donning the Hat angrily. Immediately a soothing voice filled his head.
'Well, Mr. Potter, or should I say Snape? I can't say I didn't expect to see you back here.'
"I don't want to be here," Harry snarled viciously.
'But you need to be here,' the Hat said, softly now, realizing that Harry implied a wish to depart from his life with that seemingly aggressive comment. He remembered Dumbledore's words 'For his own protection'.
The Headmaster knew I would see this the Hat realized that's why he accepted my refusal so easily
Harry felt a shift in his mental barriers and realized, with a horror, that the Hat had gotten through them.
'The Headmaster told me you were unhappy,' the Hat said, as though justifying his actions. Then Harry felt the unwelcome feeling of someone shifting through his memories. Furiously, Harry made to pull the Hat off his head, and found his arms immobile.
With a shock, Harry felt the Hat pull itself out of his thoughts, his mind. "Nice show?" Harry asked sarcastically.
'Well I can now understand why Dumbledore would believe you are out-of-place in Gryffindor. Gryffindor would not know how to handle you. Yet House Slytherin, the house of your ancestor and perhaps the only house that could understand you, would be as unsafe for you as it would be for Mr. Malfoy.'
"I don't want to be resorted," Harry repeated.
'But you must be Mr. Snape. Have you told anyone about the abuse?' The Hat answered itself. 'No, I can see you haven't. For the sake of your sanity I would suggest you talk to someone soon. You have an emotional wound Mr. Snape, don't let that wound fester and become infected.'
The Hat let that sink in. 'Let me speak with your Headmaster about an apprenticeship for you.'
Silently Harry took the Hat off, handing the hat over to the Headmaster without sparing a sneer at the old man.
"Hat?" Dumbledore questioned.
'I have seen many things in the minds of students who have come through the Sorting. Some showed signs of abuse. Sometimes I would report it, sometimes I didn't, for various reasons. Yet, I would never have ignored a case like this. Mr. Snape's suffering began long before he put me on his head. Yet I didn't catch a whiff of this, and I have been put upon his head more than once.'
The Hat seemed caught in something of a reverie. Impatient, Dumbledore cleared his throat as politely as possible, and opened his mind expectantly.
"Will you show me?"
'No,' the answer was abrupt.
"Why?"
'It is something that he needs to show you in his own time. I remain with what I said before of trust. It is not something that should be broken.'
"Was it that bad?" Dumbledore queried fearfully. The Hat answered softly.
'It was the worst case of abuse I have ever seen, and I have seen many.'
The two sat in silence for a moment, each with their own thoughts.
'Mr. Snape is a perfect applicant for apprenticeship as well, Headmaster. I am fearful to place him in any other house besides Gryffindor, and that house knows not how to deal with him. I trust you will make appropriate arrangements for he and Mr. Malfoy.'
"Of course."
'Then I bid you farewell.'
Dumbledore took the ragged Hat off his weathered head with a sigh. Then he addressed the
Hall as a whole.
"Both Mr. Malfoy and Mr.Potter have been selected as applicants for apprenticeship. Information on apprenticeships will be posted in the library for those interested. Arrangements as to living arrangements will be made on a private basis. Thank you."
A forgotten dinner lay on everyone's plates as the entirety of the staff, with the inclusion of Harry and Draco, filed out of the hall and headed towards the Teacher's Lounge. The same thought rang through all of their minds.
Two apprentices? When the last had been a century ago? And who would be their master?
A/N: I've received very reasonable requests to stop addressing every single review, especially as the majority of them are just thanks so I will make a general thankyou to those who reviewed and reply to those who asked direct questions.
Marller: I'll consider changing the rating, actually I'll put up a vote, and we'll go by what the majority decide.
34 REVIEWS! Beat the record again! Thanks!
VOTE: SHOULD I CHANGE THE RATING OF THIS STORY FROM PG-13 TO R?