Empire and Exigency

Chapter 21: Size Does Matter

by Annie B

Rated PG-13

JKR gave me Hogwarts and Harry. Yeh. In my DREAMS she did. NOT.

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"I don know, Harry." The rag that passed for a dishtowel twisted in the Groundkeeper's huge hands."It jus don feel right."

"Please. Hagrid?" Harry's look of wide-eyed pleading would have made a Hummel blush. "You want it. I want it. Don't we both deserve to be happy?"

Pulling out a tattered checked handkerchief, the half-giant dabbed at a giant tear. "Yer - yer so young. Maybe too young ta be making that decision."

"I'm old enough to know what will make me happy." Harry's tone was firm. "And this will make me happy." Their shadows mixed as the boy leaned closer."You were my first real friend. My first real wizard friend." Their fingers intertwined. "Let me do this. For me and for you."

Hagrid's breath hitched. "If yer sure yer sure."

"I'm sure." Harry's smile was brighter then the sputtering fire. " I honestly, utterly, want you so spend vacation at the Dragon Reserve. And it's not bother to pay for it. Trust me. I've got plenty. Mom and Dad... you know."

"Yeh." Hagrid's huge head nodded. "They'd not have left you without."

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"And that!" Harry exclaimed as he cut off the projectile pensive, it how I'm getting rid of Dumbledore's biggest supporter."

"Brill!" Ron paused briefly in his task of layering cheese and ham on a quarter-loaf of bread. Always moving from place to place, the quarter had chosen to hold this nights gathering in the Room of Requirements. Ron was in the middle of a growth spurt, and so required five meals a day. Thus the picnic theme the room had chosen. "And keeping Hagrid out of trouble in a clutch of dragons will more then keep Bill busy.

"So two down." Hermione checked off both names in her magical day-runner. Charmed to look like a cheap copy of 'Hogwart's - A History', the book was actually an enchanted Blackberry with 512 MB mystical memory and full internet access. Using a celery stick to hold the page, she turned to the blond boy on her left. "Draco? How did you do?"

"Brilliantly." Draco tossed an olive, biting it on the way down. "What else?"

The pensive started up again.

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"Professor Snape?" An ice blond head peered around the heavy ironwork of the dungeon door. "Thank you for seeing me, sir."

"That is the purpose of office hours." Snape stayed crunched behind his stack of papers. He looked like he had gas pains. Or perhaps hemorrhoids.

Next came a long silence. Snape glaring and Draco looking Percy-polite.

Snape broke first.

"So, Mr. Malfoy." Snape waved his visitor into the single hard chair placed before his desk. "What seems to be your academic problem?"

"Not academic, sir." Draco simpered. "And not... actually a problem."

"Then I fail to see what use I could be ." Snape did not - quite- sigh.

"It's about...you know."

"Obviously I do not."

Draco leaned closer "My father."

"Is beyond the range of any aid I might wish to give." There was a wave of black sleeve. Snape setting up another ward. Just in case. " Whereas we are not beyond the range of..." Black eyes rolled meaningfully up in the direction of the Headmaster's tower office.

"Not that." Draco shifted uneasily on the hard chair. "With what happened..."He glanced around. Evidently caution. "You know I have...new responsibilities."

Draco fingered the heavy signet ring, turning it around and around on his slender finger. An unthinking nervous habit - or so it might seem to an outsider. Snape knew better. Malfoys had many habits - but never from nerves. The ring - the subtle reference to the ring - was a reminder that the boy in the low chair was not merely a student. That he would not always be a student. That youth and obedience were fleeting - while a Malfoy's favor ( or disfavor) could be very very long.

Snape's eyes narrowed. The only sign of his understanding.

Draco stood, moving closer.

"Not to... him... yet." Draco whispered. "But as head of House Malfoy, I need to... do something... to maintain the good name."

Snape shifted. Not away - exactly - but subtilely sideways. Noncommittal.

"Not the easiest task in these times." The professors voice was flat. Not a warning. Not exactly. Or not a provable warning.

Draco returned to his chair. Proof he had heard what had not been said.

"That is why I came to you." Draco's smile was Lockhart bright. And Lockhart bland. Only the glitter in his eyes carried the second message. "You were one of father's most... trusted... friends. I know I can ... rely on you... to do what you can."

Snape leaned forward. "Which in this case would be?"

"Training."

Snape's eyebrow shot up.

"Everyone knows you should be teaching Dark Arts... I mean Defense Against the Dark Arts." Draco's smirk was precocious. "You know a million times more then these...you know... that Dumbledore hires."

"A flattering statement, Mr. Malfoy. But unless you plan to claim your fathers place on the Board of Governors?"

"Not yet." Which was not a denial. And therefore a confirmation. And therefore wither a promise or a threat. "But? Over holidays? I thought the House of Malfoy might fund a student tour. For Slytherin House. To Targoviste and Wittenberg and... other places of interest."

And thus - indirectly - provide a more skilled force to the Dark Lord. Or so Voldemort might be persuaded. A subtle and serpentine gift, more so because the same gift that prepared the students for Riddle would in debt them to Malfoy. Thus Draco could pay once and be rewarded twice. Three times, if Dumbledore was flattered by the benefit to the school. Four times if by careful concessions to both sides Draco could keep his own forces in effective neutrality.

Snape became very very still. "And my part in this would be?"

"As the sponsor. The instructor."

"The tour guide?" Snape's tone implied 'house elf'.

"You could hire someone. For the minor duties." A negligent hand waved off the objection. "You would be our...mentor."

"I need your... insight. Selecting the... best... students. Picking the places to be visited." Draco all but fluttered his eyelashes - he was that adoring.

"With full authority to arrange matters as I see fit?" Snape's wand hand twitched.

"Absolutely! Who better?"

"Very well then, Mr. Malfoy." Snape stood, then waited until Draco was also standing before escorting the younger man carefully to the door. "I will consider your offer. Fondly."

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"Whooo!" Ron almost dropped his sandwich. "So that's Snape gone. And his clutch of vipers with him."

"Better.' Draco snagged a handful of crisps from Ron's plate. "Snape hired his old executioner friend Whats-his-name to do the scut work.

"Two Deatheaters for the price of one!" Ron snatched half the crisps back.

"One from each side, Ron. Snape is Officially on the Side of the Light." Hermione managed to pronounce the capitols. She was talented that way. "But it does mean we won't have to shift another to balance Snape. He balanced out himself."

She carefully marked the new data in her book.

"Whatever." The comment was muffled. With all the crisps gone, Ron had turned his attention to the finding more snacks, and was currently head and shoulders deep into the enchanted basket.

Hermione leaned over Ron to kiss Draco. "You are a mad genius, my love."

"More then you know." Harry grinned approvingly at the intertwined pair." Once Snape announces that the Slythies are going - I can probably take Luna into talking her her dad to into sponsoring something for the rest of the school.

"Like what?" Draco took a breath between kisses. "Snipe tracking? Hunting the wild Nauga? Five-horned snickerdoodles?"

"Who cares?" Ron had emerged again, boxes of biscuits in each hand. "Give me a shot at an open beach, and open buffet, and an open bar? I'd hunt for an elephant in a igloo."

"Even if it was just a week in the Lake District" Harry said carefully, "That might be enough to reduce the number of students staying over the break. Not all the way to zero but...?"

All three of the others nodded.

"Out of range is out of range."

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Sorry I've been gone so long. It was a life thing. Stuff happens. ( To me) But I'm back now. Yippie!