Disclaimer: No. They' re not.
Authors Notes: I have no idea what took so long. The ideas were there, but I just couldn't manage to get them on paper. I have been working a lot though, teaching summer school and an extra job too. Thanks very much for those of you who wrote encouraging me to continue. I have every intention of doing so. It's just hard sometimes, ya know? The rest of this story is sketched out and I think I should be able to end it in about 10 or 12 more chapters if all goes well and I don't change my mind. Who knows how long that could take. I've already been working on this a year. My ending will definitely leave room for a sequel.
excessivelyperky is a rock star! Thanks for doing what you do!
Thanks also to Bigstew. You might be a rock star too. Thanks a bunch.
Enjoy
Chapter 28
The Age of Independence II
Severus Snape scanned Potter's essay for what was perhaps the fifth time in the week and a half since Dobby delivered it to him. The Potions Master was amazed that after years of questioning the boy's intelligence, something written by him could have inspired such a significant advance in potions. Although the paper wasn't up to the standard of the one the boy had written as punishment for his dark behavior toward Filch, it was still rather well done considering the work Snape was used to seeing from Potter over the past six years. This was especially true, given Dobby's assertion that Potter had spent a mere forty-five minutes on the topic before carefully setting the paper on the dining room table in the beach house.
According to Dobby, Harry arrived home from the funeral having learned of the prison break from Azkaban and immediately set to work. The house elf had brought the essay to Snape when the wizard had secretly summoned him to Voldemort's lair. After listening to his instructions to clarify the owl message for Potter, the little creature had gingerly handed Snape the missive and commented that since Potter had attended to it with such diligence, surely it must contain important information for Snape. That turned out to be the case.
When Snape had told his Master that he meant to improve the Polyjuice potion in order to better impersonate Goyle, he'd had no intention of actually doing so. It had simply been a ruse so he could seek the privacy of the potions laboratory for communication with Albus and Dobby. No matter the location of Voldemort's various hideouts throughout the years, there was always a potions lab that provided a sanctuary for Severus that other Death Eaters did not enjoy. He was Voldemort's Potions Master, every bit as much as he had been Albus'. Obviously, instead of healing potions for Madame Pomfrey, the Dark Lord was apt to have him working on brews that were decidedly less helpful. Snape had intended to emerge after several days of supposedly dogged research on the Polyjuice and simply present modified findings for his quick brewed formula, which Voldemort knew little about.
Inspiration to really improve the potion came in the form of Potter's essay. Snape had assigned it as a challenge after finding Potter surprisingly competent, not to mention cheeky, the night they had brewed the Nochebuena potion after their joint nightmare. Snape read the boy's assertion that Polyjuice was often taken in conjunction with Hablabo potion, a Nochebuena derivative, which allowed for a spot on voice imitation of the person you were impersonating. While it was true that certain paranoid novices used the potion this way, it made scant difference given that Polyjuice transformed a persons vocal chords, throat, and sinuses along with everything else. Honestly, Snape thought, how did the little dunderhead think Crouch faired so well all those months at Hogwarts?
However, at the end of the essay, although slightly off topic, as the essay was to have been about ingredient conversions to Nochebeuna, Potter speculated as to what other potions might be used in conjunction with Polyjuice to enhance its effects. Here Potter made brief mention of a little used Animagi potion. One dose lasted a week and the potion allowed the person who ingested it to switch back and forth at will between animal and human form. The potion was unpopular because wizard purists touted the philosophy of the importance of discovering one's true Animagi form, rather than engage in such potion induced recreation. After reading the essay, Snape was inspired to combine these two potions. At the end of a week he had developed a Polyjuice that with a weekly dose would allow him to change back and forth between his form and Goyle's at will. When detailing his findings to the Dark Lord prior to departing for Hogwarts, Snape altered them significantly and prudently omitted the information about the ability to switch back and forth.
888
It was Lupin's lasso hex, the memory of which still stung Harry's pride, that made him think an arching technique might work with the arachnid web. Dobby had spent the past week and a half showing he and Draco how to turn themselves into spiders and spin and throw webs. They'd perfected the cloaking charm the first day, and had since spent time on a rock charm, that allowed you to turn into one, and a cuerpo charm that enabled the caster to merge with non living objects in the same vicinity.
The rock charm was dead useful. After transforming, you could hurl yourself with great speed and accuracy. The cuerpo charm was bloody difficult. So far he and Draco had only managed it once, although Dobby had patiently demonstrated again and again, merging and disappearing into pots, pans and ladles in the Hogwarts kitchen.
The arachnid charm was by far the boy's favorite. While casting a web and thinking about Lupin's lasso hex, Harry noticed if you arched slightly as you cast the strong silky substance, you could wrap it around something. He couldn't resist trying it on the ankle of an unsuspecting Filch as the Caretaker passed their way. It slipped free before it could do any real damage, but it did give the grumpy old codger quite a start.
As spiders, they were able to communicate through thin vaporous thought webs that were a bit like memory strands in a pensieve.
"Careful, Master Harry Potter sir," the little spider elf Dobby warned kindly by throwing a thought strand. "Mister Caretaker might stumble."
Harry felt a bit chastened, though he knew Dobby would not presume to reprimand him and had no idea Harry had been trying to make Mister Caretaker stumble.
"But that is very good, Master Harry Potter sir," Dobby continued, his thoughts squeaking along the strand. "Watch Dobby," The elf threw a silky web up at the arm of a suit of armor. He arched the web as Harry had done, and gave it a bit of a twist at the end causing the silky substance to hold true. Dobby jumped up and swung along the web. As he hit mid swing, he threw another web that attached to the edge of a portrait frame, and Dobby began another glorious swing.
"Bloody hell," Draco and Harry said together, and gave rapid chase on little spidery legs.
"That was brilliant, Dobby," Harry enthused, when they caught up. "Let me try."
Another suit of armor stood in front of them. Harry arched and then twisted the web as Dobby instructed. When it attached to the suit of armor, he gave it a yank to see if it held true. Unexpectedly, and in horrifyingly slow motion, the armor came crashing loudly to the stone floor.
Filch could be heard limp-running and swearing as fast as he could back in their direction.
"Dobby is thinking you pulled a bit hard, Master Harry Potter sir." the elf squeaked. "This way. Follow Dobby," the little spider advised.
It was the first time Harry realized that they could walk under most doors in this form. Dobby quickly transformed and the two young men followed suit.
"Where are we?" Harry questioned as he glanced around the small, dimly lit room, and took in the large wooden desk and bookshelves.
"Snape's personal office," Malfoy supplied, as they both strained to hear Filch through the door.
"But we weren't anywhere near the Potion's classroom, were we?" Harry argued.
"Not his classroom office," Draco hissed irritably. "His personal office. Ssh!" he ordered, still pressing his ear to the wall.
Harry quieted down. He remembered McGonagall also had an office space near her quarters. Students seldom ventured there it seemed. Harry wondered if Snape's students were the same.
His thoughts were interrupted by a loud clang followed by more swearing. Both boys tried to suppress laughter while Dobby merely looked worried. His round eyes grew wide.
Filch was only muttering loudly now, and it sounded like he was righting the armor.
"So, Snape's office," Harry said curiously. He waved the lights up after the hall had grown quiet. "This room had to have been warded, don't you reckon?" Harry asked Draco. "That means we can get through wards as spiders," he opined triumphantly.
"Handy little charm that," Draco agreed, and quirked a pleased eyebrow.
Harry didn't bother to stop himself from grinning outright as he looked around the room. He could make out the titles of various potions and defense volumes on the shelves in the brighter light. His eyes scanned the walls, and his breath suddenly caught as he noticed the curvy handle of a long cane hanging on a low hook behind Snape's desk.
"Why is that here?" Harry asked, as he fought down the image of countless unpleasant childhood memories.
"What?" Draco asked. "Why do you suppose?" The Slytherin responded derisively, when he realized where Harry was looking. "Don't suppose McGonagall keeps one of those?" he said with a disgusted shake of his head.
Dobby was more forthcoming, and even went to grab the thing off the wall so Harry could get a better look.
"Master Snape uses this to punish the naughty Slytherins on their bums, Master Harry Potter sir," the elf squeaked helpfully, showing the cane to Harry. "Once when Dobby first came to Hogwarts, Master Snape punished the whole Quidditch team in the Slytherin Common Room." Dobby supplied eagerly.
"Shut it Dobby!" Draco told the elf angrily.
"But Dumbledore banned using the cane at Hogwarts," Harry said, as he looked from Malfoy to the elf.
"He banned it as a regular school punishment, Potter," Malfoy said disdainfully. "Apparently it still can be used at the discretion of the Heads of House."
"But, Merlin," Harry breathed "The whole team. In the common room. In front of everybody?" Harry tried to imagine a similar event taking place in Gryffindor and thankfully couldn't.
"Oh come now, Potter." Draco said snidely. "He favors us. Remember? Never takes points. He never gets after us for anything. Remember? The common room fiasco did only happen that one time my second year," Malfoy explained sarcastically. "Normally Snape would call a student into his office and they might get two, or six at the most if he was really cross. Marcus Flint got twelve that day. He had been forging Snape's name all year to double book the Quidditch Pitch. The rest of the team only got two because we finally convinced him we didn't know about the forged notes. But Snape, you know how soft he is with us, insisted we should have known and caned us anyway."
Harry distinctly remembered the Gryffindor team being extremely irritated second year that the Snakes always seemed to have booked the pitch ahead, and they always had a note from Snape saying it was okay.
"Yes, yes," Dobby squeaked excitedly. "That is the time Dobby remembers. At first, Dobby is worried it is his fault and the Slytherins is being punished for the Bludger Dobby used to chase Harry Potter."
"Right. Fat chance Snape would have punished anyone for that." It was Harry's turn to sound derisive.
"Shows how much you know, Potter. It was the Bludger that set Snape off." Draco sneered "He cornered the whole team in the common room carrying that bloody thing in his hand for the love of Merlin," Draco pointed an accusing finger at the cane. "He was sure one of us had charmed that Bludger. He talked about how asinine and obvious it was to do that in a game we were playing in," Draco reported hotly. "We kept swearing we didn't do it. Flint finally got so rattled he confessed to the forgeries. So we got it for that instead."
"Such high pitched screams, Master Harry Potter sir," Dobby supplied. "Yes, yes, Dobby remembers." Harry wondered vaguely if Dobby meant that Snape or the Quidditch team had been screaming.
"Potter if you can't control this elf…" Draco began
"And that's not all, Master Harry Potter sir," Dobby squeaked in an oddly proud tone. "As Master Snape is walloping Marcus Flint, he says he isn't convinced the naughty Slytherins don't know about the Bludger. Master said if he found out differently he would wallop the whole Slytherin House."
"Do you ever shut up?" Draco hissed at the elf. "Snape was afraid we were going to bring the Headmaster down on us for messing with precious Potter."
"Dobby thinks Master was worried about Harry Potter," the elf opined haughtily.
"I'm highly skeptical of that, Dobby." Harry said doubtfully.
"I found out later from Father it was this bloody menace who charmed the Bludger." Draco hooked his thumb at the elf. "Should have strangled the little beast for getting me caned. I still should."
"During second year ex Master Draco was called into Master Snape's office for two hard wallops at least once a week because he was naughty in classes. Ex Master should be used to it Dobby thinks," the little elf squeaked soberly. "Why in third year when ex Master Draco pretended to be injured by a hippogriff…" Dobby began.
"That's it!" Draco fumed, as he rounded on Dobby.
Harry stepped quickly between the two.
"Dobby you should stop," Harry gently admonished the elf, as he tried to keep the amusement out of his voice. "It's embarrassing to share such things."
"But house elves is punished all the time, Master Harry Potter sir," Dobby said sounding confused. "Dobby is not embarrassed."
"Wizards are though, Dobby," Harry explained. "So no more stories like that, do you understand?"
"Dobby thinks so, Master Harry Potter sir," the elf said. "So Dobby should not tell ex Master Draco about Gryffindor's sword and what happened after the Wheezy…"
"Right!" Harry said rather urgently. "That would be embarrassing..."
"Wait," Draco said getting interested. "What happened with the Weasel and Gryffindor's sword?"
"Nothing," Harry said quickly. "How do you know all this stuff, Dobby?" Harry asked. He knew Dobby had still been at the Weasley's when Snape had gotten after him with Gryffindor's sword.
"House elves listen, Master Harry Potter, sir," the elf said proudly. "They listens and watches all the time. And when elves are not listening and watching, they are talking to each other about what they sees and hears," Dobby explained
Any response Harry may have made was cut short by the distinct sound of Headmistress McGonagall's voice just outside the door.
"The Ministry reset the wards on the main door," she was explaining. "But these should still be keyed to your magical signature, if I am not mistaken."
After a moment's pause and a spell muttered in a low voice, the door swung open. McGonagall entered first, and immediately proceeded to trip on the cane Dobby had left sitting in the middle of the floor in his haste to transform. The Headmistress regained her balance on the edge of the desk and also with the assistance of a strong, long fingered hand. Harry looked further up to see the hand belonged to Severus Snape. The image was distorted looking at him in the form of a spider, but it was obviously Snape. Harry took a moment to feel relief. Then he experienced a bit of curiosity as to why Snape was not disguised as Goyle. Both of these emotions were quickly overrun by his instinct to get out of there before they were found out.
"Run," he and Draco thought at the same time.
888
Severus Snape reached down to examine the object that had tripped his colleague.
"Why is this here?" Snape questioned, staring at the cane in confusion.
"Perhaps you were in the midst of chastising one of your students when last you were here?" Minerva speculated.
"Perhaps," said Snape, unconvinced. "I can't imagine leaving it on the floor, however."
"I don't believe Albus never did more to dissuade you from using that on your students." McGonagall said frankly, as she indicated the cane.
"Never stopped you from complaining about them, even knowing the possible consequences," Snape observed. "I had always wished he would allow me to use it on a few of your students," he commented dryly.
"Anyone in particular?" McGonagall asked, not quite able to keep the smile out of her voice.
"I can think of a few off hand," Snape said, as he returned the cane to its hook and swept the room with a suspicious gaze.
"Well, you can get through to your main quarters through there," McGonagall stated, and indicated a paneled wall.
With a nod of his head, Severus pressed his hand to the wall and it opened into a moderately sized sitting room decorated in dark rich colors.
"The Aurors tore things apart after we found Filius down here, but things have been put to rights now I believe."
"How is Filius? Snape asked with a bit of a wince, as he thought of the night he threw the concussion hex at the unsuspecting little Charms professor.
"Recovered," McGonagall stated stiffly.
"Hexing him," Severus began uneasily. "It wasn't strictly part of my orders, but I could not risk his going up to the Astronomy Tower with me." After a pause he added, "I'm grateful he has recovered."
"Severus, I know you were following our daft old Headmaster's instructions, but the issue remains something I can neither forgive, nor even discuss at present," she explained flatly.
"I believe I could make you understand...a bit more... if we did discuss it," Severus offered cautiously.
"I do not wish to understand it." McGonagall returned sternly, causing Severus to flinch.
He mentally chastised himself as he squared his shoulders. Severus could stand up unflinching to the Dark Lord for the love of Merlin. What was it about this exasperating woman, that could make him feel like he was still fifteen? He shook his head irritably and schooled his expression.
"Of course, Minerva," he said in what he hoped was a neutral tone.
"I am sorry," she said harshly. "But it is going to take me a bit more time."
He held up a hand as though to say it was no matter.
"I thank you for allowing me to stay," he said a bit formally. "I will stay no longer than necessary... the day after Potter's birthday at the latest," he explained.
"I want your word that this plan of yours won't bring either of those boys to harm," she said after a moment.
It was an unfair thing to ask. The plan was risky at best. Severus needed to just seem as though he were trying to capture the boys and they needed to escape at the last moment. Severus wouldn't be able to help it if either Harry or Draco made a foolish mistake. And they would be dealing with Death Eaters. However, as he looked at McGonagall, Severus found that he couldn't quite bear any more disapproval from that quarter.
"You have it," he told her. He hoped it was true and was unreasonably grateful that after all that had happened, his word was still worth something to her.
The Headmistress nodded her head once and left the room.
Once he was alone, Severus sank rather dejectedly into a plush chair and flipped open the Angelth.
"Severus, my boy. How are you?" Albus greeted.
"Minerva is still mad at me," he replied sullenly.
"I am sorry to hear that my boy," Albus responded after a moment. "But she will come around."
"No she won't, Albus," Severus said in the same tone. "How can she get over this. She thinks I'm a monster. She'll never forgive me."
"You are not a monster, Severus," Albus assured him kindly.
"Yes, I am," Severus told him. "I killed you," he pointed out.
"I ordered you to," Albus reminded him.
"What kind of monster follows an order like that?" Severus wanted to know.
"Well," Albus said. "If it is between anyone, it is between you and I. And for what it is worth, I forgive you, Severus," Albus said, his eyes twinkling madly.
"Everything is a joke with you, isn't it old man?" Severus' mouth quirked up slightly on one end as he said it.
"Not quite everything," Albus replied, his eyes still twinkling. "And when you have finished pouting, I should like to speak with you on a matter of the utmost seriousness."
"I am not pouting," Severus denied with a haughty expression.
"I do beg your pardon, Severus," Albus said soothingly. "I had thought you were."
"Well, I'm not," Severus corrected him "What do you want?"
"First I'd like to say how very relieved I am that Tom's plans worked out to our benefit this time, as it places you exactly where you need to be." Albus said with an expansive gesture.
"A few less riddles if you would please, Albus?" Severus requested, as he narrowed his eyes slightly.
"I am saying that it is essential that Harry be with you within 24 hours of reaching the age of independence."
"Hm," was all Severus said. He wondered if for once this frustrating old man would explain himself.
"That is initially why I had instructed him to come to you straight away upon coming of age," blue eyes sought black ones and Albus seemed highly amused. "No questions thus far, Severus?"
"None," Severus replied. He was doing a brilliant job of not showing his irritation, he thought. "Please do go on, Albus."
"It is time, Severus," Albus stated with a dramatic flare. "That I reveal to you the third chapter of your prophecy."
Severus thought morosely that he was the only person he'd ever heard of who had a prophecy that was revealed in chapters, like some bloody Muggle mystery novel. He wondered vaguely if the chapters were something Albus made up because he wanted to reveal the thing a bit at a time. The-Bloody-Boy-Who-Lived got to have a straight forward prophesy. The one with the power to vanquish...blah, blah, blah. Simple. Kill or be killed. Oh but not Severus! Severus' prophecy had to have bloody chapters.
"Questions now, Severus?" Albus intoned gently
The first chapter of Severus' prophecy was revealed to him when he first started Hogwarts. The Half Blood Prince, born as the new year dawns will be destined to immerse himself in the Darkness that he may become a Beacon for the Light. There had been no doubt that the Beacon was Severus, born January 9, eleven years prior. And Albus began training him fiercely in the arts of both Darkness and the Light. When the time came for his little Beacon to merge with the Darkness he would be well prepared, well fortified and in less danger of losing his soul. If Severus was honest, that was more than enough to deal with at the age of eleven.
Chapter two of his prophecy had been revealed at age 17, the time of his own age of independence. The Half Blood Prince coming of age as the new year dawns will be destined to teach the new child of prophecy born as the seventh month dies to loathe the Darkness. Severus had thought that was the last of his prophecy, and with pitiful few instructions as to how to go about it, he lamented at the time. If Severus had not schooled The-Boy-Who-Lived to loathe the Darkness, he had certainly taught the boy to loathe him. Albus had always chastised his methods. Severus had never had the bollocks to tell the old man that he was following the trail that Albus himself had blazed so well by leaving the boy with his Muggle relatives.
"Questions?" Albus asked him again in the here and now.
"Not a question, Albus," the younger wizard replied, with a sour expression. "But I do hope to Merlin this is the final chapter."
888
"I don't think we should wait here for him," Harry said looking around Malfoy's messy dorm room as the boy stretched out on his bed. They had sent Dobby back to the kitchens moments after arriving and transforming.
"What are you on about?" The blond boy said, as he propped his hands lazily behind his head. "He won't have known we were in his office. You act as though he's going to show up in the common room with a cane," Malfoy joked. Harry had made the mistake of mentioning that his uncle used to get after him with a cane, and Malfoy cottoned on that he found Slytherin discipline more disturbing than amusing.
"He'll expect us to be training though won't he?" Harry pressed. "Not lazing around doing nothing."
"Since when do care so much what he thinks?" Draco asked, clearly confused by the notion.
"I just don't want him to be cross," Harry admitted and was immediately embarrassed at having done so. Draco's response surprised him.
"When the hell isn't he cross?"
"Come on," Harry laughed. "Don't you want to practice that swinging thing. We'll do it just along the dungeon, so we'll see him when he heads this way.
They practiced along the dungeon corridors, winding their webs around the edges of the more secure portrait frames to avoid another accident, swinging free on their webs from one frame to the next. It was better than flying on a broom, Harry decided.
As fortune would have it, just as he was swinging along the portrait that adorned Snape's personal office for the fifteenth time was the moment the Potions Master chose to exit the room. With skill borne of Quidditch, rather than practice with the spider charm, Harry pushed back on the door just as he was in danger of being smashed into the wall. He swung his way to the safety of the next portrait. This had the unfortunate effect of making the door swing back rather quickly and smack into Snape. The Potions Master swore fluently although it was in Goyle's voice and form as he looked around the hall for what might have caused this effect.
Draco threw a thought web at Harry.
"Oh he's definitely bringing the cane now," the other spider laughed.
"Shut it Draco," was the only response Harry could think of.
They waited until a few moments after he had entered the Slytherin Common Room to transform and follow. They found him in Malfoy's dorm room, and it was rather disconcerting to see such a Snape-like scowl on Gregory Goyle's round face.
Harry wondered if he was irritated about the door, or worse yet knew they had been in his office. Then he was so distracted by seeing Goyle quirk a patented Snape eyebrow, that he wanted to ask how Snape was switching back and forth between forms. Harry was saved from giving away that he had seen Snape in his office when the Potions Master smoothly morphed into his regular form.
"Clean. Up. This. Room." He ordered in a deadly quiet voice.
Draco quickly moved to obey, while Harry looked around. The Slytherin boy was a slob. It seemed no sooner had the house elves cleaned, than he began to dirty things up again. He just seemed to drop things wherever he stood. Sweets wrappers, books, robes, pants, anything. Feeling happy that he had moved over to the girls dorms, Harry glanced up to notice Snape giving him a very pointed look.
"Oh," he stuttered and quickly began to help the other boy.
"Sorry," Malfoy muttered as Harry passed close. "Bit of neat freak that one."
"I wouldn't test that cheek just now if I were you Draco," Snape said, having overheard the comment. "How many times must I tell you?" He questioned sternly. "This is Hogwarts School, not Malfoy Manor. There isn't a team of House elves assigned specifically to you, employed with the sole task of seeing to it that you wipe your lazy arse properly. How many times must I tell you that?"
"You can stop anytime," Draco responded in an angry tone, his face growing impossibly red.
Harry winced at the cruel intimacy of Snape's rebuke. He redoubled his efforts to help the boy tidy up and cast about for a way he might lighten the mood.
"How are you switching back and forth between forms, sir?" Harry asked as he banished a licorice wand wrapper.
"I have you to thank for that, Potter," Snape began. "You and your rather less than stellar essay."
Harry cringed at the initial tone, thinking he had mistakenly brought the Potions Master's wrath on himself. But Snape went on to explain how he had used the information in Harry's essay to improve the Polyjuice formula.
"That's brilliant, sir," Harry said sincerely.
Snape looked as though he were fighting against saying something pleasant.
"You will, of course, be rewriting the essay,"
"What? Harry balked. "After it helped you with all that?" He complained incredulously.
"Yes, Potter. It certainly would have been a satisfactory essay if the subject had been Polyjuice," Snape explained. "What was the assignment, Potter, do you recall?"
"Hm," Harry intoned. "I was to see what potion the Nochebuena would turn into if you switch isis for talgfar weed?"
"Hablabo," Malfoy supplied.
"Correct," Snape addressed the blonde boy. "Hablabo," he said to Harry. While you do mention it and how it is made, in your conclusion you continue talking about Polyjuice, thus severely weakening your paper."
"You should have talked about the other Nochebuena derivatives," Draco piped in.
"I should have?" Harry couldn't help smile at the boy's enthusiasm and was glad the earlier tension was dissipating, even if he was stuck doing a ruddy essay.
"There are a few," Draco explained looking around the room. "They all have to do with senses. Oyendo, which enhances hearing. Buscando, increases vision. Tocado is touch..."
"All of which you would have known," Snape interrupted, "if you had done a bit of research."
"And there's this really cool one," Malfoy said warming even more to the subject. "If you switch all of the ingredients and add cottonfeather leaf, it makes a recreational potion, Noche Suprema. It makes your dreams extremely vivid and you can smell, touch, taste..." Malfoy stopped as though suddenly remembering where he was. "A Ravenclaw girl told me about it," he said and quickly turned to straighten his bedcovers a bit.
"Indeed?" Snape intoned. "Did she also say that cottonfeather leaf is a restricted ingredient and Noche Suprema is illegal?" Snape asked sternly. "It has the nasty habit of stunting your magical growth."
"She might have mentioned it..." Draco said noncommittally.
"Perhaps not that much research, Potter," Snape said, turning back to the boy. "However..."
"When was I supposed to research it, sir?" Harry interrupted "McGonagall wanted me to come straight back here and I wanted to finish it before I left."
"And you didn't bring it here to work on because...?"
It was a pretty unfair question Harry thought. He had been distraught after all. Snape should be happy he had done the thing in the first place. He had the feeling perhaps Snape was working out some earlier frustration on he and Draco both. Maybe McGonagall had given Snape a hard time. No matter. Harry decided to have a bit of fun. If he was lucky he would lighten the mood further, if he was unlucky, he'd get hexed.
"Well I didn't bring it here because I figured you were dead, sir." Harry replied innocently. Before Snape could figure out how to react he continued. "And I knew it wouldn't matter because you'd never know if I did it or not," Harry noticed he had gotten Draco's attention as well. "Not that I wanted you dead, mind. I mean, that would have been Dark just to get out of an essay. And not just Ordinary Dark, but really Dark. Certainly not Gray...course there's no need to research now, I can just write down what Draco said...Ow," Harry didn't get hexed, but the sharp cuff Snape visited on the back of his head did smart quite a bit.
"None of your cheek," Snape said in that part stern, part amused voice Harry was starting to get used to.
"Research is important, I reckon," Harry conceded, rubbing his head.
"It is paramount," Snape agreed. "I'm sure the school library or the library in my quarters will yield the appropriate materials for your essay revision."
"What if I don't finish, though?" Harry complained lightly, as Snape made his way to the door. "I have my age of independence party tomorrow."
"I suggest you get started so you are allowed to attend," Snape responded mildly.
"Yeah. All right," Harry agreed with a light chuckle.
"What in the seven hells was that?" Malfoy asked when Snape had gone.
"What?" Harry wanted to know.
"You," Malfoy said like he was a bit appalled. "Being all cutesy and cheeky with, Snape?"
"What...Oh...I was just trying to get him to laugh a bit..." Harry said self consciously.
"You were what?" Malfoy asked as though Harry had suddenly lapsed intoan unknown language.
"I dunno. You both had gotten mad, so I thought I'd...you know...wasn't that what you were doing with the Ravenclaw-rec-potion bit?" Harry asked defensively.
"No." Malfoy said plainly. "I was trying to show you up. Thought if we focused on what a dolt you are, he'd stay off my arse.
"Oh," Harry decided he didn't want to be having this stupid conversation. "I was trying to get you both to lighten up."
"He even cuffed you," Malfoy said, as though that were the biggest transgression of all.
"Yeah. It hurt," Harry found Malfoy's outrage on this particular point funny for some reason.
"When did you stop hating him?" Malfoy demanded. "What were you kissing his arse for?"
"What does that mean?" Harry asked, starting to get angry himself.
"Wow, that's brilliant, sir!" Draco mimicked. "When did he stop hating you?" Draco wanted to know.
"Oh, I'm sure he still does," Harry argued.
"No. He doesn't," Malfoy said plainly.
"Malfoy, I have no idea what your problem is?
"He even swore around you," Malfoy stated irritably.
"What is that about? He does that a lot now. Is that just the way he is in summer?" Harry asked, honestly curious. He had noticed before that Snape's language had grown quite colorful.
"No," Draco replied angrily. "That's just the way he is with Slytherins."
"I don't get it," Harry admitted, sure he was being insulted.
"It's difficult to explain, what with you not being a Slytherin and all," Draco retorted snidely. "He's just more casual. A bit like how some families are different at home than they are in public."
Harry thought to say he could relate to that. The Dursleys were certainly different at home than they were in public. He also considered mentioning the sorting hat had nearly put him in Slytherin. Finally he settled on the only response that made sense.
"Yeah. Okay. Piss off, Malfoy. I have an essay to write."
I hope you liked it. Don't forget to review.
Chapter 29
The Story of William
Snape had already heard far too many whispered complaints from older Slytherins about that snobby, smart-arsed Malfoy boy, and decided to give his godson his first in house detention. Draco was to tidy up after his housemates in the Slytherin Common Room every night for a week.
Before serving his first night, eleven year-old Draco boldly entered Severus' office and complained.
"This is servant's work Uncle Severus," the boy began in angry petulance. "I am certain father would not approve."
Since they were alone, Severus ignored the slip in formal address, and calmly explained that while he was in Slytherin House the boy's discipline was his responsibility.
This chapter has been altered slightly since original posting.