Disclaimer: Harry Potter and all related characters and ideas are the whole intellectual property of Ms. J.K. Rowling and are hers alone to sell. I do not receive, nor would I accept any compensation for any of the owned intellectual property of Ms. Rowling (nor that which she has licensed to WB etc.). What follows is just a wacky little ditty I wanted to get out of my brain. It only got there because I so love that which Ms. Rowling created. No copyright infringement is intended.

The Consequences of Dragon Smuggling

Harry froze, just into the teacher's common room, still half in the apartment when he spotted Professor Flitwick watching him with a strange look on his face. Harry could feel his face colouring with the professor's eyes on him. He hunched in on himself, embarrassed that his teacher – worse, his 'Uncle Filius' should know that he'd been in such big trouble. Feeling his father's presence approaching behind him, Harry looked around quickly, finally taking his hand off of the door handle. Severus looked around him and spotted what had distracted Harry part way out of their apartments.

'Go on,' he said kindly, giving Harry a gentle squeeze on the shoulder. The contact and the smooth, calm voice seemed to unstick Harry's feet at last and, head down, he moved quickly to the stairs that lead out of the teacher's wing.

They heard a muffled 'Good-night,' from the bottom of the stairs before Harry was out the door.

'I hope you don't think that I don't know what you just did,' Severus pulled himself up to his full height and turned to the other professor.

'Whatever are you talking about, Severus?' the diminutive charms professor asked mildly. In spite of the fact that he came barely past Severus' knees in stature, his casual reply and stance clearly indicated that the height difference threatened the smaller man, not at all.

'Your wand is behind your back – you just loaded his pockets with chocolates and treats. You all do it whenever he's in trouble. Do you even know what he's done this time? Do you care?'

'Do I know? Yes. Do I care? Not especially. You are hard enough on him for the rest of us put together. It can't hurt to have us be kind to him when you've punished him. Think, Severus, where would you have been if we'd all been as hard on you when you were his age…'

'I might not have gotten into so much trouble as soon as I left school, Filius,' Severus answered. But there was no rancour left in his voice. He let out a weary sigh, leaning heavily on one of the tables that littered the room.  'He has to learn strong consequences now, so he doesn't have to learn much worse consequences later, the hard way.'

****************

This sucks, thought Harry morosely as he made his way back to Gryffindor tower, munching on one of the chocolate frogs Professor Flitwick had snuck into his pocket. Every other student at this school gets to be away from their parents when they're here. But not me. Oh, no, I still get to be punished by him plus I can now get in trouble with Auntie Minnie and all the teachers… This sucks.

Hermione, Neville and Malfoy's parents weren't contacted. Stupid Malfoy, had to try and get them and Hagrid into trouble. Still, it had been great to see Charlie's friends when they met to pick up Norbert – Harry even remembered some of them from when they'd been students – and they all seemed to remember him…

'Harry?' Head Girl Cat Jones interrupted his thoughts as he entered the common room. 'Can I have a word?'

Harry grudgingly made his way over to her, wishing he'd come back to an empty common room, and wondering why Cat had stayed up to talk to him.

'Have a seat.'

'I'm fine thanks,' he said quietly, leaning casually against the edge of the sofa she sat on.

'Walloped you good did he? Good.'

Harry let his eyes sweep slowly around the room, his expression blank, before turning back to her. 'Was there something you wanted Cat?' he sighed.

'Oh,' she said. The smile on her face made him distinctly uncomfortable. There was no sincerity in it – it seemed almost malicious. 'You know… just wondering what you and Snape are playing at?'

'What are you talking about Cat?' Harry sighed again, not at all sure what she was on about.

'Well…' She glared at him now, all pretence gone. 'It's not enough is it? How he sabotages Gryffindor in classes – taking points for the slightest thing… Now he's got you helping him out eh?'

Harry felt the blood leave his face. 'What?' he cried, completely shocked.

'You're a great team,' she sneered. 'He takes points all day – and you lose us points by night. Why don't you just go back to the dungeons and leave Gryffindor alone?'

'Brilliant deductions Cat,' Harry cut her off icily. He'd gone beyond shock and arrived at anger. 'Yeah, you're on to us. I somehow tricked the sorting hat into putting me into Gryffindor, just hoping I could come up with ways to get into trouble and cost points.' He stood up straight, away from the sofa, fists clenched. 'Yeah, and dad was so happy that I'd managed to get into such spectacular trouble, and lose so many points that you're right, he creamed me. There's no getting anything past you Cat – you're too smart for me.' He felt the blood rushing back to his face, and he was trembling with anger. 'Believe me, if I didn't think I'd catch it even worse with Dad and Auntie Minnie, I'd leave right now!'  He turned his back to her and stormed toward the stairs up to the boys' dormitories, but before he ran up the steps, he whirled back around to face her. 'Oh, and Cat?' He gave her a glare to rival Severus Snape himself. 'We don't live in the dungeon. Never have. We live in the teachers' wing along with Professor McGonagall and the Headmaster and all the other professors.' With that, he ran as fast as he could back up to his dorm. Yeah, thought Harry, let her wonder if he was going to talk to their head of house, or Dumbledore.

But if he thought he'd find solace in the boys' dorm, he was sadly mistaken, Ron – the only one of his dorm mates who knew what he'd been doing when they'd gotten into trouble, was still in the hospital wing.

'Is it true Harry?' asked Seamus. 'Did you really do it on purpose to sabotage Gryffindor for Snape?'

Glaring at Seamus, and trying hard not to cry, Harry silently rummaged through his trunk until he found a small vial of floo power.  Throwing the glittery green powder into the dorm room fire, he shot a look of pure betrayal back to his dorm mates and muttered the spell that took him to his room in his father's apartments in the teacher's wing.

**************

'Wake up!' Several hours later, Harry was awakened by the angry voice of his father.

Opening his eyes, he instantly cowered. 'Dad?' he asked nervously as the older wizard towered over his bed.

'Did I, or did I not tell you to go directly to your dormitory?' Severus demanded. 'Was I unclear when I said you weren't to ever go roaming the corridors after curfew again?' he growled when Harry nodded to the first question.

'I didn't…' Harry began, but was cut off as his father pulled him out of bed.

'Get up. You have some explaining to do.'

'Dad, I came down here by floo from the dorm – I didn't go back into the halls.' Harry explained, pleading with his father, shivering as the cold of the floor froze his bare feet. 'I – I didn't think you'd even know I'd been back,' he added, looking guilty. 'I thought I could just sneak back out in the morning…'

'Why did you leave your dorm?' Severus demanded, though some of the anger had left his voice. 'You are not supposed to sneak down here to sleep whenever you want to.'

'They all hate me…' Harry whispered, staring at his feet and scrunching his toes to warm them.

'They don't,' Severus said, summoning slippers and handing them to Harry. 'They are, no doubt annoyed with you – losing so many points so foolishly… Whatever made you think they hate you? Most everyone would have been asleep when you returned.'

Harry shook his head. 'Someone was up and said…' If possible, Harry hunched further in on himself before going on. 'They think I did it on purpose – to sabotage…'

'They don't…' Severus tried to reassure him, but Harry shook his head.

'I quote: Why don't you just go back to the dungeons and leave Gryffindor alone?' He braved a glance up at his father and instantly looked away from the raw anger he saw there.

'Who said that?' he demanded with deadly venom.

'Doesn't matter…'

'Who?!' he barked, causing Harry to jump.

'Dad, it'll just get worse… and she's not the only one anyway – when I got back up to my dorm room, one of the boys asked if it was true that I'd deliberately sabotaged Gryffindor for y-' he stopped, blushing.

'Who told you to go back to the dungeon?'

Harry still didn't want to answer, but his father's voice offered no alternative. 'Cat,' he whispered finally.

'Head Girl, Cat Jones?'

'But please, Dad,' he pleaded, looking up into his eyes again. 'You can't tell anyone I told you. They'll just think I'm trying to make more trouble…'

'This cannot go on, she had no right…' but at the look in his son's bright hopeful eyes, Severus relented. 'Don't worry, I'll see to it that it's not laid on you.'

'Thanks, Dad,' Harry whispered, hugging his arms around himself from cold. 'I really am sorry I got in trouble.'

'But not sorry for what you did…' Severus added, unable to keep all of the annoyance from his voice. 'Will you tell me now what you were doing up there in the middle of the night?'

'I told you, I was helping a friend. I can't tell you any more than that. The friend would be in too much trouble.' As would me and Hermione, not to mention Charlie and all his friends he added silently. What's the fine for smuggling an illegal dragon out of the country? Surely not Azkaban? At least not Hermione and I  - we're too young…

'More trouble than you have been in this evening?'

'Yes,' Harry muttered, staring back at his feet.

'Enough trouble that it will revisit?'

'No, what we did tonight solved it for him.'

'I hope this friend is worth the trouble you've gotten yourself into for him. Is it Weasley?'

'No,' Harry replied quietly. 'It wasn't for Ron. The friend it was for is worth it all though.'

'The points, detention, what Cat did?'

Harry nodded in reply.

'Even my punishment?'

Harry nodded again, staring determinedly at the floor.

'I hope this friend realizes what you've done for him?'

'He does, I'm sure he does.'

'Um,' Severus said, slightly stiffly after a moment, sounding uncomfortable. 'About earlier… I, uh, may have been a little harsh – that is, I was a little harsh, and I – uh, I'm sorry.' He looked carefully at him as Harry looked up.

'I'm sorry I made you so angry…' Harry shrugged finally, looking away again.

'Well, aren't we a sorry lot.' Severus pulled Harry into a strong hug, kissing him on the top of the head. 'Love you child.'

'Love you too Dad,' Harry hugged him back. 'Can I still stay down here tonight?'

'Yeah,' Severus released him. 'I'll need to go out and talk to Minerva, she was having kittens when you weren't in your dorm. It's alright,' Severus reassured him when Harry paled. 'I'll explain everything to her. Go on back to bed.'