Chapter 21:

Poetic Justice:

Severus watched Harry in concern as they headed to the gates of Hogwarts, and on through Hogsmeade to Snape manor. He had asked Harry about Apparating, wanting to make the trip fast, knowing the young man was worrying over what he might discover from his solicitor. Harry had declined however, telling him he'd rather not risk it, never having anyone besides Abbey with him when he performed Side-Along Apparition.

Severus noticed that the younger man had been quiet since they had left the infirmary, even his earlier happiness at the discovery of being able to help Severus having faded, and Severus wondered what was wrong, but held his tongue, not wanting to draw Abbey's attention to him, and start her worrying.

"Abbey," Harry asked as they walked closer to the outskirts of the village, a few minutes from the manor.

"Yes, Daddy?"

"Your Papa and I were talking a little earlier in the infirmary, and we wondered if you would like to spend the night with Grandma Molly and Grandpa Arthur tonight."

The little girl paused and looked up. "You'd spend the night, too?"

Harry sighed, smiling slightly. "Well, no," he said after a moment. "We thought that perhaps you might like to spend some time with them alone."

Harry watched as his daughter lowered her head. "I never slept over 'lone before."

Harry looked to Severus, who nodded slightly, and they stopped. Harry knelt down and took Abbey in his arms, hugging her tightly. "I know, baby, and I'm sorry." He took a shuttering breath before continuing. "Part of it was because I was so scared."

"Why were you scared, Daddy?" Abbey asked quietly.

"Well, you remember those men at the hospital?" Harry asked, pulling back so that he could look her in the eye, and Abbey nodded, swallowing dryly. "They were there because they were looking for your Papa. They were trying to find him because they thought he was a bad man. They thought I had always known where he was."

"Did you?" Abbey asked curiously, and Harry shook his head, a little hurt by her question, however innocent she had meant it to be.

"No, baby," Harry answered. "Everything happened as I told you. He found me while you were with the Weasleys."

"I think," Severus said, kneeling beside them. "What your Daddy is trying to say is they tried to take you from him because they thought he had been helping me the whole time. They saw themselves as the good guys trying to protect you by keeping you apart. He was afraid because he thought he would not only lose you, but he feared that the real bad guys would get a hold of you, and hurt you. While he knew that those particular men wouldn't do that, it was a little to close to what he feared happening to you for him to feel comfortable."

Abbey looked to Severus, and then back to Harry, who nodded. He reached up, wiped away a few errant tears, and smiled at her. "I also didn't want you to be afraid when you went to someone's house, so, we had them over to the manor, and if we did go somewhere, then, it wasn't over night. Do you understand, now?"

"Yes," Abbey said quietly.

"So," Harry said, trying to draw his daughter out of the shell he had unintentionally gotten her to erect around herself in their brief talk. "We thought this would give you an opportunity to stay overnight with the Weasleys."

Abbey looked uncertain for a moment, but then nodded. "I'd like that," she said with a smile. "Will Unca Gord and Unca Forge be there, too?"

Harry chuckled while Severus arched a curious brow. Harry recalled having often heard Fred telling her that it was Gred, not Gord, but she was young and didn't understand. She had called him Gord for six months when Harry told him to give it up. He was officially Gord – the name stuck. "I don't know, sweetie," he answered. "We could always fire-call and find out." Abbey nodded with a smile, and getting to their feet, Severus swung her up to sit on his shoulders, and they were off once more.

"Are you coming?" Severus asked as they entered the house and he set Abbey on her feet.

"No," Harry said and shook his head. "I think we'll wait here."

"Oh, all right," Severus replied, and nodded.

"It won't take you long, will it?"

"No, it'll only take a few minutes."

Harry nodded. "I think we'll wait in the study if that's all right. Do you mind if we use your Floo?"

Severus, who had started toward the stairs leading to the lab, paused and gave him an odd look, but shook his head before continuing down to retrieve the sample.

Harry led Abbey to the study where Severus had taken him when he'd first been to the manor, and looking over the mantel, found a small, silver container that held a small supply for floo powder.

The call to the Weasleys was quick, and Ron and Hermione decided that they would meet them at Gringott's in about a half-hour, but they didn't know if the twins would be by that day or not.

"Daddy?" Abbey asked quietly once Harry closed the connection.

"Yes sweetie?" Harry answered.

"Can I go see my room?"

"Your room?" Harry asked, puzzled.

"Papa said we were gonna live here, once you were better."

"Oh, sweetheart," Harry cried in aguish, shaking his head as he knelt down, taking her in his arms. "Don't, please."

"Daddy?" Abbey asked in a worried tone, and he drew back to look at her.

"I don't know were we're going to live, baby," he said softly as he combed some inky black strands behind her ear. "We'd talked about it, yes. Then your papa and I had a fight, and I don't know if he wants us to live with him any more. He'd still want to see you, Abbey," he hurried to explain. "I know that much. That won't ever change."

Severus hadn't been very long, and had come back in time to hear the conversation Harry was having with their daughter. "This doesn't have to either," he whispered from the doorway. Harry jumped and turned to see pain in the onyx eyes watching him. They looked at each other for a moment, Harry standing slowly and then Severus moved, swiftly taking him in his arms and kissing him soundly as Harry clung to him. "Merlin," he whispered when they parted, the pained expression still clouding his features. "I'm so sorry, Harry. I'm such a fool. I had no idea that you still weren't certain about how I felt. Yes, I want you to stay. If… that's what you want."

Harry swallowed dryly, as he searched Severus' dark eyes, his body trembling while he clutched at the man's shoulders. He nodded slowly, and Severus hugged him tightly. "I'll make it up to you, I promise," he whispered in Harry's ear before kissing him on the temple. They stayed like that for a few moments while Harry stopped trembling, and looked down to see Abbey grinning at them. "All right," Severus said with a smile as he bent down until he was eye-level with his daughter. "I hate to disappoint you honey, I know you want to see your room, but I'm afraid that it's not ready yet. Can you wait to see it til a little later? I think we were heading to Diagon Alley, right?" he asked, looking over his shoulder to Harry, who nodded in confirmation. "I'd really like to have your room ready before you see it. I think we will be at Hogwarts for a while yet, Madame Pomfrey is going to help me get my magic back."

Abbey nodded, disappointment briefly passing over her features before the promise of the sleepover entered her mind, and she smiled once more.

"Ah, Mister Potter," Griphook greeted when Harry, Severus and Abbey entered Gringott's about ten minutes later. "Thank you for coming."

Harry nodded, shaking the goblin's offered hand. "Tell me, Mister Griphook," he said quietly. "How bad is it?"

The short, stocky goblin arched a brow. "Bad?" he asked. "It's not bad at all – well, I shouldn't say that, but it is not bad for you. I am glad you came however, since there is much to discuss about the vaults belonging to you and Mister Malfoy since his arrest."

Harry swallowed hard, and looked to Severus, seeing him nod encouragingly as the goblin beckoned him to follow to one of the more private rooms to discuss this matter. "What do you mean, not bad for me?" Harry asked in confusion as he closed the door behind him, and sat down at the large table.

"Well, Mister Potter," Griphook said. "The charges presented at the trial a few days ago are not all that Mister Malfoy is facing. Gringott's as well, will be submitting formal charges soon. However, before we do that, we must ascertain who else was involved."

"I – I don't understand," Harry said, a look of confusion on his face. "What's happened?"

"Well, first, you must understand that I did not send you an owl regarding this in case Mister Malfoy intercepted it." Harry nodded. "Not long ago, Mister Malfoy contacted me, and said that you had asked him to set up an appointment to go over your will, and I of course, went."

Harry paled, his breath coming in shallow gasps. "W-what happened?"

"By all appearances, Mister Potter, you were there," Griphook notified him. "However, we at Gringott's are trained not to go on appearance alone, nor do we let on that we know something's afoot if we do indeed suspect anything is wrong. The man appeared to be you, and he acted like you as well, but there were… flaws… and I knew that this man was not you. Playing along as we are trained to do, I had them sign all the required paperwork that would change your will."

"C-change my will?" Harry stammered in disbelief, and Griphook nodded. "Change it how? What did he do?"

"From what I have gathered," Griphook said calmly. "Mister Malfoy was attempting to gain custody of your daughter, Abbey." Harry nodded, already knowing this much from the St. Mungo's fiasco. "He was also trying it have it arranged so that all of your accounts, the Potter vault as well as the Black vaults that came to be in your possession while you were at Hogwarts, would be liquidated, and would fall to him if anything were to happen to you, since you were married."

Harry's jaw dropped in shock and he gaped for a moment. As he sat there staring at the goblin in disbelief, another thought occurred to him. He had to remind himself that they were discussing Draco Malfoy, it really shouldn't surprise him that the bastard had tried this – or accomplished it, he thought, swallowing dryly. After all, the fact that Draco really hadn't changed had been part of his speech at the press conference.

"So what happened?" he asked once he'd regained his composure.

Griphook smiled, and it was all Harry could do not to cringe. It truly was a horrific sight to see a long nosed, dark skinned creature with razor sharp teeth smiling at you. "Of course I did not allow the papers to even be filed," the goblin informed him. "For while the signature the impostor used was similar to yours, it was not exact. I said nothing, and they thanked me for my time, and I left."

Harry nodded, relief washing over him that Draco would get nothing.

"We do however, have other business to discuss," Griphook said, drawing Harry back to the conversation at hand. "I will just be a moment." Harry nodded, and the goblin headed for the door, but he paused, his hand on the knob, and turned back to Harry after opening it. "Would you like Mister Snape and Abbey in here for this?"

"No," Harry said, shaking his head. "They're waiting for Ron and Hermione."

Griphook nodded, and left, leaving Harry to ponder on this 'other business'. He was back in a few moments with several rolls of parchment, and Harry looked at him oddly. "I believe that you will be happy to know that Mister Malfoy's plan… backfired," Griphook said, smiling that frightening smile once more.

"Backfired?" Harry asked in confusion. Griphook nodded. "How would it backfire?"

Griphook smiled and laid the parchments out on the table, unfurling them. "Mister Malfoy was betrothed to Miss Parkinson at a young age." Harry snorted, and Griphook arched a brow.

"Sorry," Harry said, trying to regain his composer. "I just find it amusing because Draco was gay."

Griphook nodded before continuing. "Although that may be true; he was still betrothed to Miss Parkinson at one point. As a precaution against a double-cross, Mister Parkinson agreed that his daughter would marry young Mister Malfoy on the stipulation that if anything were to happen to him; that he died, or was sentenced to Azkaban, Miss Parkinson would gain the Malfoy holdings in the event that Malfoy Senior was also gone. To put it simply, without an heir to the Malfoy estate, she would inherit everything."

Harry was flabbergasted. "But – but what does that have to do with me?"

"Well, it is obvious that Mister Malfoy did not marry Miss Parkinson, however when the terms were set forth, and agreed to by Mister Lucius Malfoy, the bargain was sealed, so that no matter who young Draco married, his spouse would gain access to everything. This means that you, Mister Potter gain access to all the vaults and properties owned by the Malfoys. These are the documents which need to be signed and then we are done."

"Harry?" Severus asked a few minutes later when the young man walked out of the room in a daze. "Are you all right?"

Harry blinked, and then nodded, a smile slowly coming to his face. "Yeah," he said light-heartedly. "I'm fine. Oh," he cried, as though realizing something, and turned to address Griphook once more. He saw the goblin walking away, and called out, "Mister Griphook!"

The goblin turned and waddled over. "Yes, Mister Potter?" Severus looked on in confusion as Harry whispered something to him, and saw the goblin nod. "Mister Snape," he said, turning to the man. "Would you be so kind as to hold out your hand?" Severus arched a questioning brow at Harry, but the young wizard just smiled. Finally, he relented, and held out his hand.

Quick as a flash, Griphook poked his index finger with one of his sharp fingers, and a drop of blood began to form. The goblin then scraped it off with the same finger he had used to poke the man. "Thank you sir," he said. "Oh, and Mister Potter any of the goblins can assist you if you have further business here. I hope your purchases a few days ago were to your satisfaction, and thank you for your help, we will get on it right away."

Harry blushed at this, and nodded. "One at least," he answered. "I am not sure about the other yet, and thank you." The goblin nodded once more and without another word, headed off to complete his task.