The Best Revenge
Chapter 16Drat the boy! There he was, talking with the very people Snape had not felt he was ready to meet. Harry needed to know a great deal more about the wizarding world before he could hold his own with the Malfoys. At least Lucius was nowhere to be seen. He would have had Harry's life story before the boy realized he had been asked a question. Narcissa and Draco were not angry or hostile, as far as he could see. If only he could have had another week to coach Harry about pureblood attitudes...
Well, he would have encountered Draco sooner or later. At least Harry was looking like a respectable young wizard today, and not like an Azkaban escapee. Snape knew that first impressions were vital. If Snape had had decent robes that first day on the train, he might not have seemed such an easy mark for Black and Potter. Yes: robes and boots of the best, no stupid taped glasses perched on his nose. A pity about the hair, but Snape would give that more thought.
Narcissa and Draco saw him enter the shop. He gave them a curt nod as he approached.
"Severus!" Narcissa granted him her most charming smile. "So you are in loco parentis for Mr Potter today? I confess myself surprised. I thought Dumbledore might have given the honor to one of his-favourites."
Harry smiled broadly, clearly happy to see him. Snape noticed he had some books-evidently the Rune guide he had wanted. He answered Narcissa coolly. "As it happens, Dumbledore had no say in the matter. I have known Harry's aunt since we were children together. She appointed me her proxy for wizarding affairs."
"Professor Snape's been teaching me about the wizarding world," Harry told them proudly. "It's been great."
Draco was favorably impressed by Potter's praise of a wizard he rather liked himself. He had wondered why they hadn't seen much of the Professor lately. He'd been with Potter, then, and the two of them seemed to be getting on famously. Conversely, that Professor Snape was in charge of Harry Potter raised the older wizard quite a bit in his estimation. Father had talked about how important Potter was likely to be in the future. "Do try to make friends with him, Draco. He's the darling of the wizarding world, and he could be a very useful young man to know."
He began making calculations. The Professor dined with them occasionally. Maybe if they asked him to dinner, he could be persuaded to bring Potter along, and he and Draco could spend some time together. Potter had been living in some muggle hovel, and Draco could show him how proper wizards lived. He tried to remember the things Potter had said to him. Potter liked reading. Potter was interested in the history of the Dark Arts. Maybe Potter was interested in the Dark Arts themselves. That was very interesting to Draco. Potter didn't like his muggle cousin, which showed he wasn't an idiot or a muggle-lover. What had he said? His cousin was a fat bully, and he didn't like bullies. Maybe Potter's cousin pushed him around...
Mother, clever Mother, was already making the first moves. "We were going to lunch here in the Alley today, to celebrate Draco getting his first wand. Would you care to join us?"
Snape glanced at Harry, who did not seem at all reluctant. Of course the boy was a bit lonely, spending so much time studying in his room. Naturally he wanted to be with a boy his own age. Snape wondered which was worse: playing games with Narcissa and Draco, or putting up with the deadly dullness of the Longbottom boy. At least Narcissa was easier on the eyes than Augusta Longbottom and her ghastly hat.
And perhaps-just perhaps-it might do Draco good to meet a boy from a different background. Draco was clever enough, but had only known one sort of people with one way of thinking his entire life. If Snape could mediate the inevitable clashes, possibly Draco might learn not to parrot all the most offensive talking points of the pureblood hard-liners.
"We do have quite a number of errands today, but perhaps-" Harry was looking very pleased and excited. Snape hoped that the boy would remember some of his lessons in table manners. A faux pas there would offend Narcissa more than if he cursed a puppy. Draco, too, was smiling brightly.
"Yes," Snape decided. "Thank you for inviting us, Narcissa. Will Lucius be joining us?"
"Poor Lucius!" Narcissa mourned mockingly. "He was called away by the Minister. Apparently there is some difficulty with next year's budget for St. Mungo's."
"The Minister is always asking my father for advice," Draco informed Harry importantly. "He says Father's absolutely indispensable."
"Really?" Harry replied, trying not to sound annoyed. Draco was certainly full of himself. "That's-great."
Narcissa shot Draco a faint, warning glare that missed its mark. She sighed to herself, and said, "We had planned to buy Draco's books and then his potions supplies and equipment. We could meet you around a quarter past noon. Would that be convenient?"
"Perfectly," Snape told her. "We have a brief stop to make at Gringotts. Where did you want to lunch? The Leaky Cauldron?"
Narcissa looked pained. "Oh, Severus, that's such a cliché. Tradition is all very well, but it's not my favorite place, and it's bound to be crowded with all sorts, especially this time of year. Do let's go to Summerisle's."
"Let's!" Draco chimed in, his affectations forgotten in his enthusiasm. He told Harry. "They have absolutely the best desserts there."
"Dessert is my favourite food," Harry declared agreeably
"Right then," Snape decided. "At a quarter past at Summerisle's. Did you find what you were looking for here, Mr Potter?"
Draco snorted a laugh. Snape turned and raised a brow at him.
"Interesting reading for the Boy-Who-Lived," Draco smirked.
Harry didn't understand the fuss at all. "I found a book about Runes, sir, and I thought this looked interesting." He showed Snape the two books. He looked back at Draco and said, "What? I like ancient history. The stuff in here about Crete is really neat. They used to have this ritual where boys and girls would dance around a bull and do tumbling tricks and try not to get killed-"
Snape's brows nearly met his hairline at the sight of The Path of Darkness.
Narcissa saw the title and smiled, giving Snape a conspiratorial look. "What a pity Lucius isn't here," she said airily. "He thinks that a rather good book too."
Snape rolled his eyes. The two of them knew perfectly well that Lucius was the author, under the nom-de-plume Geoffrey Froissart. Since Draco had shown himself lacking in discretion up to now, he had not been let in on the secret. The book's sympathetic view of Dark Arts as an alternative wizarding tradition was not a politically correct one at the moment. That said, Snape thought the book well-researched and well-written, for what it was. And there were some very rare illustrations. The Malfoys, after all, had probably the best Dark Arts library in Britain as a resource, and Lucius had had access to the Durmstrang Library as well.
"Go ahead and pay for the Runes book. I'll pick this up another day for you. Anything referencing the Dark Arts might cause comment." When Harry looked ready to object, Snape only said, "We'll discuss it later."
"Draco, darling, do try to summon up some tact," Narcissa suggested. They were on their way to the apothecary, and she was attempting to conceal her exasperation from the public eye.
"What's wrong?" Draco wondered. "I was just teasing him. He wasn't put out. If The-Boy-Who-Lived secretly fancies the Dark Arts, he'll have to expect a few jabs."
"That's not at all what I meant. And don't gossip to anyone else about his reading material. I'm glad Severus is more broad-minded that some people. I meant you going on about your father, in that way we've talked about."
"I wasn't going on about him," Draco contradicted. "I just told Potter that the Minister relied on Father. That's no more than the truth. I want Potter to know how important we are."
Narcissa pulled him aside, with the pretext of smoothing his bright hair, a sweet smile on her face. Her whisper was sharp and to-the-point, however. "Use your brain, Draco! How do think Harry Potter likes hearing you boasting about how wonderful your father is-when he's an orphan himself? He might have thought you were taunting him about his parents being dead!"
"I wasn't-er-Oh." Draco grimaced, and jerked his head away. "I suppose I see."
"And watch your tone with me. I've told you a thousand times that I don't like the way you swagger about with other boys, talking in that insufferable way. It's all very well with Vincent and Gregory, but any boy with a full set of wits won't stand it for a minute."
"Father always talks that way." Draco sulked.
"Your father is a grown wizard and the head of the family." She added tartly, "And sometimes he's insufferable, too. It's utterly unacceptable from an eleven-year-old boy, so I don't want to see it at lunch. Talk about quidditch, talk about what you think your favorite subjects will be-but don't patronize Harry Potter, and don't brag about your family and what we have. It may impress him, but not at all favorably."
"Oh very well," Draco grumbled. "I'll be all dewy-eyed and modest. I don't know what why you're fussing so. Harry's nice enough, but he's only a halfblood, when all's said and done."
Narcissa put her arm about his shoulders, and dug her nails into his left arm as they walked down the Alley together. Draco knew better than to wince.
"Listen to me," she said grimly. "There are halfbloods-and then there are halfbloods. Harry Potter is the hero of the wizarding world. He is not the child of some muggle. His father was the heir to one of the most venerable wizarding lines in Britain. His mother may have been a mudblood-and by the way, you'd be wise not to use that term in the boy's hearing-but she was still a witch, and she was quite a powerful witch and quite beautiful. Clever, too, to get James Potter to actually marry her. Harry Potter may be a halfblood, but if he marries properly, his children won't be. In fact, if you had a sister-" She paused, and gave a faint sigh. "-but you don't. Just as well. Lucius might not be so tolerant. Anyway, Draco, all sorts of people will be after a piece of Harry Potter. I want to be certain that we get our rightful share."
"I want you to see what we found at the cottage," Snape said to Harry, as they headed to the Gringotts cart. "I brought what you can use right away last night, but it will be good for you to know that you have other some family things."
"Those pictures are great." Harry grinned. "I don't feel so bad about being short since I saw those pictures of you, sir. You were pretty small when you went to Hogwarts, too. Maybe I'll grow someday."
"I daresay you will," Snape replied. "That is why you have your nutrient potions every morning. It will help your bones make up for years of inadequate sustenance."
They were off, whizzing through the caverns. Harry gave himself up to the fun of it all, not trying to talk. He was looking forward to lunch, too, even though Draco was a bit stuck-up. His mother was nice, anyway. Maybe Draco hadn't talked much to other boys, like Neville at the boot shop. Harry would give him another chance.
After all, it proved not so hard. Draco was as hungry as he was. They entered a very posh, very nice establishment across the Alley from Ollivander's. It was decorated with beautiful landscape murals, in which the figures moved. Harry was glad that he had been prepared for that. He would hate to look ignorant in front of Draco and his mother.
He was still dazed at the things he had seen at Gringotts. The china and silver and robes he did not care about so much, though he guessed he might be glad to have them someday. But the family grimoire and the school things that had belonged to his parents-and those amazing jewels! Somehow his family had become real to him, and he no longer felt such an outsider as they were shown to a table draped in the finest white linen, and plied with an astonishing array of what Madam Malfoy called "amuse-bouches."
He had never had elf-made ginger wine, but apparently it was something that young wizards drank on special occasions. Draco was very excited about it, and Harry agreed after the first sip. It was warming and icy and sweet and flowery all at once. Professor Snape and Madam Malfoy had a bottle of something French between them.
"Confess you're glad you came here, Severus," Narcissa demanded lightly, sipping from an iridescent goblet. "This is infinitely better than a jug of Chateau Leaky Cauldron."
Snape snorted. "One doesn't go to the Leaky Cauldron to drink wine."
Harry had never been in any place so posh. He was a little nervous, but kept his hands under control, and watched Professor Snape when he was unsure of how to go about eating things. His food from Hogwarts was always delicious, but not as complicated as the things here.
"So, Mr Potter-or may I call you Harry?" asked Madam Malfoy.
Harry swallowed hastily, and said, "Please do-"
"So, Harry, what are you looking forward to most at Hogwarts?"
He gave that a bit of thought. "I guess I'm really looking forward to being in a school where everyone else has magic. I've always been alone that way. And I want to learn heaps. What about you, Draco?"
"I'm really looking forward to seeing Hogwarts for myself. Everyone says it's terribly impressive. And I want to play quidditch."
"My son, the quidditch fanatic," Narcissa sighed fondly. "No brooms this year, Draco. How are you going to console yourself?"
"With potions," Draco told Snape. Then he thought about how that sounded. "Er-I mean-studying and learning how to make potions. In Potions class. Not taking them. Eeww."
The adults laughed a little, and Draco joined in ruefully. Harry did too, once he understood.
"I think I'll like potions, too. Professor Snape and I had a good time at the apothecary today. Mr. Jiggers had a whole dragon's liver in back, and I-"
"Perhaps not now, Mr Potter," Snape suggested mildly.
"Sorry," Harry blushed. "But it was really interesting. Transfiguration is interesting, too. Defense Against the Dark Arts is pretty important. And I like Runes."
"I thought you couldn't take Runes until third year," Draco remarked.
"You can't," Snape told him.
"There's no reason I can't read ahead," Harry insisted. "Runes are amazing. You can do all sorts of things with them."
Narcissa was interested. "A very old form of magic. I didn't take Runes myself, but Lucius did, of course. So you are an insatiable reader, Harry," she teased gently. "Do I divine Ravenclaw in your future?"
Harry blushed again, and lowered his eyes. Madam Malfoy really was very pretty, and he was not accustomed to the attentions of lovely women. "I don't know, Madam Malfoy. I've read about the houses, and there's a lot to be said for each one. I really can't say where I'll go. I want to go where I'll do well and make good friends."
"You should be in Slytherin!" Draco said with smothered excitement. "I know I'll be there. It's the best, and Professor Snape is our Head of House!"
"I wouldn't mind," Harry allowed. "I just don't know if I'm ambitious enough for Slytherin. But then," he laughed uncertainly, "I don't know that I'm smart enough for Ravenclaw or loyal enough for Hufflepuff or brave enough for Gryffindor. I'll just go where I'm sorted. After all, wherever I am, I'll still be at Hogwarts, and that's the whole point."
"Very true," Narcissa said smiling. A sweet boy. She would wager serious money on Ravenclaw, since he had thought it though so objectively.
Draco was not so satisfied. "I still say Slytherin's the best. All my friends will be there, and there won't be any of the wrong sort-"
Snape was ready to intervene, but Harry, energised by ginger wine and good food, said, "I know I'm new to all this, but I can't say I've liked some peoples' attitudes about the houses. When I was at Madam Malkins, there was a boy there who said he'd just leave Hogwarts if he were put in Slytherin."
Narcissa tutted sympathetically, and Draco scoffed.
Harry kept his eyes on his plate, and added. "It bothers me that everybody makes such a big deal of it. I think wizard-sand witches-should stick together. There aren't that many of us, after all. The more there are of us, the stronger we are. We shouldn't be fighting each other when there are millions of muggles out there who'd be happy to be rid of the lot of us-and they wouldn't know Slytherin from Gryffindor!"
Their next course was served: bewildering, exquisite. Narcissa eyed it with approval and answered soothingly, "That's so true, Harry. There's nothing more important than protecting our world from muggles. We certainly wouldn't want to share Hesperides truffles with them. There-yes, that. Try them!"
It was a strange way to have lunch, Harry thought, but very pleasant. Lots of bites of interesting things to be shared amongst them. Some of the offerings did not quite look like food to him, but they tasted wonderful.
Draco was restless, and began talking about dessert again. "Mother, may I take Harry over to the display? I daresay he's never seen anything like it!"
"Why not? You don't object, do you, Severus?"
"Go ahead, but don't linger too long. We don't want Draco to be late getting his wand."
The two boys dashed away, Harry right behind Draco.
"Come on!" the blond boy pulled on Harry's sleeve. "You've got to see this!"
"And don't run!" Snape called after them irritably.
Harry slowed as the windowed wall appeared before him, heaped with confections of snowy white and chocolate brown, some so light that the puffs of meringue floated in the air, some resting lazily on cushions of custard. Lucent jellies oozed between layers of cream sponge: crystallized fruits glittered like jewels.
"The muggles have a story about a witch who lived in a gingerbread house," Harry breathed. "But this is a fairy palace."
Draco nodded sagely, his eyes on the wall. "Yes, they always keep a few fairies about. They're quite decorative and really perfectly clean in their habits."
"Real fairies?"
"Of course. Look under the spun sugar."
"I see!"
"I'm rather fond of gingerbread myself, but living in a gingerbread house? Pretty impractical, those muggles."
"She used it to lure children. Then she killed them and ate them."
Draco stared at Harry in horror. "That's disgusting! Muggles really hate us."
"It's just an old story. Maybe somebody met a bad witch once. There are good and bad muggles, after all. There must be good and bad witches and wizards."
A sullen grunt. "The muggles must have mistaken a hag for a witch. Idiots."
"Draco, have you ever actually met a muggle?"
"No! And I don't care to! Which one do you want of these? Those are really good. They're called The Fairy's Kiss. And thats a Sorcière Brulée."
"I like the plate with the three little samples on it."
"That is nice. It's called the Judgement of Paris. You know-after the muggle prince who had to judge between three witches and started the Trojan War." He gestured at the three delicate pastries. "The cream puff is Aphrodite, the treacle tart is Athena, and the chocolate cake is Hera."
"I thought the Trojan War had gods and goddesses in it."
Draco puffed up importantly. "It's shockingly clear that you've been forced to live like a muggle. Everyone knows that what the Greeks called gods were a clan of witches and wizards who ran things there until the Greeks started asking too many questions."
"I'll have to get a book about it."
"Some of it's in that Path of Darkness book you were looking at. You really do need to be a Slytherin, reading such things. I trust you were joking about Hufflepuff. If you were sorted there, everyone might wonder if you're a duffer like the rest of them."
"I hope if I were sorted there, people would wonder if they'd been wrong all along about Hufflepuff. Anyway, let's get back and tell them what we'd like!"
The desserts were even better than they looked. Harry took his time, savoring every bite. Draco let him try a spoonful of his Witch Hazel Fantasy.
"You're so thin, Harry," Narcissa smiled. "Perhaps you need another dessert."
Ashamed to seem greedy, Harry shook his head. "If I ate like this every day, I'd be as fat as my cousin Dudley!"
"Harry hates his muggle cousin," Draco blabbed to the world at large.
Snape fixed Harry with a scowl, and Harry backtracked sheepishly. "I don't exactly-well-he's totally spoiled and an awful bully, but what can I do? He's the only cousin I have."
Narcissa was distracted enough from her Fairy's Kiss to give Harry a considering look. "That's-not entirely true, Harry. I believe-let's see-my father was your grandfather's-yes! I happen to be your third cousin, once removed. You and Draco are fourth cousins."
Harry beamed at Draco, who smirked with great satisfaction. "That's so neat!" Harry said. "I didn't think I had any relatives but Aunt Petunia and her family."
"I told you," said Snape, "that everyone in the British wizarding world is related, one way or another."
"Except the mu-muggleborn," Draco pointed out, stuttering so slightly that Harry did not catch what he had almost said. Draco gave his mother a nervous glance. "I daresay that's why they don't fit in-most of the time."
"Professor Snape said that somebody had suggested that muggleborn students have a special class in wizarding customs," Harry contributed innocently. "I think that's a great idea. I wish I could take a class like that."
Very pleased with her new acquaintance, Narcissa smiled sweetly at Harry over the rim of her wineglass. "I'll have to tell Lucius you approve, Harry. The class was his idea."
A.N.-Thanks once again for the wonderful, inventive reviews. I'll write more than a note about my views on the Malfoys next week, but I can't do justice to the subject and get the chapter out tonight. No, I'm not making them "good." I've never written "good" Malfoys. However, I'm not interested in cackling villains. I'm exploring the possibility that in a different situation, their behavior is capable of some modification. I also detest the idea of eleven-year-old "bad guys."
No, the Witch Hazel Fantasy did not contain witch hazel. Hazelnut mousse. Love it.