AN: This chapter took a little longer than I expected. I've had all but the last couple of scenes done since Thursday but couldn't seem to get motivated enough to finish. Thank you though to everyone who is reading and I hope that you're enjoying this story. I have up to chapter 14 completely outlined so hopefully the next chapter won't take long to write. But just in case, I hope everyone has Happy Holidays filled with light and love and laughter.

Also, And Then There Were Three was the most popular option for the new story title :)

Snape talked to Draco for only a few minutes after Ron and Harry went upstairs, getting a surprising amount of information out of the blonde boy. Draco confided that Lucius had been shunning him since he'd stepped off the train, taking away his broom, and then banning him from his sight. Even convincing Narcissa to treat him the same.

By the time that he sent Draco to bed, Snape was gritting his teeth and fighting back the urge to pay Lucius a visit. As it was, he had quite a bit to do anyway, and it started with a visit to Albus first thing in the morning. He needed to figure out what could be done for Draco in the meantime and he wanted to have answers for them before they awoke.

Snape frowned as he sat back in his armchair. One thing was certain; despite whatever his reasonings might have been, he couldn't let Harry get away with this. He and Ron had purposefully flown hours away in the middle of the night without leaving so much as a note to let Snape know what was going on. As if a note would have sufficed. There was simply no way that Harry could expect that he wouldn't be in trouble for this.

The thought brought Snape up short. Why would he do something like this knowing that he would be in a world of trouble when he was caught? He understood the need to help Draco, and Snape didn't fault him for that, but going off on his own instead of confiding in and trusting Snape was a problem they seemed to have over and over again. What was it going to take to convince Harry that Snape was someone he could count on? Were they doomed to repeat this lesson for the rest of their lives?

Snape shook his head. His mind was moving in a million different directions and it was getting him nowhere. He was tired and frustrated by the entire situation and instead of dwelling on it, he needed to go and get some sleep. Even a couple of hours would be better than nothing. He would try to sleep until seven— just two hours— then he'd go to the cottage and speak with Albus. He would know what to do.

With that decided, Snape took a quill and parchment from the end table and wrote a quick note to Albus, then he waved his wand and it duplicated itself. Another tap of his wand on each one and they disappeared. One to Albus and the other to Remus. It would be better if they were all there in the morning so that they could stay on the same page with this. No doubt Remus would want to speak to Draco now that he was back at Hogwarts in his counselor capacity, and frankly, Snape was glad. It was no secret that Snape wasn't the warmest professor in Hogwarts, and while he and Draco were certainly close, he thought that perhaps he would open up a bit more to Remus than he would to him.

That was his hope, anyway.

Snape climbed the stairs and walked down the hallway to Draco's bedroom. He opened the door to find the teenager curled up beneath the blankets of his bed. He was already asleep and Snape couldn't help but wonder how long it had been since he'd gotten a full night's sleep. Judging by the circles beneath his eyes, he would wager that it had been a while.

He softly closed the door behind him and moved down to Harry's bedroom. He and Ron were also both asleep, with Ron sleeping in the bed closest to the door. Snape raised an eyebrow as he noticed that Ron slept even more chaotically than Harry, with his arms thrown above his head and the blankets in a heap at the foot of the bed.

He turned to Harry's bed on the opposite wall and sighed. He was asleep with his glasses still on his face, though they were pressed into the pillow and Snape was sure that if he left them, the frames would be terribly bent by morning. He crossed the room but as he reached to remove the glasses, Rook, who had been sleeping near Harry's feet, sat up and watched him.

Snape hadn't noticed the dog at first and he mentally kicked himself for not seeing him. What kind of spy was he? He shook his head at Rook. "You're not supposed to be on the bed," he said sternly.

Rook only tilted his head at him before snuggling closer to Harry.

Snape was too tired to force the dog down so he simply adjusted Harry's blankets and ruffled his hair before turning away. He waved his wand toward Ron's bed and his blankets straightened as well.

Ron sighed in his sleep and turned on his side to burrow into the warmth they brought.

Snape took one last look at them before heading to bed.

"The problem," Remus said the next morning as he sat with Snape and Albus in Albus's study at the cottage, "is that they are going to label Draco as simply a runaway teenager. Child Services didn't remove him from the Malfoy home."

"So what are you saying?" Snape asked from where he stood by a tall bookcase. "Lucius can just come and get him? And what about Harry? He ran away and he was living with me the next morning."

Remus nodded. "Yes, but when Harry ran away it was because of the accidental magic. The Ministry were already there to sort that out and then his relatives told them that Harry wasn't welcome back. That opened up an investigation right then. It's different with Draco, I'm afraid. There has been no official report filed—"

"We will obviously do that immediately," Albus chimed in from his chair.

"We will, but you both know as well as I do that we need more than just Draco's word if we are going to convince the Ministry to open an investigation against Lucius Malfoy that will actually produce results."

Snape muttered a curse under his breath that was apparently not low enough that Albus didn't catch it.

"Severus," he said with a disapproving frown.

"Then how about you tell me what we can do." Snape pushed away from the bookcase and moved to stand behind the other chair facing the desk, his fingers gripped the back so tightly that his knuckles turned white.

"We will make a report," Remus said, "and for now Draco will remain with you; you are his legal godfather after all, and the Ministry will at least put up the pretense of an investigation. I want to speak with Draco and see if he would be willing to let me use his memories as evidence."

"Which they'll accuse us of tampering with," Snape shot back.

"Maybe, but for now it's all we've got."

"I agree," Albus said with a nod. He picked up his quill and began writing on a plain piece of parchment that was lying on his desk. "I'm going to write to Child Services now. The sooner we get this in motion, the better."

"I'll come over after Draco wakes up to talk. Hopefully he'll be willing to let us use the memories."

"He will be," Snape said with a nod. "I'll talk to him."

Snape didn't tell them, but he intended to talk to Lucius as well. He knew him better than almost anyone, and he knew that if they had even a chance of the Ministry working in their favor that they were going to need more than Draco's memories.

And if Snape had to resort to getting his hands dirty in order to keep Draco safe, well, then it wouldn't be the first time.

When Harry awoke next the sun was already up past the tree line. Snape had let them sleep in even after they had snuck out the night before. Snape very well could have woken them up early and let them deal with the repercussions of their late night adventure, but looking at his watch, Harry saw that it was nearly half past ten in the morning. Though logically, Harry knew that it likely had more to do with the fact that Snape was probably busy trying to figure out what to do about Draco, and less to do with making sure his ward got adequate sleep, he was still touched by the kindness of the gesture.

"Ron," Harry said as he chucked his pillow at his best friend. "We've got to get up."

Ron groaned. "Five more minutes."

Harry shook his head and went into the bathroom to get ready. When he came back out, Ron was sitting up on the side of the bed and Harry looked around the room, noticing that Rook wasn't there.

"Where's Rook?"

Ron also looked around before shrugging. "Maybe Snape let him out?"

"Maybe." Harry picked up the pillow he'd thrown at Ron and said, "Better hurry. He won't wait forever."

Ron sighed before dragging himself up out of the bed. "Neither will my parents."

They left the room a few minutes later, once Ron was ready. He had packed his bag and lifted it onto his shoulder as they walked down the hall.

"What about Draco?" Ron asked, pointing to his closed bedroom door.

"Leave him," said Harry. "Do you really want him to be an audience down there?"

Ron shook his head. "Good point."

They made their way down the stairs and to the dining room, though neither of them walked through the doorway.

Snape, Molly, and Arthur were sitting at the table, drinking tea and talking, but the moment that Snape noticed them, he put his cup down and said, "Good morning, boys. Sleep well?"

"Er, yes, sir," Harry said, taking in the way that they looked at them.

"Sit."

Harry exchanged looks with Ron before they both took seats at the end of the table, facing the adults. He wasn't sure he liked how calm they were. Normally Snape would have already been standing and pacing in front of them by now.

"To be clear," Snape said after a moment, "I wanted to ground you both on the spot and be done with it."

"Me too," said Molly.

Harry dropped his gaze to the corner of the table. This could certainly have started out better.

"As it stands, Mr. Weasley thought we ought to at least hear you out first."

He glanced over to where Arthur sat with his hands folded in front of him and caught his eye. Harry didn't think he looked upset in the slightest. In fact, he was sure that if Mrs. Weasley and Snape hadn't been there, he might have congratulated them instead.

However, they were there, and Snape went on, "What the two of you did last night was reckless and irresponsible. It showed a complete lake of maturity and trust in us that we would have taken care of the situation ourselves, if you had only come to us. Which seems to be a recurring problem with us, doesn't it, Harry?"

"I trust you," Harry mumbled.

"You've got an awfully strange way of showing it."

Ron, clearly deciding that at least one of them should show some form of self preservation, spoke up, "We're sorry. It won't happen again."

Harry snapped his gaze to him. "I'm not sorry."

This was decidedly the wrong thing to say. Snape raised a questioning eyebrow and said, "Oh? You're not?"

Harry shook his head and began to back track. "I'm sorry that I snuck out and didn't confide in you about what was going on with Draco, but I'm not sorry I went to get him. He needed to be out of there and if I'd come to you, I was afraid that you wouldn't have gone to get him."

"So then you admit that you didn't trust me?" Snape asked.

"No." Harry could feel his frustrations rising as he glanced around the room. "It's not like that. It's just that you would have had to go through all the steps. You'd have wanted to get Granddad involved and Child Services, and I didn't have to do any of that."

Snape let out a bitter laugh. "No, instead you helped Draco run away in the middle of the night, giving Lucius Malfoy all the ammunition he needs to paint Draco as a delinquent and get him sent straight back."

"He can do that?"

All heads turned to see Draco standing in the doorway, a worried look on his face.

Snape sighed. "I'm not going to let that happen," he said firmly.

Draco walked further into the dining room, letting his hands rest on the back of the chair next to Harry's. "But you just said—"

"I'm going to talk to Lucius today and everything is going to work out."

"There's no talking to him!" Draco pushed away from the chair. "You know there's not. He doesn't listen—"

"Draco," Snape interrupted again, "I promise you that I will make him listen."

"How?" Draco's voice had gone quiet and Harry began to wonder if he had made the right choice the night before. He didn't want to make things worse for Draco, but it seemed like that might have been exactly what happened.

"That's not for you to worry about," Snape assured him.

Molly, who to Harry's surprise, had been quiet throughout most of the conversation, stood up and walked around the table to stand beside Draco. She put her hand on his shoulder and Harry felt himself tense up, afraid that he would push her away. When he didn't, Harry let out a breath.

"Draco, dear," Molly said, "it's been a long night and I'm sure you're still tired. How about you and I go into the kitchen and I'll make us both a cup of tea while Severus and Arthur finish up with the boys?"

Draco seemed to look to Snape for what to do.

Snape nodded. "Go on, Draco. We'll be done in just a few minutes, and then we'll have breakfast."

Harry watched as Draco reluctantly let Molly steer him in the direction of the kitchen, as if that was the last place on earth that he'd rather be. Then he turned back to Snape who was running his hand down his face, rubbing his tired eyes with his fingers before letting his hands drop back to the table top.

"Alright," he said, "do either of you have anything else you'd like to say? Any reason you'd like to give that might possibly justify the two of you taking off in the middle of the night and worrying everyone?"

Harry didn't, and even if he did, he wasn't sure that he would voice it now. Not after he'd found out that it might have all been for nothing— or worse, it might have actually made things harder for Draco in the long run.

He shook his head as did Ron.

"I want you both to understand," Arthur said, speaking for the first time at last, "that we're not upset that you wanted to help Draco. In fact, I think it shows a great deal of bravery and friendship to do something that you knew would result in you being in trouble, just to help out a friend. But the fact of the matter is that you did know you would be in trouble, yes? Was there any part of last night where you thought you would get away with this?"

"No, Dad," Ron said, sitting up straight and looking his father in the eye. "We knew what we were getting in to."

"Harry?" Snape prodded.

"No, it was always going to end up here."

"But you did it anyway because…"

"Because Draco is our friend, Dad," Harry said simply. "Because he deserves to have someone who will help him."

Harry thought, maybe, that he saw the briefest of smiles pass across Snape's face, but if it was there, he covered it quickly before he gave a firm nod.

"Then I don't think there's anything more to discuss, except for your punishments, of course."

Harry and Ron both groaned but didn't argue when Snape held a hand up for silence.

"We've already talked it over and we think that a one week grounding, plus one extra week of no flying will suffice."

"And you will do whatever extra chores we can think of," called Molly from the kitchen.

"Great," Ron grumbled, "Another day of de-gnoming the garden."

Harry smothered a grin when Snape glared at him.

"I've also got plenty of cauldrons that I mistakenly left sitting in the two weeks since classes ended," he said. "They could use a good scrubbing."

Harry slouched a bit in his seat at that.

With that settled, Snape and Arthur stood up and pushed their chairs under the table.

"Does Ron really have to go?" Harry asked, standing as well and looking up to Snape. "He only just got here."

Ron looked up hopefully but Molly returned from the kitchen and said, "I'm afraid not, Harry. Maybe before Summer is over we can try again."

"Assuming you can behave in the meantime," Snape added.

Harry didn't think that was entirely fair. Before this he hadn't been in any actual trouble in months. Not since the night they had saved Sirius. Though to be fair, Harry had been grounded for a month after that, and then he'd been too busy with the end of term exams to get into any real trouble. He mentally scolded himself for not setting a better track record.

"I will," Harry promised.

Snape only raised an eyebrow before leading the way into the living room to see off the Weasley's through the floo.

After their late breakfast which was really lunch, Snape sent Harry and Draco upstairs to get ready for the day before floo calling Remus to ask him to come over.

"So you're really going over there?" Remus asked, taking a seat in one of the armchairs.

Snape nodded. "If I don't, he'll come here and I don't want that for Draco."

"Do you have a plan for what you're going to say? I thought you wanted me to talk to him first and try and get some memories as evidence?"

Snape stepped up to the fireplace. "You can do that now. Draco's up in his room."

"I am not going to bombard the boy, Severus!" Remus seemed appalled at the idea. "That's a sure way to get him to shut down."

"Well," Snape said as he took a handful of floo powder from the jar on the mantle, "then do whatever you think is best. You're the professional here. I'm going to talk to Lucius and at the very least convince him to let Draco stay for the summer."

"You don't even know what you're going to say," Remus argued. "I think you're being impulsive. You should wait until you're truly calm before you go over there."

Snape took a step toward Remus, his already black eyes seeming to darken even more as he spat, "This is calm. Impulsive would have been me going last night and cursing him to within an inch of his life."

"Severus—"

"I'll be back in a bit, Remus. Harry is on restriction, and though he's allowed to come out of his room, he's currently sulking and probably won't."

With that Snape stepped into the fireplace and dropped the floo powder as he clearly said, "Malfoy Manor Parlor."

Seconds later, Snape stepped out into the spacious parlor of the Malfoy home.

Lucius Malfoy was sitting in a high backed chair, one leg crossed over the other, and with a look of complete boredom on his face. He held the cane that contained his wand loosely in one hand and in the other he had a tumbler of Firewhiskey.

"I wondered when you might show up," he said softly. "Though I'll remind you that I do have a front door."

Snape showed no emotion whatsoever, his face a perfect mask as he asked, "Would you have let me in?"

In answer, Lucius brought the glass to his lips and took a long sip before placing it on the end table beside him. He gestured to another chair for Snape to sit, and reluctantly, he did so.

"I suppose you know why I'm here," Snape said, getting straight to the point.

"Indeed." Lucius nodded, turning in his chair to better see Snape. "Narcissa sent word the moment she realized that Draco wasn't here."

"And when was that?" Snape asked. "How long did it take to notice the absence of your son, Lucius?"

Lucius smirked. "It's not as if he's been in our sight much this summer. To be honest, I hardly noticed he'd come back at all."

Snape took a deep breath. He knew that Lucius was only trying to rile him up and he couldn't allow that to happen.

"I assume he had the help of that menace of yours. Merlin knows that he no longer had a broom of his own." He let his cane rest against the arm of the chair and then looked down at his robes, brushing away an invisible speck of dust. "I will however require that you bring him back. His mother is, of course, beside herself with worry."

Snape had no intention of bringing back Draco and so instead, he said, "I can't say that I'm surprised that you're shunning him in the first place, though I did think you'd keep up the charade for appearances sake at least. What will the Ministry thing when news of Draco's abuse becomes public?"

Snape watched a tiny flicker of anger pass over Lucius's stone like features before he quickly masked them into indifference once more.

"Draco's told you nothing."

Now it was Snape's turn to smirk. "Draco's told me everything. In fact, he has enough memories to fill a penseive and as we speak he is allowing them to be viewed by a worker in the Child Service's department."

"How I discipline my son has nothing to do with anyone but me," Lucius snapped. "I warned Draco that he ought to keep better company. He chose to ignore that. He's brought this on himself."

"Oh," Snape murmured, "it's discipline is it? To ignore your child and his wellbeing? To threaten him with harm, and to deny him basic necessities? What will you do when privately disowning him isn't enough? If he continues thinking for himself and picking his own friends, and you need to teach him a tougher lesson, will you start beating him? Or perhaps take a page out of your father's book? He was a fan of the Cruciatus, wasn't he?"

Lucius was on his feet in an instant with his wand out.

Snape had been expecting this though and was up just as quickly. They stood facing each other, nearly toe to toe as Lucius breathed heavily.

"If need be," he snarled. "You forget, Severus, that much like my father, the Ministry knows better than to meddle in my affairs. Do you think anyone will believe that I would hurt my only son? And even if they did, they're smart enough to stay out of it."

"I haven't forgotten anything," Snape said, and though his voice portrayed nothing but calmness, there was also an iciness to it that far outweighed any yelling he could do. Severus Snape had been given the supreme dis-privilege of sitting at the right hand of Lord Voldemort, and he hadn't gotten there by stepping aside to let other, lesser wizards like Malfoy stand in his way. He had risen through the Death Eater ranks, and though it pained him a great deal to think about, no one would dare say that Snape hadn't been damn good at the job he'd been given. "But you and I both know that the scandal that would come about when news of this gets out will be enough to cause your fall from grace in the eyes of everyone that matters."

Snape took a step back and tugged on his sleeve where they both knew his wand was concealed. "There is however, one another option that I'm prepared to take, and I will have your answer before I step back into that floo. If you find it acceptable, then you will send Draco's belongings to the Manor immediately. If not, I will be sending Draco's memories to the head of Child Services myself."

When Lucius didn't respond, Snape took that as his sign to continue. "You will allow Draco to remain with me over the summer and all holiday breaks from Hogwarts. You will not contact him, you will not touch a single hair on his head, and you will not send anyone else to. You most certainly will not conspire with other students to bring him harm. As far as anyone else is concerned, Draco is your son and heir, and you allow him to spend summers with me out of the goodness of your heart. Narcissa is of course, free to visit him whenever she wishes, but you will stay away unless Draco wishes to see you himself. And you can be sure that if he does, I will be right there beside him."

Lucius looked murderous as he glared at Snape. His hand tightened around his wand as he watched Snape walk across the room.

Snape wasn't fazed in the slightest. He simply waited to see what Lucius would say. Either way, Draco was never again going to be harmed by this man.