AN: I do not own Harry Potter.

Finding Shelter In Stormy Winds

Draco was spoiled. He knew that. It meant that he took things for granted that he knew not everybody had, such as the Weasley's. One thing that he took for granted as an only child was access to his parents. When he started at Hogwarts, he suddenly didn't have his parents in the castle, and couldn't do things with them on a daily basis as he was used to. He could still send letters for advice, or just to talk, but it wasn't the same. Needless to say, he relied on his letters to his parents for his world to feel right. That is why it hurt so much for his letters to his parents to not get out. So, he sought another adult that, as far as he knew, had similar beliefs as his parents, Professor Snape.

Professor Snape was not known for being kind amongst the general population of Hogwarts. He was not cuddly with any of the brats, even those that he watched over on a daily basis. That did not mean that he left them to figure things out alone when looking for help. That meant that when one Draco Malfoy was floundering over what made wholesome values that he didn't turn him away.

Draco, for his part, couldn't decide what made him go to his Head of House in the first place. It could be because that his professor hadn't said anything really against the coaltion that he and the rest of the school had formed. It could be that he had been there since he was small. It could be because of his association with his father. It could also be that Draco, for once in his life, felt he could not go to his father, but instead went to someone that had always acted somewhat similarly, even if they had somewhat different values.

It was his darkly dressed professor that locked the door and silenced it before saying anything, and threatened him to keep his silence. However, it was once he had promised, that his professor had opened up.

"You are right to question if following the crowd of your peers is the right thing to do. I know that if I had or if I had known of an alternative, I would have never had joined the Death Eaters."

Well, that was a shock. It was also apparently very open on his face.

"I thought you agreed with them."

"I do," the man snorted, "with some things, which is how I got hooked. However, what I don't really appreciate or agree with is with the rest and how they would implement them. The main one being blood-purity and everything about that, including how they thought that muggle-borns are second hand citizens at best and canon fodder at worst. What I did appreciate was the traditions and separation from the Muggle world. My pure-blood mother taught me everything she could before she died at a young age. I had an abusive muggle father, so I channeled my hate for him onto those I was sent after in raids. However, it was my best friend's muggle father that took me aside, and pointed out to me that it wasn't those I was going after that were at fault for what I went through, but my father. I didn't believe him at the time. Later, after the war ended, I realized he was right. Those were not at fault, even if I wanted to blame society for the constant press of peers to fit in. It's present everywhere, not just there or here."

"I doubt you followed that that easily. You're high up."

"I thought he was being ridiculously conscientious at the time, and ignored his advice for a while. However, I didn't point him out to my fellows because at the time he was the only father figure I had that I looked up to. Dumbledore has always looked down on Slytherins; there's no father figure to be found in Slughorn. However, he was right."

Draco had understandably been upset at this opposition of his entrenched values, even if they had been shaken a bit lately and stormed off.

"HOW! HOW DOES ONE DO THIS!?"

Severus Snape walked into his classroom from his office where he had been. He had walked over at the sound of an emotional person storming into his classroom setting off his room wards.

"Do what? Stop yelling, brat and answer me."

A quick wave of his wand hand, which the distraught boy ignored in favour of pacing, had the door close to give them some privacy.

"How do you decide to change your thinking?"

"It hurts, but you take a truth and realign your thoughts to it. If not your thoughts right away, your actions."

"Do you know how much it hurts to see someone who had been speaking in terms you thought you knew take those same ideas and apply them to those you know? To then go to those people and give an account of what you were doing and your difficulties in doing it? You feel so guilty all the time, but we can't stop when she's around."

Snape would have frozen in that minute if doing so wouldn't have been highly suspicious.

"How..."

"I'm on that stupid squad of hers. I wish I wasn't. We're going behind her backs as much as we can, but it still feels like betrayal. Like she's betrayed me, the values that my father taught me, and she doesn't recognize it. Yet the thing is, she's doing everything like Father would agree to. And I want to date a muggleborn."

"Then I would ask what dating a muggleborn would look like and if rejecting what your father told you is worth it."

"Apparently its got pretty loose guidelines compared to what I was taught. And weren't you telling me earlier that I can't blame the actions of the few on the many?"

"Go, research, and please do not yell in my classroom in the near future."

"Just, am I doing the right thing?"

Severus Snape felt privileged to see this, this step towards growing up that this admittedly very spoiled brat of a Malfoy had taken. Yet, what this young man had always had was a father who would guide his steps. Now he was stepping out from his father's shadow and looking for the same type of guidance. Yes, it annoyed him a bit, but looking to someone other than Lord Malfoy was a good thing here. Now, could he give what the young man would ask of him? Good question.

"In figuring out what you believe instead of just copying your father, yes. In dating Granger, she can be irritating in her presentation, but you can be also. Maybe it will work? You're both from upper class families, so you're not marrying too far down society if that's something you care about. What about her do you like?"

"How much she loves magic, how easily she gets concepts, and she cleans up well. She does have the right posh accent, you're right about that, especially since she got her teeth fixed. She chases down things and puts her whole self into doing so..."

"Obviously, you like her. Go on a date, see how it work out without any other reason getting thrown in there, and talk to her."

"Right, thanks, sir."

"Go on, you have a date to plan."

"Right. See you, sir."