"And that will happen when?" Snape inquired.
"Should be tomorrow," Harry volunteered. "I... um, I already asked."
He liked it that Snape looked sort of pleased by that.
The casewitch, however, held up a cautioning hand. "I said tomorrow was likely. At any rate, you will be provided with an additional official copy, embossed and suitable for framing, shortly after Wizard Family Services grants final approval."
"That will be very much appreciated, Miss Thistlethorne," Snape politely concurred as got up to place his copy of the contract in a desk drawer. "Does that conclude your business here?"
Talk about decorum, Harry thought. Snape knew how to tell her to get out without it coming across rude at all. Well, he'd seen way back with Mrs. Figg that Snape did know how to be polite, when he wanted. He just usually didn't bother.
Taking the hint, Amaelia Thistlethorne stood up. "Do be careful of Mr. Malfoy's feelings," she thought to warn them. "However good the reasons for proceeding as you have, his little chat with me clearly indicates that he's bound to feel somewhat rejected by this turn of events."
Snape inclined his head in answer, and walked the casewitch to the Floo.
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"So, is it done?" Draco asked with what seemed like forced brightness when Harry went back into their room. All the Herbology stuff was put away, Harry noticed, but before he could comment, Draco was saying, "You're a Snape?"
"I'm not changing my name."
"I meant metaphorically, of course," Draco said with a slightly haughty air.
"It's supposed to be official tomorrow," Harry said, feeling like he was walking on eggshells. He wanted to ask if Draco was all right, but decided the question was too intrusive and that Draco wouldn't answer honestly, anyway. He'd pretend everything was perfectly fine, because any other answer might cost Slytherin a hundred points. That really was a lot of pressure, Harry realized, frowning. And if Draco was really trying to recruit Slytherin to fight Voldemort, he couldn't afford to upset his House.... oh, shite. In that case, it was a tonne of pressure.
"What's wrong?" Draco asked, pointing that Harry should sit on the other bed, facing him.
"Oh, nothing," Harry denied, though he did sit down.
"You're not having second thoughts, are you?"
"No."
Draco curled a lip. "Oh, I know what it is. Not too surprising you'd be a bit squeamish, really."
"Snape does not make me squeamish!" Harry objected. "I like him!"
Draco laughed, the sound darkly amused. "Oh, that's fairly obvious, surreal though it still seems to me. I just thought you must be uncomfortable about your change of House, actually."
"Excuse me?"
"Severus said he told you," Draco commented, grinning like he was savoring something tasty. "Your House, Harry. There's an old rule here, goes back to the 1400's or something, that if a professor's child is in residence, he's automatically a member of the teacher's House in addition to his own, assuming they're different. It has to do with not undermining parental authority, you know, so you can't tick off Severus and then skip off claiming that only McGonagall's allowed to do anything to you. Didn't Severus mention it?"
Harry felt a bit frozen with shock, but had to own, "Um, yeah. Actually, he did. Sort of in passing. At the time I was worried about filling out my forms... I wasn't really listening."
"I'd think five years in Severus' classes would have taught you better than that. He doesn't talk just to fill the air." A strange smile hovering on his lips, Draco probed, "Are you okay with it? Being a Slytherin, too? Being known as one?"
"Guess I have to be," Harry lightly passed it off. Since the truth was that he'd have been in Slytherin all along if he hadn't insisted otherwise, he couldn't get all that upset. And he couldn't claim that Snape hadn't warned him, could he? "You thought I'd be upset?"
"I thought you'd be mortified."
"Nope," Harry said, hesitating to comment further. Some impulse inside him kept insisting, though. Draco had done a lot for him, after all. Returned his wand... tutored him endlessly... And despite his jealousy, the Slytherin boy hadn't used his own interview to derail the adoption. Of course, he'd done some of that more for Snape than for Harry, but still, what had Harry ever done in return?
Not much.
So he had to tell him, he just had to. Because, the tiniest little part of him was starting to trust Draco, even if Harry just knew there was something he'd missed about the Slytherin boy's big conversion to the Light.
"It's like this," Harry finally ventured, blushing a little bit. "The... er, Sorting Hat sort of wanted to put me in Slytherin to start with."
"Sort of wanted?"
"Well, it was more like the Hat was trying to talk me into it."
Draco blew out a long breath. "Well, that's interesting. It can only mean that you are a bit Slytherin at heart. How'd you end up in Gryffindor, then? I mean, the Hat's not really supposed to let you pick or anything."
"I just kept thinking Not Slytherin, not Slytherin until it gave in."
"Oh, very flattering," Draco drawled. "Though I suppose you'd heard the Dark Lord had been sorted there, so it stands to reason you wouldn't want--" He stopped when he saw Harry shaking his head.
"I wasn't thinking of Voldemort. You'd already been sorted; that was the problem."
"Oh, very flattering," was Draco's reply to that. He didn't appear to take great offense, however. "Does Severus know about all this?"
"Yeah, he said I should have let the Hat do its job."
"Though if you had," Draco pointed out, chuckling, "I'm sure you'd never have lived down all that Heir of Slytherin stuff you got sort of painted with."
"Ron and Hermione and I all thought you were the heir," Harry admitted.
"Oh, now isn't that sweet considering it turned out to be some half-blooded maniac who was opening the Chamber."
"Again with the blood, Draco?" Harry sighed.
"No, that isn't what I meant. It's just that Salazar was big on purebloodedness, right? So it's idiotic to think that er... Riddle, could be his so-called true heir. He wouldn't even qualify to attend here, not if Salazar had had his way." Draco gave Harry an assessing look. "So you're a Slytherin too, and not just in name... Well, Slytherin's current attitude to me notwithstanding, we tend to really stick together. Usually, that is."
"You're saying you'll stick by me?"
"Shite, Harry, I've been saying that for weeks. This adoption deal, though..." Again, that strange half-grin curled his features. "I guess it makes us brothers, huh?"
Harry stared at Draco as the whole world flipped upside down and began spinning. He laughed, good humor chasing all his worries away as the most profound sensation of relief swept straight through him like a cleaning breeze. All that anxiety, he thought, chortling, and the dream didn't even mean what I assumed! What made me think that 'brothers' only had one meaning? The dream was true, true all along, but it's no big deal, it's no problem at all...
Clapping a hand over his mouth, Harry practically screamed with laughter.
Draco appeared puzzled, if anything. "I know the other Houses are a little bit odd by our standards," he ventured, "but don't you Gryffindors regard yourselves as a brotherhood?"