"He calls me a ferret," Draco drawled back.
"Well, you were a ferret for a while, weren't you?"
"Harry, that is not helpful!" Snape erupted.
Oh right, constructive... "I'd like you to call him Ron. Remember your Hermione theory? It's harder to stay at odds with someone when you're on a first-name basis?"
"Hermione's at least cute," Draco grumbled.
"Oh, really?" Harry raised an eyebrow, fascinated.
"Gentlemen, we can discuss our love lives another time--"
"She's not part of my love life," Draco said, glaring at them both. "And she's not likely to be. I don't fancy a walking library for a girlfriend, let alone.... never mind. But yes, I can make nice with your little friend and call him Ronnie."
"No sarcasm," Harry warned.
Draco gave a rather regal nod.
"Now you, Draco," Snape prompted.
The Slytherin boy looked down his nose at Harry. "You scrape your toast and it's simply got to stop. Every morning, scrape, scrape, scrape, the rhythm so smooth and regular I think I'm at the bloody symphony. I might understand if you ordered it burnt to begin with, but no, it arrives a perfectly done medium-amber. But are you satisfied? No. Scrape, scrape, scrape--"
"Be serious, Draco," Snape wearily commanded.
"Oh, but I am."
"Fine." Clearly, Snape was too tired to press the point. "At least be constructive."
"Order crumpets instead," Draco haughtily advised.
"Sure," Harry mildly agreed. For some reason Draco wanted to make a joke of things, but it wasn't worth an upset. He glanced at Snape and saw that this little family counseling session was likely at an end. "Sir? Shall we go have that cocoa now?"
For a lark, he ordered it with toasted crumpets, neatly laying one on each saucer after he poured. Snape even got the Galliano out and laced his as suggested, though he declined to share the liqueur. Draco stuck his tongue out when Snape's back was turned. Harry almost spewed his cocoa.
When they'd all drunk their fill, Snape leaned back in his chair and lightly rubbed his abdomen. "That was excellent cocoa, Draco. Truly excellent." Quirking a smile at Harry, he continued, "I do believe an adjustment is in order. Two hundred fifty points to Slytherin."
Draco strangled a laugh. "Excuse me? Two hundred fifty points to Slytherin for cocoa Harry ordered?"
"Ah, but it was your idea," Snape reminded him, eyes hooded. "Time for cocoa. Quite a sound idea that was. Well worth points."
"He really is tired," Draco remarked.
Harry rolled his eyes. "Very funny," he informed Snape.
"Clever, I thought," Snape murmured. "Are you going to have a problem with it?"
"No."
"Are you certain? No identity crisis?"
Harry laughed. "No. It's fine."
"Well it's not fine with me," Draco objected. "My own Head of House, the Potions Master, wouldn't give me one measly point for improving the Lotion Potion, but I get hundreds because my watch had a clever suggestion for a late-night snack?"
Lotion Potion... Harry froze, a bad feeling beginning to spill out from his heart. "Lotion Potion?" he echoed, his voice a croak.
"Yeah, it's for the--" Draco abruptly went silent.
"It's all right," Snape informed him, passing a hand in front of his eyes. "Harry knows what we were doing yesterday."
"Oh, good." Draco glanced at Harry as if to check how the Gryffindor boy was taking things.
"It's... it's that skin cream you gave Severus for Christmas, isn't it?"
"Oh, good guess, got it in one." Draco beamed, delighted as ever to show off. "I found a way to numb the Mark a bit even while it's burning. Not that it does much; Severus says it only takes the edge off, but every little bit helps, I suppose."
"Are you all right, Harry?" Snape pressed. "You've gone pale."
"Uh, I think the cocoa disagreed with me," he quietly invented. But what was he going to do, admit that the phrase Lotion Potion had confirmed a seer dream? Damn it all, he had seen a glimpse of the future!
Quite obviously, Snape didn't believe for a moment that cocoa was the problem. "Harry. I won't lock you out again, all right? Next time my Mark flares, you will help us renew the stasis Potion."
"I'll show you how to make the Lotion Potion, too," Draco volunteered.
"See if you can help Draco settle on a less inane name," Snape bid.
Worse and worse. In the seer dream, Snape had termed that name vapid. Harry knew a strong urge to scream in frustration. He'd seen a real conversation, no if's and's, or but's, which meant the rest of it was true, too! What was he going to do?
Harry forced himself to calm down. The dream was... well, it was what it was. An idiotic conclusion if ever he'd heard one, but it made a strange sort of sense to Harry. It was a seer dream, yes. That much seemed clear. Did that mean it had to come true? Did it even mean what it seemed? And even if the answer to both those questions was yes, the dream hadn't been about his real relationship with his father. It had just been about legalities.
"I think Lotion Potion is quite a clever name, actually," Harry murmured.
"Teenagers," Snape muttered.
"Brothers," Harry corrected, because the moment before, he had finally understood the truth, the full truth. Paradigm shift... this one had been a while in coming. He wondered if that was because of what Snape had said. Had fifteen years of bad family experiences blinded him in ways far more profound than Lucius Malfoy's needles?
Maybe so, but now he could see the truth. As much as he liked the fact that his name and Snape's were side by side on those adoption papers, the paperwork wasn't what had made them father and son. Commitment was what did that. And since Snape was committed to both his sons, Harry and Draco couldn't be anything but brothers. They really were a family, all three of them, just as Snape had said.
"I thought you didn't like that," Draco murmured. "When I said we were brothers earlier, you didn't even smile."
"Because it's serious," Harry said, sensing now that he'd hurt Draco's feelings. Maybe that explained the you scrape your toast nonsense. "Sorry I laughed so much the other time when you said it. I didn't get it. But I do, now."
"Oh, you do," Snape softly confirmed. "Both of you do. The sheer level of sibling rivalry in this home has defied belief. Whether you realized it or not, you two have been acting like brothers for some time."
"Well, that just proves you have two normal sons, I think," said Draco. "That's what the book says, anyway."
"The damned book?" Snape mocked.
"Information can be misused as well as used, Severus," Draco returned. "I told you Harry and I didn't need you to interfere. We can get along on our own."
"Good point," Harry said, turning to Draco. "By the same coin, Severus and I can get along on our own. I don't need you lecturing me ten hours a day about how I should treat him."
Draco's eyes sparkled. "Well, at least you're finally calling him Severus, though not to his face, I can't help but notice."
"That's just what I mean! What I call him is between him and me, and so is whatever else I might have to say to my father!"
"Oh, father," Draco approved. "That's even better."
Harry threw his hands out in disgust. "Oh, you're hopeless, you are."
Draco laughed. "No, I'm not. I'm just having you on. Well, sort of. I'll try to watch it, all right?"
"All right."