Harry thought about that for a moment. Maybe Snape having been a Head of House for so long explained some things. "Hmm," he said, wondering how to proceed. "Well, you know, we've had some ups and downs--"
"Only to be expected, my boy."
"Oh sure," Harry agreed. "But the thing is, it's a habit with him, I think, to react to things the way a Head of House would. Maybe you could mention sometime over tea that it's not so fatherly to punish me with points over things that are really strictly family matters?"
"Maybe you could mention it," Dumbledore gently pointed out.
"Oh, I have, believe me. But I'm not quite getting through."
The headmaster gave a sage nod. "I'll have a word with him. Just so long as you know, Harry, I'm quite certain Severus will guess that you had a word with me first."
Harry sipped his tea and hid a smile. "That's all right."
Whatever Dumbledore might have said in reply was cut completely off by the sound of the Floo flaring to life. Snape tumbled out, his robes in wild disarray, cinders flying everywhere as he made a completely undignified entrance into the room. The shock of that, however, was overshadowed by the words escaping his lips, words which began before he had fully exited the smoldering fire.
"Harry's gone missing!" he cried out, stumbling off the hearth as though his legs were about to give way.
"No I haven't," Harry said, jumping up from his chair so that Snape would notice him.
Snape's jaw dropped, his black eyes screaming relief, and for a single moment, absolute silence reigned in the stone chamber. Then he said something that was quite possibly the most inane thing Harry had ever heard Severus Snape utter. "You're here."
"Well, yeah." Harry tried for a soothing tone, sensing that his father was still deep in some state of shock. "Professor Dumbledore invited me up for a chat--"
In less than an instant, Snape was across the room and pulling Harry into a tight, almost suffocating hug, yanking him urgently into his arms and holding on as though for dear life. Before Harry had quite adjusted to that, however, his father was shoving him away and roughly shaking him by the shoulders, shouting, "You are without exception the singularly most thoughtless child I've ever known! Draco was out of his mind with worry--"
The shaking suddenly stopped as Dumbledore laid a hand atop one of Snape's. "Only Draco, Severus?"
Snape huffed and took an abrupt step back, crossing his arms with a snapping motion. "What utter rot. I am quite rightly concerned over this idiot child's scatter-brained decision to sneak off without so much as a word!"
Harry took a breath. "I told Draco I was coming up here."
Sneering, Snape retorted, "Be that as it may, when he interrupted my session with the fourth-year Slytherins, he was in a state of extreme panic! So much so that he couldn't even manage to guard his tongue! By nightfall, the whole castle will be abuzz with rumors of Voldemort entering Hogwarts yet again!"
"Look," Harry said, "I'm sorry Draco missed it, but I did tell him. I even thought he replied."
"Any particular reason," Snape snidely inquired, "why you didn't wait long enough to find out what he had replied? For all you know, it could have been, What was that, Harry? I didn't quite catch it."
"I didn't want anybody to see me try to Floo!" Harry exclaimed, only then realizing that he should share his news. "I Flooed, Professor! All by myself! And I didn't get burned at all!"
Something in Snape's expression softened. "So you did."
The quiet, proud undertone in those three words did more to affect Harry than any rebuke could. "I didn't want to worry anyone," he offered. "I thought Draco heard me say I was coming up here, I really did. I'm sorry."
Snape briefly closed his eyes, but not before Harry saw a flash of pain darken them far past black. "I thought I had lost you," he admitted in a cracking whisper lashed with a fear that was all too real, even now. "I thought the wards had failed. That you would be killed. That you had been killed, already."
That time it was Harry who flew across the room, wrapping his arms around his father to pull him tight. "I'm sorry!" he said again, the words a muffled wail.
Dumbledore, Harry noted, had enough decorum to turn away as Snape tightened his hold and bent to briefly touch his lips to the boy's hair.
"Well, you didn't intend to upset anyone, I'm sure," Snape finally said, his voice rather gruff. He stepped back and cleared his throat to get Dumbledore's attention. "Headmaster, I hate to impose, but I think it best if I am there with Harry when he explains to Draco just what transpired. Would you be so good as to assist my Slytherins in finishing their Ossifying Potions?"
Harry remembered that one. One sip of it would strengthen your bones, but more than that... or the slightest mistake in the complicated formula... and the results were bad. He swallowed something hard and painful as realization hit. "You left your students in the middle of brewing?"
"I do believe I mentioned once that you were my first priority, Harry," Snape drawled, a slight flush still tinting his cheekbones. He returned his gaze to the headmaster. "Should anyone need it, there is an antidote in my top left desk drawer. The orange vial. I don't want any of my Slytherins turning completely to bone, after all." His color returned to normal as he smirked. "Now, had I been instructing Gryffindors when Draco's firecall came through..."
Harry chuckled and lightly poked his father in the shoulder. "Yeah, yeah. I'm wise to you now."
Snape favored him with a supremely cool look. "I've no idea what you mean."
"I'll bid you good day, then," Dumbledore broke in, his wizened old eyes satisfied as he glanced at them both. With that, he was Flooing down to see to Snape's students.
Grabbing his father's hand, Harry tugged him toward the hearth. "Watch me Floo--"
"Another time," Snape declined. "I shouldn't like to follow you down and find that Draco has hexed you for giving him such a fright."
"Oh, he wouldn't hex me!" Harry exclaimed. "I think maybe that fight gave you the wrong idea. We usually get on really well."
"Draco's lack of impulse control is most apparent when he's under a great deal of stress," Snape explained.
"Oh, all right, we'll go together," Harry agreed, stepping into the fireplace and waiting for Snape to join him. "But I get to throw down the powder."
A flash of green fire consumed them both as the boy shouted, "Harry Potter's home!"
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The Floo Network usually liked to belch Harry out rather emphatically, but with Snape standing beside him, it decided to behave. They spun back down to the dungeons and stepped calmly into the living room just as Draco's voice rang out in commanding, imperious tones, "Point me Harry Potter!"
A wand on the floor spun around then stopped, its tip pointing directly at Harry's ash-coated shoes.
"Ha ha, ah ha!" Draco shouted, practically jumping up and down. "It worked, it worked!"
Then he glanced up and saw Harry. "Oh, you're here."
Hmm, Harry thought. Maybe Slytherins under stress feel a strange need to state the obvious.
"Yeah, sorry that I worried you," Harry admitted, stepping back against his father when Draco's eyes began to glitter in a way that looked a bit dangerous. "Dumbledore invited me up for a chat, and I thought I'd go, that was all. I did tell you before I went, but I guess you didn't hear me."
Draco glared. "Next time you might want to just check that I have, Potter! Honestly, Severus probably has a classroom full of dead Slytherins by now or something. And that's sure going to do my reputation in my House a lot of good, isn't it?"