"Sorry," Harry said again, a little bit sheepishly.
Draco glared a moment longer, then admitted, "Well, it's good that it was nothing, I suppose." He scooped his wand up off the floor, shaking his head.
"Experimenting with the Point Me charm?" Snape mildly inquired, though Harry thought his voice sounded rather intrigued.
"Yeah, I thought it was useless on people," Harry said, going to flop onto a sofa. "It only works if the person's in the same room with you, so what good is that?"
"Oh, I don't know," Draco drawled, looking Harry up and down. "It might come in handy if, say, a certain sneaky little Gryffindor had, oh... I don't know... an invisibility cloak, for example?"
Harry breathed out a sigh. "You know about my dad's old cloak?"
"No, I actually did think your head had visited Hogsmeade without the rest of you, that time!" Draco snapped. "Of course I know! Besides, I found it when I was looking for you."
Now it was Harry who was glaring. "You were looking for me in my trunk?"
"Look, how should I know what strange thing you might take it in your head to do?" Draco scathed. "You stopped eating last time you felt troubled, didn't you? I thought maybe you'd gotten upset again and... ah, regressed a bit further into your childhood, that's all."
Harry burst out laughing. "You thought as there wasn't a cupboard handy for me to escape to, I'd just crawl into my own trunk and shut the lid?"
Draco must have realized that put that way, it did sound a bit daft. "Well, how was I to know it was quite so small inside? Honestly. You ought to get one spelled with wizardspace. No wonder all your stuff sits out. You couldn't cram it all in there if you tried!"
Harry knew that; he had tried. He glanced over at his father, who had sat down a short distance away. "You know, I thought I might ask for a new trunk for Christmas. Or my birthday, maybe."
"Months away," Snape remarked.
For some reason, that startled Harry. "You know when my birthday is?"
"Born as the seventh month dies."
Of course; he'd know it from the prophecy, Harry realized. For a moment there he'd thought that Snape had taken the trouble to find it out. It would be on his school records, and the adoption papers. But no matter.
Draco looked a bit puzzled, but instead of pursuing it, he pocketed his wand and admitted, "I was trying out some things with the Point Me spell. Trying to find you, Harry. I thought I might be able to make the charm work even if you were miles away."
"Fully trained wizards have been attempting that for hundreds of years," Snape explained.
"Well I had to do something!" Draco retorted, his pride obviously a bit stung. "I wasn't about to just sit here practicing cleaning charms while Harry was Merlin-knows-where!"
"Thanks," Harry said.
Draco's nostrils flared. "I didn't do anything to be thanked for, Potter," he half-snarled. "For just one second there, I thought it had actually worked, thought I had done it... but no, that was just the spell reacting to the fact that you stepped into the room." He narrowed his eyes. "You came back through with Severus. But when you left, did the headmaster come fetch you for this chat, or did you Floo up by yourself?"
"By myself!" Harry fairly beamed. "I feel great! Now I can go anywhere! Just think, I can Floo out to see Hagrid any time--"
"Any time we can be certain his hut won't be attacked by stray Slytherins," Snape corrected. "Or that Death Eaters won't enter the grounds undetected."
"Oh yeah," Harry remembered, his excitement dimming. "Shite. Oh, sorry, sir."
Snape waved a hand to say it didn't matter. "You can Floo without incident, which means your magic is coming back into your control. Considering the sheer amount of wild magic you channeled in Devon, I would say you need have no worries about being attacked, just as soon as you gain control over your dark powers as well."
Draco nodded, his eyes rather wide at the thought of it. "Direct access to your dark powers, Harry. Think about it. Not even the Dark Lord has that."
"Power the Dark Lord knows not," Snape confirmed. "You will get there, Harry."
The confidence in his father's voice should have encouraged him, Harry knew. Instead, it only brought his mind around to the things he'd realized while up in Dumbledore's office. He would get there, obviously. He was going to have to leave the dungeons; he was going to be all packed up to go, so clearly his magic would be coming back soon. The prospect of returning to the Tower was pretty good in of itself, but what if the circumstances that were going to compel an unadoption would also mean that he really couldn't see Snape again?
What if leaving here meant leaving for good? What if he couldn't pop down for a chat and a butterbeer when he needed to talk to his father?
"Something is troubling you," Snape softly observed.
He was supposed to tell Snape about his dream, he knew. And now was the perfect opportunity, but the words just wouldn't come. Damn it, Snape cared about him! How was Harry supposed to announce that all the caring in the world wasn't going to make any difference? That like it or not, Snape was going to end up signing those papers?
"Is it something Albus said?" the Potions Master pressed. "Why did he want to see you, Harry?"
Harry clenched his lips. The more concerned Snape was, the more he wanted to tell him everything, but still, he just didn't know how to begin.
"Harry, look at me," Snape urged.
He did, his green eyes great pools of sadness. Why hadn't his dream been more specific? Why hadn't it shown him just how the casewitch had gotten involved again? He didn't even know what was required, really, to dissolve a wizarding adoption! Well, mutual repudiation, his father had mentioned that much---
All at once, Harry felt a cool sensation inside his mind. A pool of water.... no, a tide, gently lapping at the shore of his own thoughts. No, not a tide. A wash of someone else's thoughts, someone who had been in his mind before...
With a hoarse cry, Harry raised his wall of fire up and up and higher. He'd hardly used the talent at all since Samhain. Something about it, something about the idea of burning had just given him the eebie-jeebies afterwards. He'd resorted to it once or twice, and then again a bit when he'd tried to access his dark powers through Occlumency. That was weeks and weeks ago and Harry hadn't once tried Occluding again. He remembered how, though. It was effortless, and complete. He wasn't about to let Snape read his thoughts. Especially not these thoughts.
Too late, though. The subtle Legilimency had done its work, and his father knew full well what he had been thinking. It was all there, in the man's ashen face, his shaking hands. Snape's black eyes were filled with two words: mutual repudiation.
Then the Potions Master seemed to come back to an awareness of himself, and his whole expression hardened.
"In my office," he snapped, flinging a hand out to point the way. "Now!"
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Coming Soon in A Year Like None Other:
Chapter Fifty-Eight: Father
Comments very welcome,
Aspen in the Sunlight
Chapter 58: Father
http://archive.skyehawke.com/story.php?no=5036&chapter=58