Uh-oh. Harry froze, then managed to groan, "How did you explain why we didn't just admit to that?"
Snape gave him a disgusted glance. "The day I cannot misdirect a sixteen-year-old Gryffindor is the day I tender my resignation," he sneered, taking up his cup again. He made Harry wait through several sips before continuing. "I told her that Draco was embarrassed a wizard should have to learn such a thing. And that you, Harry, were worried if Gryffindor learned of it, they might assume your magic was never coming back. That you were horrified at the prospect of demoralizing the war effort."
"Good thinking, Severus," Draco approved with a slight smirk in Harry's direction. You'd never known he'd been rebuked the moment before. No, he was too busy gloating. Harry could practically hear him. See, Harry? Severus has everything under control and there's no way we're letting that Muggleborn in on a thing...
Harry wasn't about to leave it at that. "I still think we need to tell Hermione the truth," he staunchly asserted.
"No," Snape snapped.
"Look, if she thinks you're teaching me Muggle fighting, it's just a short stretch from that to her deciding that you're being a little too rough on me and it's your... uh, past hostility at James making you hurt me--"
Snape's eyes darkened in a way Harry recognized as dangerous. "And just what would Miss Granger know about my hostility toward James? You told me you hadn't shared what you saw last year!"
"I didn't!" Harry helped, a little bit alarmed. "It's common knowledge, Severus! Oh, not that incident in particular, but the fact that you hated him, yeah! Even the casewitch knew about it; she asked me if I was worried you might confuse the two of us!"
At that, the Potions Master appeared to calm. "We will not be telling anyone further about your magic, Harry. Anyone. If Merlin himself walked through that door and offered congratulations on your Lumos, I'd expect you to ask him what he's going on about. Do you understand me?"
"But Dad," Harry objected, "I'm sure it's just a matter of time before Hermione goes back to thinking--"
"I do not care what your friends think!" Snape erupted. "Or what anyone thinks, for that matter!"
"Well you'd better start," Harry shouted back. "Because if Wizard Family Services hears what she thinks, they'll probably take me away from you!"
Snape opened his mouth to yell again--Harry could tell--but was startled out of it by the same noise that in the same instant made Draco glance up, and Harry nearly jump out of his chair.
The magic doorbell, clanging inside all their heads.
Harry glanced at the door parchment, hoping it would read Hermione Granger.
But it didn't. Instead, his horrified gaze read names that sounded a death-knell inside his mind.
Amaelia Thistlethorne, Richard Steyne.
Harry nearly fainted, and the feeling only got worse when he saw Snape calmly rising to his feet. "Don't answer it," he begged.
Snape paused to look at him. "That's hardly going to help matters." When Harry closed his eyes in defeat, his father added, "Whatever happens, we will surmount it." And then, "Harry. Look at me, Harry."
The boy did.
"Occlude your mind," Snape urged. "And school your features. She will be watching your every expression to determine whether something is wrong. I know you feel unsettled, but you must show her how much you feel at ease. Do you understand?"
"Yeah," Harry groaned, getting himself together. Or trying. He wasn't sure how well he was doing, but he saw Draco give him an encouraging nod. Harry smiled back, practicing. And then Snape was opening the door.
The casewitch stood there, her garish red robes clashing with her hair. She was accompanied by a blond man barely taller than her.
"Miss Thistlethorne," Snape greeted her, bowing ever so slightly in a gesture of deference. "What a pleasure. Please, do come in."
The casewitch wasn't smiling, Harry noticed. Nor was the wizard with her, who looked stiffly about as though searching for evidence of abuse right there in the living room.
"Professor Snape," she levelly replied.
Remembering Draco's manner with guests before, Harry stepped forward. Best to act like he was perfectly at home, right? Well, he was perfectly at home in Snape's rooms, come to think of it, but best to make them see that. "May I take your cloaks?" he politely inquired, modulating his voice to a tone both relaxed and polite.
The casewitch shrugged out of hers, revealing a dress just as horribly red, but the wizard declined with a sharp shake of his head. "My new assistant, Mr. Richard Steyne," Thistlethorne made the introductions. "This is Mr. Harry Potter. Of course you're well acquainted already with Professor Snape, and I dare say you recall Mr. Malfoy from your own student days."
"Mr. Steyne, a pleasure to see you once more," Snape drawled in a deep voice that somehow indicated a lack of pleasure, for all it also sounded sincere.
"Professor," Steyne replied, the single word just short of curt.
Draco raised an eyebrow. "I thought your name sounded familiar, though I don't believe we ever much talked--"
"No, seventh-years don't tend to fraternize with underclassmen," Steyne interrupted, his gaze still critical as he glanced around. When it settled on Harry, Steyne looked for his scar.
Harry covered an urge to sigh by politely asking, "Has Mr. Darswaithe left the department, then?"
The casewitch looked a tiny bit put out. "Wizard Family Services is not a department," she corrected. "It is an adjunct services office."
Harry nodded as though he really understood the difference. Or cared.
"Horace Darswaithe has transferred to superintending an orphanage for squib children," she added, making Harry wonder if Darswaithe had transferred or been transferred.
Snape, Harry noticed, was gesturing that their visitors should sit down, but both Thistlethorne and Steyne ignored him. "I must admit, I was anticipating you might conduct a routine review soon," the Potions Master tried prompting.
At that, Amaelia Thistlethorne's voice grew positively frosty. "This is not routine, Professor Snape. We are investigating a complaint."
"A complaint?" Harry echoed, furrowing his brow as though he couldn't imagine what she meant. "About what?"
The casewitch glanced with disdain at Snape and Draco both, leaving Harry a bit confused as to just which of them she had decided to blame. When she looked back at Harry, her gaze softened, though not by much. "It has come to our attention that this placement may not be adequate to your needs, Mr. Potter."
Harry widened his eyes, careful not to overdo it. "But I'm really happy here," he protested, looking at her as though any thinking person ought to know as much. "Look, I'm sure you know Severus has a lot of enemies who'd say... well, anything, to get back at him, but I couldn't ask for a better father."
"Be that as it may," the casewitch pompously interrupted, "I will need to interview each of you, alone. I'll start with you, Mr. Potter." She paused then, seeming to consider something. "Do you feel a need for us to be chaperoned, again?"
He thought of saying yes and claiming that he had to have Snape in there with him, but was pretty sure she wouldn't allow that. And really, wouldn't it be better to show her how much good it had done Harry to live here?
"I'm sorry I demanded Remus sit with us before," he admitted. "I was on edge after Samhain, you know. Who wouldn't be? But I'm over that, now." Glancing over at Snape, he asked, "We can use your office, can't we, Dad?"
He didn't miss the slightly sardonic light in his father's eyes as Snape said, "By all means." Snape drew his wand to open the door, only to go still when Steyne drew his as well.