"Do you have any concerns about your placement here, or how things are going?"
Harry looked at her curiously. "I don't know what to say to that. I mean... I like having a father, and you're here to investigate a complaint, of all things, so I'm hardly going to add complaints of my own. But on the other hand I'm worried that if I say that everything's perfect, you'll know well enough that that can't be quite true, either. And then you'll think I'm lying, which you might think means I'm hiding something..." Groaning, he admitted, "I can't win."
"Frankly, I'd have concerns if you had none of your own," the casewitch prompted.
Harry recognized that as a ploy to make him talk, but he also took the not-so-subtle threat seriously. "Concerns," he repeated, thinking. "Well, I can't help but worry about my magic, though I don't suppose that's anything to do with the adoption. Sometimes Severus sort of expects me to think like a Slytherin, and that can be irritating..." Actually, Harry reflected, this whole conversation proved that he could think pretty much like a Slytherin.
"Is there anything else you'd like to tell me?"
Harry debated saying that he loved Severus, then decided it would come off as desperate to keep him, which wasn't the impression he should be making. He shook his head.
"And how are your classes going?"
"Fine..."
Harry's puzzlement must have shone through the single word, for the casewitch began explaining that as she'd not yet conducted a routine visit to check on him, she might as well do so now. After that the questions were fairly innocuous, and seemed designed to put him at ease, an impression that was bolstered when completely out of the blue, she inquired, "How did learning Muggle fighting put bruises on your neck, Mr. Potter? Those were reported as well."
Caught off guard despite his determination not to be, Harry murmured, "Those. Oh, those were a while back. Um, I think Severus was showing me a new hold..." Realizing that if he wasn't careful, his lie was going to sound as bad as Draco's usually did, Harry finished, "I can't really remember."
"I see," she said, in exactly that same tone Hermione had recently used. Before Harry could try to mitigate the damage, however, she was going on, "I believe I'll speak with Professor Snape, next."
"Nobody here is hurting me!" Harry protested. "If that's what you think. I mean, it's not, is it?"
She waved a wand toward the door, unlocking whatever protections her colleague had placed on it. "Summon your guardian for me, will you?"
"Father," Harry corrected, that time with a good deal more heat. He paused at the door, trying to think what else he could say to help, but the look on her face said there wasn't much.
Emerging from the room with grim features, Harry sighed and said, "She's ready for you, now, Dad."
Snape nodded, then with an encouraging glance in Harry's direction, disappeared into the room.
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"We aren't allowed to talk to each other," Draco spoke up as Steyne began warding the bedroom door.
"We have to sit here and say nothing?" Harry asked the casewizard, who merely shrugged.
"Um, why do you have to interview us?" he tossed out. "I mean, like this. Can't you just use Veritaserum or a pensieve to make sure I'm being treated all right here?"
Beside him, Draco stiffened.
Steyne noted that, but answered, "That's not the protocol."
"Wouldn't it make more sense?" Harry pressed. "I'd be glad to do it if it would clear this up."
"We at Wizard Family Services do not violate a child's rights," the casewizard pompously announced, reminding Harry a bit of Percy's self-important way of speaking.
He thought Draco must have caught on--about time for a Slytherin--for the other boy chimed in at that point, "You don't? That other fellow... Darswaithe, was it? He actually tried to abduct Harry here to deliver him to the Dark Lord! I had to save him. Good thing I was down here to do it."
"Good thing, yes," Steyne agreed in a tone that was somehow off. Or maybe, Harry reflected, he was just being too suspicious. Of course it was difficult not to be, after Darswaithe... "You are happy here then, Mr. Malfoy?"
Draco, Harry noted, gave a nod that was very carefully bland.
"No regrets about the prospect of never returning to Wiltshire?"
"Wiltshire?" Harry asked, furrowing his brow.
"It's where the manor is," Draco said in a level tone. And then, in a harder voice to Steyne, "No, no regrets. Are you implying I should have some?"
Steyne raised one eyebrow. Personally, Harry thought the man was trying to pull off a bit of a Snape-impression, but he just didn't have the sort of sheer presence required for a thing like that. "I simply find your recent choices curious. We may not have spoken much, Mr. Malfoy, but I do remember you. You used to go on for hours in the common room about your favorite topic. And now to see you friendly with him?"
At that, Harry had to raise an eyebrow of his own. "What, I was your favorite topic?"
"How much I hated you was," Draco admitted, scowling at Steyne for making him mention it. "People change. I'd think a casewizard would know that much. Didn't you have to take some psychology or counseling courses or something to get this job?"
"Draco!" Harry admonished. He couldn't believe that blatant rudeness would help their cause any.
"People don't change that much," Steyne flatly announced. "You, for instance. If you weren't holding court over how you detested Harry Potter, you were bragging about your father's millions. And now you've lost all that money, haven't you? And you expect me to believe you have no regrets," he scoffed.
"I have money of my own if you must know," was Draco's cool rejoinder. "And I for one find your comments impertinent."
"I'm doing the job I was hired to do," Steyne put in, his tones sardonic by then. Again, he couldn't carry it off the way Snape could. "I'm investigating the situation here to see if it is in the minor child's best interest to remain."
Harry didn't much appreciate being called the minor child, but the comment gave him a way to insert, "Oh, it is. Draco's been tutoring me in all my subjects and I've learned loads more than I would have in class, I bet. And Severus is really a wonderful father."
"Must be all that experience as a Head of House," Draco put in. "Mr. Steyne could vouch for that, I bet."
"I think that's just about enough propaganda," Steyne cut off them off. "And quite enough discussion. You two aren't supposed to be talking to one another. Not about anything."
Harry thought about that. "We can play cards or something, can't we?" After Steyne nodded, Harry got out the Wizard's Scrabble from its shelf and began to shuffle the tiles. He'd hoped to be able to spell out a few words. Hints for Draco, about what he planned to say if the casewitch seemed to be taking Hermione's complaint too seriously. Steyne, though, was too smart for that. He watched them like a hawk, casting Harry a suspicious glance when the boy grinned over realizing he could use his x tile to make the word prolix.
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Snape sat beside him on the couch while the casewitch interviewed Draco. His father, Harry noted, was projecting an attitude of casual unconcern, as if he had no worries whatsoever about what Draco might be saying. His legs crossed one over the other, a potions journal propped up on his knee, Snape was simply reading, apparently wholly absorbed in study. Catching on after a few moments, Harry fetched the book that had caught Draco's interest earlier, and settled in himself to read Blood is Thicker than Potion.