Chapter Sixty-Four: Duels and Deals
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"Yes, let's deal with Miss Know-it-All Granger," Draco put in. "Hmm. That really was extremely nasty, wasn't it, reporting on a teacher? I don't supposed you'd consider expulsion, Severus? Oh well, I thought not. How about a thousand points from Gryffindor?"
Harry gave the Slytherin boy a very dark look.
Blinking as though just realizing something, Draco said on a long-suffering sigh, "I can see it's going to be bloody inconvenient, having a Gryffindor brother."
"You just keep your nose out of Gryffindor's points."
"Oh, fine. So then I won't congratulate you on a job well done? I won't ask Severus to award points for that very Slytherin set of lies you told the casewitch," Draco drawled, challenging Harry with a ha, got you, stare.
Hardly fooled, Harry drawled right back, "Pity. Slytherin would have gotten half of them." Draco opened his mouth to retort, but Harry went right on speaking. "Besides, the lovely new cloak is more than enough reward for me."
"Now there's a Gryffindor," Draco lightly snarked. "Our hero. He performs feats of brilliance, nothing short of changing the future itself, and all he asks in reward is a humble student cloak."
"What do you mean, changing the future!"
Definite derision that time. "Your seer dream. Unadoption, right?"
Harry bit his lip, thinking about that. "Um.... well actually, the headmaster said that seer dreams couldn't be changed. And anyway, what just happened didn't match my dream at all. For starters, in the dream the casewitch came alone--"
"Of course it didn't match your dream," Draco interrupted, impatiently crossing his legs as he sat on the couch. "You've probably changed things so that that dream will never happen at all. The way I look at it, the casewitch was worried about you, right? She might even have demanded an unadoption or something, but now she won't. Ever."
Harry hoped not, but he wasn't so sure. Could you defy a seer dream? Could you take matters into your own hands and force the future into a new mold, one more to your liking? He'd asked Dumbledore something like that... what if I dream I'm going to die falling off a broom, so I stop going flying... The headmaster had never really answered that, had he? But it made sense to Harry. If you arranged matters so that events you had dreamed could not possibly occur, then of course you would change the future, right?
Not that he was terribly worried about the adoption any longer; he and Severus would be all right no matter what happened.
Part of him though, was still a tiny bit worried about Draco.
"There will be no unadoption," Snape stressed with a significant glance at Harry. "Your seer dreams, all your recent seer dreams, are in fact no such thing as I believe we have discussed at length."
Trust Snape to realize that Harry had shifted to thinking about the Owlery...
"Enough of such nonsense," Snape bit out. "It is time we dealt with Miss Granger, as I said."
Harry frowned. "Well, you know, I really don't appreciate her high-handedness here, but I don't think we can be too hard on her. I mean, unlike Ron, she did have some reason to think I might be getting hurt. In a way it's my fault she thought that, really. She's smart enough to see through our lies..." He swallowed, the sensation actually painful. "Though I wonder just when she actually reported her complaint. I can hardly believe she did it before talking to you, but why would she do so afterwards?" He decided not to mention that thing Severus had said about tendering his resignation.
"Obviously my own lies did not do enough to placate her," Snape grudgingly admitted. "Well. I did say she had a disgusting amount of intellect for someone her age."
"No, she must have filed the report before she ever went to you, daft as that sounds," Harry decided. "Otherwise, how could the casewitch have had enough time to get here? Last time she took the train, remember."
Snape shook his head. "Family Services policies specify that if a child is possibly in danger, casewizards will Apparate in to investigate. No doubt they were in Hogsmeade within minutes of reading her ridiculous claims."
"Then she wrote them a complaint right after talking to you? I guess if she told the owl to hurry, that might work."
Snape merely glowered.
"You aren't planning to make her write lines, are you? I... no offense, sir, but I actually doubt you could make that stick. I mean, she wasn't trying to be malicious or anything. Technically, she probably has a right to file a report on us."
"All this concern for Granger is going to make me sick up," Draco grimly warned as he turned a page.
"Loath that I am to admit it, Harry has a point," Snape admitted, sinking into a chair and tapping his fingertips on the kitchen table.
"That Granger was right to report her unreasonable suspicions?" Draco erupted, setting his book aside.
"No, that the headmaster might well overturn any punishment I level at her," Snape explained, the words staccato with irritation. "At any rate, in the circumstances I think the wisest course of action may be to invite Miss Granger to dinner."
"You want Hermione to come over for dinner," Harry slowly repeated, a bit dumbfounded.
"Unless you have a better idea."
Snape, Harry noticed, was already beginning to scrawl Dear Miss Granger across a sheet of parchment.
"But what's the plan?"
The Potions Master curled a lip upward. "Much as it might satisfy me to tell the young lady my true opinion of her loathsome meddling, I think our best strategy lies elsewhere. It occurs to me that we had better display for her the same sort of familial tenderness that finally convinced Mr. Weasley that you were safe in my care."
Harry thought better than to ask if Severus planned to sing to him again. "But with Ron it was only the truth that convinced him, not some show we put on. So wouldn't it be better, not to mention simpler, to just tell Hermione--"
"No," Snape refused, pinning Harry with a glare.
"She won't tell anybody, any more than Ron has! Listen, the mere fact that she doesn't know about my magic proves how trustworthy my friends are. Why can't you see that? Is it because they're Gryffindors?"
"It is because they are teenagers," Snape retorted. "As are you. I would never have allowed Mr. Weasley to know you could destroy walls with a mere Lumos either, had I had any choice. As regards Miss Granger and your other friends, we will stick to your rugby story, and that is an end to the matter. Now, do you wish to assist me in the writing of this, or not?"
Harry sighed. "What do you have against teenagers?"
"I've seen them break under torture," Snape bluntly informed him.
"I didn't! Samhain, remember?"
"I am hardly likely to forget!"
"And fourth year, Cruciatus--"
"You are not typical!" Snape rebuked him. "Your friends, loyal as they may be, are easy prey for Voldemort. And what is more, their inability to Occlude means that given the chance, he will sense where best to ply his tortures! Are you beginning to comprehend? There is more at stake here than your rather naÔve desire to include your friends!"
"Adults break under torture, too," Harry muttered.
"And you'll note I haven't proposed we inform any! Only Albus knows about your dark powers flowing free, and he only knows because the Order must have some sense of how the Light may fare against the Dark!" Breathing heavily, Snape took a moment to let that sink in, then asked in wearied tones, "So shall we invite Miss Granger to dine, or no?"