They didn't stop until after dark, expressly so that Ron and Hermione could realize just how much the lack of a snake image affected Harry's powers. "So you've got to be there to cast Lumos for him," Draco finished explaining as they sat inside Snape's small cottage. "He can't cast it for himself once it gets too dark for him to see the crest, or Sals. Though it seems like if he's holding Sals he has a bit of an edge. Seeing her is better, though."
"I could just go around with a permanent Lumos on," Harry suggested. "Oh, wait, that's no good."
"Yes, fingers glowing in the dark would be just a bit conspicuous," Hermione wryly observed.
Severus, who was at the table conjuring food from one of the charmed boxes he'd left there since Christmas, stopped for a moment as though having a hard time not laughing out loud.
"Wandless Lumos will pretty much reveal my secret," Harry agreed. "And wanded Lumos is definitely out."
"Unless you want to melt somebody's face off," Ron added. "You never know when you might meet a Slytherin around the corner--"
"Harry's a Slytherin," Draco pointed out in a hard tone. "And make no mistake, he's going to show himself one. He may be going back to live in Gryffindor, but he's going to eat at the Slytherin table sometimes and spend time in their common room, and he's not going to 'melt their faces off,'" he sneered, "unless he's cornered and he really can't help it!"
"Well, of course he's not," Ron laughed. "Lighten up, Malfoy."
"You're not really going to brave their common room, though," Hermione commented. "Are you?"
"Yeah." Harry swallowed, sort of hating this part. Well, not hating it, but hating having to discuss it with his friends. "This crest isn't just some badge to help me with my casting," he gruffly admitted. "I told you before, I am both. I'm both inside, Hermione. Besides, my father is Head of Slytherin. I'm not about to... uh, disown that, not with my words or my behavior or anything."
By then, Snape was pulling votives from the box and transfiguring them into extra chairs, but Harry could tell he was listening. For that matter though, when did his father not listen to everything going on around him?
"You might not be safe in their common room, mate," Ron pointed out. "Look, don't get me wrong. I'm used to the Slytherin thing, now. I didn't even say a word about your crest, did I? But there's a difference between... er, telling us loud and clear you're proud to be a Slytherin, and acting like you have a death wish. I mean, they'll kill you. Or try, anyway. And yeah, you held us off pretty well today, but we're not Slytherins--" At a snorting noise from Draco, Ron amended that to, "I mean, nobody here actually wants you dead--"
"About time you wised up to that," Draco mildly remarked.
Ron flushed a bit. "You won't be safe in their common room, though," he insisted. "Even with your special magic. They'll find a way around that."
"I do plan to accompany my son the first few times," Snape informed them, beckoning that the meal was ready. Draco didn't pull Hermione's chair out again, Harry noticed, but he did wait to sit down until after she had seated herself.
"How am I going to explain my absence from dinner?" Hermione thought to ask. "Ron can say he ate with all of you again, everybody's used to that because of all his detentions, but people will raise eyebrows if I claim I was invited down to dine two nights in a row."
Snape raised an eyebrow as he liberally peppered his endive salad. "Ah. I'm afraid I rather anticipated that difficulty and forestalled it by assigning you a detention for... now what did I write on the paperwork?" He leveled a hard look at the girl. "Oh yes. Abominable judgment that could have led to deteriorating staff-student relations, that was it. Of course I had to take points to make the whole thing look authentic. I'm sure you understand."
Hermione gritted her teeth. "How many points, sir?"
"A mere five hundred." Snape shrugged. "Don't look so outraged. Harry's had that many taken before."
"Five hundred?" Hermione gasped, laying aside her fork with such care that Harry suspected she'd been tempted to throw it. "I was only trying to do what was right for a friend!"
"True. That's where the abominable judgment part of the offense becomes significant. Think about it, Miss Granger. Had we not been able to satisfy the casewitch that Harry was in a perfectly good home, we would have faced the prospect of either his losing that home, or explaining about his magic, which would certainly have endangered his life, considering we have excellent reason to believe that not all Family Services staff would hold his secret in confidence!"
Hermione sighed, admitting, "It could all have turned out very badly."
"Yes, it could have," Snape agreed rather darkly.
Ron finally spoke up. "Five hundred points, Harry? Say something!"
Harry finished chewing his bite. "I love Gryffindor, you both know that. But... Severus is important to me too, and I can't get in the middle every time he takes points. Even unfair points," he added with a significant glance at his father.
Snape neatly speared a small red potato from the serving bowl. "So little subtlety," he lamented. "Though I appreciate the other sentiments. Just as well, I suppose, that I took a mere ten points. Yes, Mr. Weasley, you heard me. Ten."
Hermione gave a weak laugh of relief, while Draco rolled his eyes and muttered, "Figures."
"Thanks," Harry said, laughing a little bit too.
"Well, there's a first," Draco drawled, apparently recovered. "Famous Harry Potter thanking the Potions Master for points from Gryffindor."
"Just Harry thanking his dad," Harry corrected. "Although it's not very nice to make everyone think five hundred just so we won't argue when it's ten."
"But you didn't argue regardless," Snape observed, and though his tone was cool, Harry could tell the man was pleased with him. Harry felt a little bit bad, then, that he'd pretty much assumed the headmaster would do something about the points in any case. Though, since Snape knew as much--he'd said so to Harry, hadn't he?--maybe this discussion had been staged so that Harry would have a chance to demonstrate his loyalty to Snape? Too Slytherin... Harry was just glad he'd passed the test, or whatever it had been.
"One thing I wanted to ask," Hermione changed the subject, "is how you knew so well how to block Harry's spells, sir. Except for that one, you hardly got hit at all. But as Harry's incanting in Parseltongue, you don't know what he's casting, so how do you know how to counter it?"
Snape favored her with a sardonic look. "There is such a thing as a blocking spell which repels a wide range of hexes, Miss Granger. We don't teach them as they take a certain level of maturity to master."
"Bet Harry knows them, though," Ron suggested, pointing with his fork.
Harry saw Draco grimace at the lack of manners.
"Not magical maturity," Snape clarified. "Harry may have a prodigious amount of that, but he is still a boy."
Hermione was nodding as though she'd read things that confirmed what Snape was saying. "Speaking of that, though," she wondered out loud, "aren't the Underage-Magic-Detectors going to be working overtime tracking us down after all the casting we did out there?"
"I must admit, certain things will be simpler once Harry and Draco turn seventeen this summer. This property, however, is surrounded by enough safeguards that we should have no worries. Extremely common in pureblood families," Snape shrugged. "What parent wants to wait until their child is eleven to begin some instruction in magic?"
"Harry's not a pureblood!" Hermione objected.
"He's been adopted into a pureblooded family, nonetheless," Snape returned, beginning to eat his portion of grilled chicken breast in mustard sauce.