Worried sick by then, Harry began pacing the rooms. Back and forth across the living room, and when that palled, he started walking circles inside his own bedroom. As much as he understood the wisdom of staying behind, the helplessness really chafed. What if Lucius was out there waiting? Severus might need his help! And even if Lucius wasn't involved at all, Severus might need Harry to distract bystanders while he convinced Draco to come back.
Convinced? Harry almost scoffed. Severus was hardly likely to debate the matter with the Slytherin boy. What is he going to say? What could he possibly say to Draco? Then again, Snape knew what it was to be redeemed from horrible deeds, didn't he? What had the headmaster told him, all those years ago, something like, "What you did was wrong but as long as you do enough good deeds to make up for it, the Light will overlook your crimes...."
Crimes. Oh, God. Harry felt his stomach churn. If Draco wasn't under Imperius, then he was a murderer. A few months ago that wouldn't have surprised him, but now? The scene with Dubby aside, it just didn't seem like the Draco he'd come to know.
Maybe you never really knew him, that horrid little voice whispered again.
Harry shook his head to clear it. Of course I know Draco! He's my brother! ...but I know Severus, too. Severus, who holds grudges for eons... Nothing will ever be the same again.
In the course of a single afternoon, his precious new family was starting to slip through his fingers. How could Draco do this to us? Harry railed. We all of us need this family! He kicked his school trunk once, and then feeling the frustration crest within him, kicked it several more until his foot actually began to hurt.
With a world-weary sigh, he began pacing again, somehow satisfied with the soreness in his toes - at least it distracted him from his throbbing eye. What's taking so long? Had Severus run into trouble on the way? If only he had the map, he could find out!
As he crossed in front of the enchanted picture frame, though, it came to him that he did have a way to find some things out. Or at least, he might have a way. The frame was supposed to respond to wishes, after all. Draco's wishes... but maybe that was just because Harry had never tried to command it. Of course, the frame wasn't supposed to show people, but Severus had forced it to display that Quidditch match, so it clearly could... It was just a matter of unlocking the restrictions placed upon it, of plying the right magic.
A snake. He needed a snake. No time to hunt up Sals, though; his crest would have to do. Harry went and put his robe on so he'd have the image with him, and then, brow furrowed, stepped up to the picture frame and touched it with his fingers as he tried to call upon his magic.
"Show me Draco," he hissed as he focused his eyes on his crest and his thoughts on his brother.
One glance at the frame revealed that he'd accomplished nothing. It was still displaying the path to the greenhouses.
Thinking harder, Harry tried, "Let me see my brother snake," as Parseltongue had no better word for Slytherin, and when that also failed, "Show me my nest mate!"
Exasperated, Harry ground his teeth together as he wondered how else he might word the charm. It would help if he knew just what Snape had said to the frame that once.... hmm, maybe he needed to be a bit more forceful?
Or maybe not, since I command you to show me Draco, didn't work. Nor did any of the variations he dreamed up.
Finally, in a last-ditch attempt he knew was silly even as he said it, Harry hissed, "Reveal the Dragon!"
Nothing.
Absolutely nothing.
Well, Snape had spelled the frame to begin with, and his father was a formidable wizard, so it only stood to reason that Harry couldn't just undo the spells; he probably couldn't channel enough power to overcome wards Severus Snape had placed--
Harry's thoughts abruptly skittered to a halt. Power, he realised. That's it. I need more power behind my spell if it's to have any hope of breaking through the protections charmed onto the frame. But I have all the power I could ever want, don't I? I just need my wand.
And on the heels of that realisation, That was really low of Draco to take my wand with him!
For just an instant, Harry fumed. Then the solution occurred to him. He would simply summon his wand. He'd gotten good enough at summoning charms to bring his Firebolt flying all the way out to the grounds for the First Task, after all. And now that he could do wandless magic, he should surely be able to call his wand home when it went astray...
But what if Draco needs your wand? he abruptly realised. What if he's somehow lost his own? Maybe that's why he took it with him, why he said, "just in case"... he wanted to see Pansy, but he had a niggling suspicion that she might lead him into danger. He thought a spare wand could help him outfox his enemies...
Harry didn't know if that was remotely the case, but still, he wasn't too enthusiastic about summoning his wand away from Draco if the other boy had an urgent need for it. So.... he'd just be careful about how much power he put into the spell. Parseltongue had turned out to be quite useful in that regard. He had already figured out several wandless silencing spells, some weaker, some stronger. He'd just word his accio carefully... so it would stretch out into the dungeons, but not onto the grounds where Draco had fled.
Just in case. As Draco had said.
All right. If his wand was going to come flying to him, it would probably stop at Snape's front door... unless the wards were smart enough to recognize it as his wand... Harry wasn't sure. He went out into the living room anyway, so he might hear if something collided with the wall outside, and holding out his hand, hissed a very mild summoning charm. "If you are near, come here, Harry's wand!"
Something came flying, all right, but not from outside.
His wand flew across the room and smacked into his palm so hard it stung.
Startled, Harry glanced around and saw a slight flurry of dust billowing down from the top of a bookcase. For a moment he just stared, he was so astonished. Draco had put his wand up where it would remain out of sight unless one used a step to see the very top of the case. He hadn't taken it with him at all.
Even despite the pain in his eye, a warm sort of feeling suffused him. Draco's loyalty was beyond doubt... not that he had really doubted it. But this... this was unexpected.
Impulse control problem or no, Draco hadn't put his wand in danger.
Which meant that now Draco might be the one in danger! What if, despite all appearances, there had been a fight up in the Owlery, and Pansy somehow had gotten her hands on Draco's wand? What if she'd tossed it out the window? Was that why Draco had lost his temper and pushed her out? What if he'd run out onto the grounds simply to retrieve his wand... it would be evidence, wouldn't it, placing him at the scene of the crime?
Of course that overlooked Imperius, which Harry counted a distinct possibility, and it didn't account for the fallen wards, but by then he had so many theories running through his mind that he honestly didn't know what to think about Draco's sudden taste for murder.