Framed... Draco had been framed, that was what his father meant...
Harry gave a sharp nod of agreement. Of course Draco had been framed. Somebody had given him Somulus, after all. Somebody who wanted him found, looking like he was fleeing the scene of a crime.
"Lucius is trying to condemn him to Azkaban?" Harry questioned aloud. That was awful. Very Lucius, of course... but an awful thing for Draco to have to contemplate. It was bad enough that the man who had raised him now wanted him dead. Draco didn't talk about it much, but from what little the Slytherin boy had said, Harry knew that Lucius' attitude hurt him deeply. And now Draco might never wake up... that would probably suit Lucius just fine, wouldn't it? Then again, knowing Lucius...
"Oh, God. What if Draco doesn't ever get better? Could Malfoy still insist he stand trial?" Harry clenched his hands. "They wouldn't send him to Azkaban in this state, would they? He'd have no defence against the Dementors, none at all..."
"I doubt very much that Azkaban figures into Lucius' plans," Snape answered, his fingers stroking through Draco's blond hair until with a slight jerking motion, he appeared to realise that he'd yet to offer the headmaster a seat. Gesturing irritably, Snape indicated that Dumbledore should help himself to the chair Harry had brought in earlier.
Harry glanced at his bed, but realised he didn't feel like sitting down as well. He almost would have started pacing again, except that he thought it would make him look nervous, which was the wrong way to look.
"We lack true knowledge, but I suspect the scheme was thus," Snape quietly began to explain. "Lucius has wanted to remove the boy from the school's protection ever since he turned Harry's wand over to us. His plans in that regard have come to nothing, thanks to your swift intervention to emancipate Draco and your assistance in smoothing over the incident in my class."
Albus snorted, his eyes hard as they studied the Potions Master. "I suggest you cease all flattery. I may be old, but I am not yet so far into my dotage that I have lost my reason, Severus. The incident, as you so delicately put it, nearly got Mr. Malfoy expelled, and for good reason. Do you know what it took to sway the Governors to my point of view, when the boy's own father was urging expulsion, saying that students here would remain in danger just so long as Draco attended?"
"Oh, and he said it with such concern," Snape sneered. "As if he deeply regretted the prospect of Draco being deprived an education, when all along he wanted the boy gone from Hogwarts so that he might be brought before Voldemort and killed! And ever since he has revisited the theme of expulsion, using such flimsy excuses as the fact that emancipated students have never before attended, or for Merlin's sake, non-attendance from classes when it was his determination in the first place that Draco was too dangerous to be permitted near other students!"
"Neither will your rage and indignation sway me," Albus coldly announced. "It is unfortunate that Lucius was permitted to resume his place on the Board after he endangered students himself, but as he was, he will use these events to press for expulsion once again. Not to mention, there will have to be a criminal investigation. As such, if you wish me to conclude the young man innocent, you had better begin discussing the evidence, as Harry stressed."
"Guilty until proven innocent, is it then?" Harry at once objected. "I learned in primary school it was the other way around, but I suppose I should know from my own experience that wizarding justice is pretty doubtful! Sirius still hasn't been exonerated, not to mention that I very nearly had my wand broken or something--"
"That's quite enough," Snape interrupted, his tone weary. "For good or ill, the world is what it is, Harry. The headmaster is correct. Our best hope of helping Draco is to focus on the evidence. So, here it is." The Potions Master paused a moment as though to assemble his thoughts, then plunged ahead. "Draco, as you well know, has scrupulously obeyed our dictates ever since he came to you after Samhain. He befriended Harry, and you have my word that Harry most decidedly did not make that easy. But Draco was not to be deterred. He allowed himself to be confined and did his best to sway his House. In fact, he was so cooperative to the cause of Light that when it turned out that the blood-sacrifice wards had interfered with the alarms that would alert me to either boy leaving my quarters, I was not unduly concerned--"
"You put alarms on us?" Harry gasped, so outraged that he began sputtering. "That's... that's--"
"Slytherin, I believe, is the word that fits," the Potions Master dryly announced. "Of course I had alarms on you. Sixteen-year-olds are not noted for their restraint in the face of temptation. I attempted to re-establish them, but when I realised they would not work in conjunction with the blood wards, I desisted. Actually, I rather doubted you would go sneaking out sans your magic--you are reckless but not a complete nitwit. And as Draco had by then been utterly obedient for some weeks..." Snape shrugged. "To continue. At some point Lucius must have concluded that to get his hands on Draco, he would need to force matters. Therefore, Draco was sent a letter, ostensibly from Pansy, to lure him out of the dungeons--"
Harry made a noise of protest, horrified that Snape was confirming that much, but the man went right on.
"The basic plan must surely have been to kidnap him from Hogwarts once he left my rooms, but just in case that was somehow thwarted, Lucius arranged circumstances to ensure that Draco would be removed from our protection via an arrest. Therefore, before the kidnap scheme was implemented, Draco was implicated in another student's death. For if Draco were to fall into Ministry custody..."
"Bribes would do the rest," Dumbledore thoughtfully finished. "Soundly reasoned, Severus. But entirely conjecture, all the same."
"Not entirely," Snape corrected, strands of black hair hiding his features for an instant as he shook his head. "I've seen this type of gambit before from Lucius. Power struggles among the Death Eaters, wizards discrediting each other with plots that make this one pale. Believe me, Albus, being found out as a spy was most definitely not the worst danger I faced among those ranks."
Harry walked over to lay a hand on his father's shoulder, wishing he could communicate with his touch the same comfort Snape was obviously trying to impart to Draco.
"I think we must conclude this series of events to be Lucius' doing," Snape murmured, thinking out loud. "For nothing else makes rational sense. Imagine that Draco did commit a murder. Do you think he would seek to evade capture only to sabotage his own escape with self-administered hexes and potions? And how could he have removed the hex --it is indeed since gone-- after he had imbibed Somulus, which as you know works instantaneously?"
The headmaster stroked his beard as though carefully considering all possible scenarios. "Perhaps the young man unhexed himself and then took the potion?"
"No. Somulus has interacted with the hex," Snape said with regret so clearly painted in his voice that Harry tightened his fingers a bit. He wished he could say that everything would be all right, but he knew his father better than to think the man could be comforted by meaningless platitudes. Above all else, Severus was a realist.
And a strategist also, a fact the headmaster knew only too well. "We have only your word for that, Severus?"
"If you are suggesting yet again that I am lying through my teeth, Albus--"
"No." Albus shook his head. "I am suggesting merely that whoever attacked young Mr. Malfoy was not in fact aware that his methods would alert us to his existence."