"Dumbledore?" Ron questioned, his tone sharp.
"Yeah, he was here. He knows Draco is innocent," Harry exaggerated. Well, it might be true... Dumbledore hadn't committed himself to anything, but the way he'd been talking to Draco at the end, with such soft compassion, as though the boy was fragile and one more harsh word might shatter him... that had to be a good sign, didn't it? Harry decided it did. "He was here when Draco woke up from the Somulus. And... well, I actually think he was using a bit of Legilimency on Draco at times. He was the one who insisted Draco be moved to where he could be safe."
"Don't you think Malfoy knows at least the rudiments of Occlumency?" Hermione pressed.
"No. Lucius wouldn't have wanted Draco using it to hide things from him," Harry decided. "And like I said, you weren't here. Draco wasn't in any fit state to even think of it. You have to be calm to Occlude. He was too shocked over Pansy, for one, and that's not even counting the way he woke up screaming--" Harry stopped talking, but he knew he couldn't leave it at that. "Don't let on you know, all right?" he begged. "Draco would be really upset, I think, but he's got this awful burn all over his chest. See, I gave him this amulet that was supposed to heat up when he was in danger, and it ended up really causing him some damage. Severus won't let the burn be healed because it's evidence that Draco spent a long time near people who wanted to do him harm."
"Well, it's either evidence or a clever way to throw you off the scent."
"Hermione--"
"A girl's dead, Harry," she explained in a hard tone, just as if he didn't know that. "I understand that you feel this... compulsion to take up for Draco these days, but you can't know for certain that he didn't do it."
"And you can't know for certain that he did!"
"I can know it's highly, highly suspect that he had wandered out of the dungeons just at the right time. And the way you tell it, he was on some sort of... rampage, over what you said to him about that dream. Have you thought, Harry... maybe your dream made him feel like the Malfoy name was losing some of its evil mystique, and he was determined to reclaim it even at the expense of Pansy Parkinson's life--"
"If he'd wanted to reclaim evil mystique, he'd have tossed a Muggleborn off the Owlery! Somebody like you, Hermione!"
"That's uncalled for!" Ron loudly objected.
"So is her calling Draco a murderer!"
"I didn't say that," Hermione gritted.
"You meant it!"
"Yes," she admitted. "Harry... I'm sorry I can't believe in Malfoy goodness as you obviously wish to. But... I can't, all right? Do we have to fight about it?"
Harry looked at both his friends for a moment. "I don't want to fight, no. Actually, I need something from you. It's important. It's really important."
Hermione pursed her lips. "I can't let Draco Malfoy get away with murder, so if you're going to ask us to lie then I for one just won't do it."
"I won't, either," Ron said, shaking his head. "I'd lie for you, but see, I'd believe you were innocent. With him... well, it's just different."
"You don't have to lie," Harry sighed. "Just don't go talking about things that are really irrelevant to what happened in the Owlery."
"Huh?"
"He means his eye, Ron," Hermione said with a brief glare before she returned her attention to Harry. "It's not completely irrelevant, you know. It establishes the kind of mood Malfoy was in when he stormed out of here."
"Do you want Draco convicted of killing someone because he killed someone, or because you're angry he hit me?" Harry challenged. "I'm just saying, let's allow any evidence of murder to speak for itself, all right? What if he's innocent like I believe, but he gets tossed into Azkaban because the Wizengamot thinks badly of him for hitting the Boy-Who-Lived? Really, it could happen! So promise me, promise, you won't say a word to a soul about my eye!"
Ron looked torn between his sense of Gryffindor fairness and a strong inclination to see Draco Malfoy in Azkaban.
"You owe me!" Harry erupted. "Snape was going to make you do those ten thousand more lines, just like he said! He was going to make your parents make you, and I told him it was stupid and petty and vengeful and made him come up with another way to get you down here so you could see how good a dad he could be! You owe me for giving you an out, for not making you choose between getting expelled and doing another set of lines!"
Ron pressed his lips together, then gave a sharp nod.
Satisfied for the moment, Harry rounded on Hermione. "And you owe me as well! You owe me for that whole Family Services fiasco! You almost lost me my father by jumping to conclusions too fast. So this time, just hold off, all right? Let the Aurors make up their own minds about just what Draco did and didn't do."
Hermione went still. "Oh, very well," she conceded, sounding put out. "I won't tell a soul about your eye, I promise."
Harry started to think strategy, then. "Who knows besides Dumbledore?"
"Nobody..."
"You haven't seen Ginny since she alerted Severus that nobody was answering the door?"
"Well, we saw her but not to talk. She was trying to calm Susan down to get her to the infirmary. We didn't want to distract her from that -- Susan really needed help, and nobody else seemed to realise it! So anyway, all we told Ginny was that Professor Snape had come and was taking care of everything. Then we went to tell Dumbledore about Draco hitting you and going up to the Owlery."
"You don't know he went to the Owlery, you just know I was afraid he would," Harry pointed out, slumping back in his chair. He needed more sleep, but it could wait. "Now, think carefully. After you left Dumbledore's office, did you tell anybody about my eye?"
Ron shook his head. "The headmaster told us not to. Told us not to fan the flames of rumour, too. By then, anyway, I'd realised you might not want the whole school to know that Malfoy had decked you. Bit embarrassing, that. And besides, I knew that Snape would take care of everything."
"Has he, though?" Hermione pressed. "Your eye looks just as awful as before..."
Harry hurriedly lifted the ice up to cover it.
"Yeah," Ron agreed. "If you ask me, it looks a bit too awful. When you opened the door before, you acted like Malfoy had just left, which would mean he'd just hit you, right? But your eye was already black and puffy...?"
"Yeah, that's why Severus is a bit leery of jumping right into a treatment without considering everything carefully," Harry invented. "Remember all the magic he poured onto my eyes to heal them? He thinks this early bruising might be a result of that. He's holding off on adding more magic to the mix until he can research the matter and be sure he knows what the results will be."
"In other words," Hermione remarked, her tone sharp, "he's been busy dealing with Malfoy. Has anyone thought of the possibility that without immediate treatment, you might lose your sight in that eye?"
"It's just as likely that not letting the tissues heal before applying magic could have a bad effect," Harry defended his father. "Severus isn't ignoring the issue, Hermione, and I resent your suggesting that he is! He's a good father!"
To both of us, he wanted to add, but decided he'd really better not. It wasn't that he was ashamed to admit that he considered Draco Malfoy his brother... it was more that to admit it would do nothing but fan the flames, as Dumbledore had put it. Harry didn't need Ron and Hermione getting even more angry about things, he just didn't.
"Listen," he entreated them both. "We need a cover story and we all need to agree to stick to it. Of course, the two of you probably won't be questioned at all. No reason to involve you as long as you don't go involving yourselves... but just in case... Let's see, Ginny came down here with you, but you sent her off to find Severus when it seemed like nobody was home. Then you told her that my father was taking care of everything. So... when you see her again, just say that Draco and I couldn't answer the door because we'd been experimenting with um... deafening potions. And that's what Severus was taking care of, right? He came home to find us in a state... he answered the door and told you he would help us brew the counter potion and that everything was going to be fine."