Ron cleared his throat. "That's... hmm. That's a pretty good cover story, I guess."
"Yeah, I just have to tell Draco to stick to it, too..." Harry sighed. "Though if they put him under Veritaserum I guess the truth about my eye will come out."
"Too bad they can't, then," was Hermione's opinion.
Harry crinkled his forehead, then cut it out when he realised it made his eye ache worse. "Huh?"
"Oh, Harry," she chided. "It's all right there in your potions text. Veritaserum can't be used on wizarding minors--people under seventeen--" she clarified, just as if she thought Harry was completely ignorant, "without parental consent. And as Malfoy's been emancipated, he's his own parent, so to speak. All he has to do is refuse and the Ministry can't do a thing about it."
"Are you sure? Maybe being emancipated will mean he's not really a minor any longer," Harry worried.
"No, he's still a minor. He's just empowered to make his own parenting decisions, including this one," Hermione insisted. "If the Ministry wants to use truth serum, they have to get him to agree or wait until he's seventeen."
Harry's first thought was of Umbridge, and how she certainly hadn't asked the Dursleys if she could slip Veritaserum into Harry's drink, but of course Umbridge was hardly one to respect the laws. Come to think of it, even Snape and Dumbledore had broken that law --when they'd insisted that Draco prove his change of loyalties via truth serum-- but Harry could hardly compare them to Umbridge for that. Or resent them, even.
What he did resent, just a bit, was the fact that his father had never once mentioned that Draco couldn't legally be forced to take Veritaserum. And if Snape and the headmaster weren't going to leave Draco alone with the Aurors, then he wouldn't be illegally forced to take it, either... so truth serum just wasn't a danger. Yet Snape had let him believe that it was, had let him believe that they had to go to great lengths to keep Draco from realizing that Harry could break out of Petrificus!
But there was nothing to worry about, right? As long as Draco kept his head and didn't let himself be tricked by clever psychological ploys, Harry's secrets should be safe. All his secrets. His black eye. His dark powers. The prophecy Voldemort still wanted to get his scaly hands on...
"You all right there, Harry?" Ron questioned. "You've gone awfully quiet all of a sudden."
"Just thinking," Harry passed it off. "Bit worried about Draco."
He noticed the pitying look Ron and Hermione gave him, but decided to ignore it.
Good thing, too. He wouldn't have wanted his father to Floo into the middle of an argument; Severus was already too inclined to think the worst of his Gryffindor friends.
"Mr. Weasley, Miss Granger," Snape formally greeted them as he brushed ash from the shoulders of his robes. "Harry. I thought you would be sleeping. Good to see you using the ice, at least."
"I did sleep for a while. Doorbell woke me up... um, did you get everything settled with the Parkinsons?"
Hermione flinched a little bit. Harry supposed she was realizing what it would be like for her own parents to hear that their daughter had died.
Snape gave a solemn nod. "They will support an inquest though like most purebloods, they balked at the suggestion of an autopsy. The Aurors are here and have started investigating the scene of the crime as well as the condition of the body, though as I said they will tolerate no physical intrusion into it..."
"You seem pretty tired, Dad," Harry softly observed. "Maybe you should get some sleep, too?"
"No, there is much left to be done. The funeral is set for Wednesday, here at Hogwarts. As Head of House I have some responsibilities related to that. And too, I promised to go speak with Draco tonight."
"I'm coming too," Harry promptly announced.
Snape glared. "You need your sleep."
"I can sleep in--" At that, Harry abruptly realised that there was something besides the black eye he had to get Ron and Hermione to keep secret. "You can't tell anybody about Devon," he insisted, knowing they would soon figure out just where Draco must have gone.
"No, we can't," Hermione agreed, her tone strangely dry.
Seeing how puzzled Harry was looking, Ron thought to explain, "She means the Fidelius charm won't let us, Harry. We literally can't tell anybody about Devon. Not even under truth serum, I don't think, not that out parents would consent to that, come to think of it."
"I thought that just meant you couldn't tell anybody the location?"
"It means," Snape explained, walking to Harry, "that nobody save Albus can so much as reveal the existence of my cottage. The Aurors will not know that Albus and I are hiding him; they will merely know that he is unavailable."
Harry knew a moment's fierce rage at Wormtail. Godric's Hollow should have been so safe! Well, at least the headmaster would be a reliable Secret Keeper. He might not be completely convinced of Draco's innocence yet, but he was getting there. Harry just hoped that telling him about the map wasn't a terrible mistake. "Just as well we have a good place for Draco," he murmured.
Snape's robes rippled as he crossed his arms in front of his chest. "And you have worked everything out with your friends?" he pressed, the last word half-sneered.
"They weren't here to see what an awful state Draco was in, so they don't have the same kind of confidence in him that you and I have," Harry said, deliberately understating just how hostile towards Draco the Gryffindors were.
Snape curled a disdainful lip, clearly reading between the lines.
"But they won't tell anybody about my black eye," Harry rushed to add. "They promised."
"Oh, Gryffindor promises," the Potions Master scorned. "Obliviate would be a good deal more reliable, you realise. No? Well, then, I'll want a promise of my own, for whatever it's worth," Snape drawled, his dark gaze seeking out and assessing his son's friends. "You two will in no way assist the Aurors in their investigation, is that clear? You will not tell them that Draco was absent from the dungeons at the time of the murder. If you've disclosed that little tidbit to anyone besides the headmaster--"
"They haven't," Harry interrupted.
Snape never stopped speaking. "You will retract it! You will say you misunderstood Harry and you now realise that Draco was here the entire time--"
Harry interrupted again, that time raising his voice. "Look, they're going to say that Ginny had to go get you because Draco and I had been messing around with deafening potions and we didn't hear the door, all right? We already worked it out!"
Snape looked slightly impressed, Harry thought, as the man considered that and finally pronounced, "Very Slytherin."
"I thought so," Ron put in. "Guess you do belong in both Houses."
He said it in a neutral tone, not one of disgust or approval, but that was all right with Harry. "I do," he quietly agreed. "I told you that Slytherin didn't mean evil. When you think about Draco, remember that, all right? He's not. I mean, he has issues and he's a long way from perfect, but he's not evil and he's not a murderer."