"Pansy was just leading him on, trying to get him to leave the rooms so she could double-cross him!" Harry erupted. "How can Draco not see that?"
"Love is blind?" Snape quietly suggested.
"Yeah, but how could the conspirators have known he was in that closet with Pansy unless it was all part of a bigger plot? Draco's got to realise--"
"Harry," Snape interrupted. "Love is blind."
"All right, I get it," Harry agreed, nodding. "Draco's not going to listen to us, not on that point."
"Not at the moment, certainly. I think we need to let him grieve. Trying to convince him that the girl wasn't worthy of him can only divide him from us at a time when he needs our support."
"Speaking of support, can I come along with you?"
Snape sighed. "At some level I would prefer to keep you out of the fray, but I suppose you are right. You do need to stay apprised of our full strategy for dealing with the crisis. And too, when the Aurors finish with the Owlery and the body, they may well come down here to investigate Draco's living space. The seeds of rumour being planted by the conspirators will already have taken root, I have no doubt. I'd no more wish you to face Aurors alone than I wish Draco to do the same."
"Yeah, and the way you tell it, if I won't let them in then they might just break in." Harry shuddered, wondering more than ever why he'd wanted to be an Auror. Then again, there were some good ones, weren't there? "What about Tonks, or some of the other Order Aurors? Couldn't the headmaster arrange for them to investigate?"
"He is doing his best, but at present, Tonks and the others we might trust are unavailable. Shortly before Miss Parkinson was killed, the Dark Mark appeared over Parliament Square."
Harry felt his heart drop. "Over Parliament Square?"
"Briefly," Snape amended. "Nevertheless, only the most inexperienced and junior of Aurors have been sent to investigate a mere murder. The others are preparing for an attack on London. Possibly, an attack on the Muggle government."
Snape's tone alerted him to the truth. Well, that and the fact that an attack on Parliament struck Harry as completely ludicrous, once he'd gotten over his initial shock. "Lucius planned all that merely as a diversion... so we'd get stuck with the Aurors he's most likely to be able to influence. Green ones."
"Precisely. And so you are right. It is better for me to be here with you, or both of us gone," Snape decided. "Though I would have preferred not to announce the Devon visits to your friends, you understand."
Harry nodded.
"But what's done is done," Snape continued. "So. Go fetch Draco's schoolbooks. He might as well have something to occupy his mind."
Nodding, Harry went and got them. Remembering that he had popped Sals back in his pocket after he'd let Ron and Hermione out, he lay the snake gently down on his bed, sternly cautioning her to stay out of the Floo as he and Severus would be using it. Then he shook out his cloak and ran a quick charm over it to smooth out the worst of the wrinkles. Definitely, tossing the garment on the floor like he'd done more than once today wasn't very good for the fine fabric.
"You're back to hiding your wandless magic. Good," Snape approved as he walked in. "Ready?"
Harry looked about for a moment. "Draco likes reading, but I wish I could think of something more to cheer him up."
"Consider asking Albus. He did Legilimize the boy; he may know what might help."
Harry stiffened at the mention of the headmaster. Legilimency or no, Dumbledore's attitude toward Draco had been awfully harsh. His brother had been right; he was judged on the basis of his name. Harry knew what that was like, but at least he was usually judged kindly. Maybe it wasn't so bad being the Boy-Who-Lived. Better that than have everyone at first acquaintance start thinking of you as the Boy-Who-Probably-Belongs-in-Azkaban-where-His-Lousy-Father-Should-Have-Stayed. Of course Draco had brought a lot of that on himself, but now he was trying to stand up for the Light. Couldn't the headmaster have given him the benefit of the doubt? Given him one second to explain before assuming him guilty?
"The headmaster's in Devon already?" Harry thought to ask.
"No, we will join him at your house and Apparate to Devon together," Snape explained. "We will explain the matter of the map to him and attempt to contact Lupin before we journey on."
"I sure hope we can reach Remus," Harry said, slipping his cloak on. Looking down, he saw that his hands were beginning to shake. What if Remus couldn't tell them anything useful? He might have helped construct the map, but that didn't mean he would know how it had been fooled this time... His hands trembling even worse at that thought, Harry was about to shove them out of sight, but his father, noticing his unease, reached out to hold them instead.
Cool hands on his, Snape's long fingers comforting as they wrapped completely around his and squeezed.
"We will solve it, Harry," his father promised. "Whether Lupin can assist us or not, we will find out exactly who has done this horrible thing. And when we do..." Those fingers tightened again, though not enough to hurt. "I may end up with blood on my hands, after all."
Harry was about to say that Severus would have to stand in line, but he didn't want to hear another lecture on the dangers of vengeance. "Um, I thought you didn't approve," he ventured, "of taking revenge, of..."
"I don't approve of you doing it, certainly," the Potions Master admitted, his features twisting as though in acknowledgment of his own hypocrisy. "But I am hardened already. Beyond all redemption, some would say."
"That's not true. You saved me, took care of me, took me in--"
"I did none of that in search of redemption, I hope you realise."
I hope you realise....
That told Harry something; it really did.
"Of course I realise," he exclaimed, moving closer to his father, moving to lean against him while they still held hands. That didn't last long, though. Letting go of Harry's fingers, Snape wrapped his arms about the boy and pulled him close.
"I know you didn't help me after Samhain just to prove to people that you were spying all those years or something," Harry went on, that choking feeling washing back over him. "I know, all right? I know. I never once even thought that was why you started being so good to me."
A low, rumble shook the Potions Master's chest. Harry was slow to recognise it as... well, not laughter, not exactly. Some sort of dark chuckle, perhaps.
"To think I gave up my Order of Merlin," Snape softly remarked. "Oh, but that's not quite accurate. I didn't get one to give up. Albus put a stop to it for me before it could get to that stage."
"For you?" Harry blinked, the world sort of going out of focus for a second. "You... but I thought you'd always wanted one."
"I can't deny it has a certain... appeal," Snape admitted, moving one hand to the back of Harry's head and simply holding him. "But I found out after Samhain that I most definitely did not want one if it came at the price of your believing that was why I saved you, or why I worked so hard to restore your sight."
"I wouldn't have thought that," Harry immediately denied, but then, giving it a bit more thought, realised, "Well, all right, maybe I would have thought that a little. Just a very little, though. We weren't... very close yet, back then. I wonder if you can still get your Order. What if I wrote... no wait, I don't want to ask Fudge for anything..."
"Another reason the Order would have been rather tainted, as Cornelius Fudge has lost what shard of respect I might have once borne him. And too, he only wanted to give it to me as part of his transparent campaign to recoup his own public image after he had vilified you only to be proven wrong about Voldemort's return."