"Oh, that's all right... I um, pretty much resigned from the Quidditch team on account of it, but I told people it's to do with my magic. Um, I had to tell Ginny I was worried you'd be a bit irritated if I played only for Gryffindor. She said you'd understand, which made me wonder. Would you have?"
"Yes, though I have little time at present to discuss the matter." Standing, Snape gave Harry his full attention. "I really must return to the hospital wing, Harry. If there was nothing urgent you needed?"
"I..." Harry shook his head. "I was going to ask you to walk me back, but I guess I'll just sleep over. Ron and Hermione know to come get me in the morning. All right?"
Snape curled a lip. "You need not ask permission to sleep here."
"Right, of course. Um, good luck with the Slytherins... oh, just so you know, Theodore Nott shook my hand. Everybody else was standoffish."
"A pity Mr. Nott is one of the worst afflicted, in that case." Snape's eyes narrowed, but he said nothing further of Theodore Nott's surprising behaviour. "I will see you when I can, Harry."
One flash of green fire later, and Harry was left alone in the living room.
He went in to sleep, really glad that his father had insisted he leave some things behind, since now it meant he had some pyjamas in his room. His room. There was something comforting about that, Harry thought, as he crawled between the sheets and closed his eyes.
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Harry woke up to a shivery feeling coursing up and down his spine. Opening his eyes, he saw that Draco was sitting up in bed, watching him.
"Bad dreams?" the other boy asked in a factual tone.
"No...."
"Sounded like it."
Harry thought back. "I can't really remember... well, it was some sort of ceremony, I think. Minister Fudge was holding something and incanting in Latin. And then... oh, it was a wand, right. And then he snapped it into little pieces..."
Draco scowled. "That would be my wand when they expel me, I take it."
Harry went cold at the thought. "I don't really think I was having a seer dream."
"I know you weren't." The Slytherin boy shrugged, though Harry thought it looked insecure rather than uncaring. "You were dreaming your fears, that's all. You've heard that wands get broken whenever a student is kicked out of school. But remember how Dumbledore gave me that part of the charter, how he said expulsion procedures had been revised in his lifetime? It turns out that they changed what happens to your wand. These days, it gets confiscated. They don't break it, just in case the expulsion is a miscarriage of justice."
"Hagrid." Harry nodded. "That makes sense."
Draco swung his legs off the edge of the bed and leaned forward, his gaze assessing. "How's your eye?"
"Oh, fine."
"Now isn't that nice. Lying to your one and only brother now, Harry? Do you think I'm stupid or something? I heard you and Severus, going on about you being half-blind. So let's have it. Did I blind you?"
"Well... no. I mean, things aren't great, but really, it's Lucius' fault--"
"Harry, is that sodding eye of yours back to normal or not?"
Harry felt a little chagrined, then, that he hadn't been honest from the start. "No. Things are blurry and it was giving me a headache so Madame Pomfrey charmed my glasses to block off images on that side."
"Marvellous." Getting up then, his movements resentful, Draco plucked his clothes off the floor and pulled them on without so much as applying a freshening charm. That told Harry something about the other boy's state of mind. Draco never wore the same clothes twice in a row, and he hardly ever started the day without a shower.
Harry gave him a sympathetic smile. "My eye will get better. Severus is working on it. Well, he will when he gets a chance."
"Pansy's curse, yeah." Draco glanced at his socks as though they'd offended him, then sighed and pulled them on regardless.
Just then, the magic doorbell began to chime. Draco scowled. "A bit early, isn't it? Not even time for breakfast, not by my watch. But don't mind me. Go off and have breakfast with your friends."
"My other friends," Harry stressed.
"So now I'm about to be expelled I'm just a friend, is that how it's going to be?" Draco yanked his shoes on and stood up.
Harry resisted an impulse to raise his own voice. "Do you want me to tell everyone that you're my brother, Draco? I will, you know."
Draco made a sour face. "Not too cunning, Harry. With Severus you had that paper to show them. With me... they'll think you're completely off your head, claiming a thing like that."
Harry chewed his lip. "That's basically what I thought. Um, can you go let Ron and Hermione in while I change? We don't want them assuming nobody can hear them again."
"Oh yes, I'll be just delighted to entertain your friends," Draco drawled.
Harry didn't like the defensiveness he heard in his brother's voice. "Listen, I did tell them about the Veritaserum and how it proves you didn't kill anybody."
"Didn't kill anybody yet. That Weasley might be in for it someday if he doesn't shut his flapping gums."
Since Harry thought Draco was probably angling for a reaction with a comment like that, he only replied, "Ron, remember. Call him Ron, and call her Hermione. You're backsliding."
"Trust you to keep me on the straight and narrow. But just you remember, I'm not a Gryffindor no matter what asinine line Severus wants me to copy over and over!"
Before Harry could reply, Draco was out the door.
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There weren't any Slytherins at breakfast, not a single one. And none in Defence against the Dark Arts, either. That was just as well, considering how that class went. Professor Aran used to like him, but as Harry soon found out, that had definitely changed.
"Mr. Potter," the teacher said in a cold tone as Harry came through the door. "You've missed a lot this year."
"Sorry, sir. Couldn't help it," Harry said, only to be brought up short by the reply he received.
"That flippant attitude had better vanish straight away, Potter."
"Yes, sir."
Puzzled, Harry slid into the seat he used to have in this class, one next to Ron.
"We'll keep working today on blocking unfriendly spells," the teacher announced. "Re-read the addendum I gave out on Friday for some cautions, and then we'll begin."
Blocking unfriendly spells wasn't exactly a sixth year topic; it wasn't even in their regular text, as they'd covered all that in years past, but that was Aran for you. Harry had always thought him sort of empty-headed. At least he'd been a change from Umbridge, but apparently the class hadn't got any more useful while Harry'd been away. Of course, he'd known that already from keeping up with the readings and assignments. Useless drivel, most of it. He'd learned more Defence from Snape in one afternoon in Devon than from a whole year of doing Aran's assignments. This addendum, though, was something Harry hadn't ever seen. He raised his hand.
"Mr. Potter?"
"I need the addendum, sir."
"You haven't kept up." It wasn't a question. "I don't think I can take you back in that case."
Well, that was about the most unfair thing Harry had heard since... well, actually since Snape used to pick on him all the time in class. "I have kept up, Professor Aran," Harry said, pushing his anger to the side. "I just never received this latest addendum."
"Well, I certainly sent it," said Aran, huffing. "Pack up your things, Potter."