"He told me not to interrupt him unless I thought I was coming down with the plague."
"Oh." Harry thought for a moment, then fished Sals from his pocket. He hadn't been taking her to all his classes, but that morning she'd complained of being afraid Hedwig would eat her. Harry didn't really think Hedwig would, but as far as he could tell, his owl was a little resentful of his other pet. It had given him a little more sympathy for how Snape must have felt when he and Draco were squabbling so constantly.
"Um, I suppose I could ask Sals to try to go get them. Though I'm not sure she knows the way back to the common room, let alone the password. And somebody might step on her--"
"Oh, just give it up," Draco said on a longish sigh. "I suppose I'm stuck with you."
"Yeah, you are."
If Draco read between those lines, he didn't let on.
After a moment more, Harry decided the right thing to do was to wait out in the living room and let Draco have the bedroom to himself.
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Hogwarts' normal schedule resumed on Thursday. By then, the ill Slytherins were beginning to drift back into classes. Nott was among the first to recover, but he'd been among the first to take sick, so Harry supposed that made sense.
The cause of the illness --or curse-- remained a complete mystery. It had come on its own, and gone the same way, and rumour had it that Snape was refusing to take credit for any cures.
Harry had Defence again on Thursday. Aran wouldn't meet his eyes, but Nott did no end of staring as Harry cast spells that didn't do a single, solitary thing. Nott didn't try to talk to him again, though, so Harry just shrugged, and ignored the other boy's intent looks.
On Thursday after dinner, Harry ignored Ron's disgruntled you could spend some time in the Tower with us, you know, and went down to see his family again. He knew he was going down there an awful lot, but between the funeral just past and the expulsion hearing coming up, Harry thought he needed to.
The only trouble was, neither Draco nor Snape was there. Harry wandered around in circles for a while, wondering where they could be. Had Snape taken Draco out to Devon so the Slytherin boy could do a little flying and forget his troubles? Or were the two of them up with Dumbledore, planning out how to handle the coming expulsion hearing?
Harry was surprised at how... left out he began to feel. It was wrong, he was sure of that much. There was nothing to be jealous of. But still, it felt like a little niggling ache was eating away at him, inside.
Maybe that was due to something else though, Harry thought as he paced, wandering in and out of rooms. It was getting old already, this having a secret brother. He'd never wanted to keep his adoption to himself, after all. And now, this not telling any of his friends about Draco... Harry felt disloyal, as though he was acting ashamed to claim Draco Malfoy for his brother.
His friends just weren't big-hearted enough to understand, not after all those years of jeers and taunts and worse from Malfoy...
Big-hearted...
A smile cracked Harry's face, then, because he did have a friend he could tell, after all. Someone didn't much like Draco, but who couldn't help but be big-hearted anyway. Literally.
Snatching a pinch of Floo powder, Harry tossed it into the flames and got ready to firechat. "Hagrid's hut!"
The half-giant beamed when he saw the boy's upper half emerge in his hearth. "'Arry!"
"Do you have a minute, Hagrid?" Since kneeling on the hard stones of Snape's floor wasn't in the least comfortable, Harry went on, "Think you can visit with me in Severus' rooms? He wouldn't want me to leave the castle alone, or I'd come through all the way."
Hagrid made a shooing motion in answer, causing Harry to back up and get well away from Snape's fireplace so Hagrid would have plenty of room to enter. He emerged a moment later, prudently crouched over, a smudge of ash across his nose.
"Have a seat," Harry invited, waving toward the couch. It creaked under the half-giant's weight, and in a moment of giddy memory, Harry was reminded of Dudley sitting there and Draco valiantly struggling not to laugh out loud at the other boy's girth. I should write Dudley again, Harry thought, nodding as he took a seat in a chair and leaned forward.
"I should have visited you sooner. It's just been such a busy week, getting back into classes, and then Slytherin, and the funeral, and the expulsion tomorrow."
The half-giant was big-hearted. In every way. He didn't remind Harry about Buckbeak and say it was time Draco Malfoy got what was coming to him; he only sighed and nodded. "Ach. Right shame it is. I can't say as I 'old with this tendency we got to go expellin' first and askin' questions later."
"Yeah, it's awful what they did to you." Harry sighed. "Draco's been cleared, you know, but I'm still kind of worried about tomorrow."
Hagrid began stroking his beard, his kind eyes trained on Harry's wan expression. "There's moreta this than worry, I'm thinkin'."
Harry didn't need any more prompting than that. "Well, Severus adopted both of us, Hagrid. I mean, it's not legal, but he considers Draco his son too. He told us both that a long time ago, and... well, he was serious so I had to take it seriously. And so... Draco's my brother now."
Adjusting his position slightly, Hagrid rested his palms on his massive thighs. "Ach, I knew that from way back."
Harry blinked in shock. "You already knew Draco was my brother?"
Hagrid guffawed slightly. "Yer father's a closed mouthed one, 'Arry. But 'e came to me afore Christmas to tell me about yer little snake gettin' sick off the Floo. We gots to talking about this and that, and affer I told 'im 'ow the little mite jus' might like a warm box of 'er own, 'e relaxes enoughta let slip 'ow that'd sure be nice, seein' as 'e already 'ad the perfect gift fer 'is other son. Now what was Ita think a that, I ask ya?"
"His other son," Harry mused. "That was before he'd even told us he felt that way. But that's all right. You... you didn't think it was odd for him to talk that way, Hagrid?"
"Only odd parts was 'im sayin' it, not 'is feelin' that way. If yer ask me, it makes a fair bit a sense. Yer father's always 'ad quite a care for that 'ouse a 'is. 'Sides, it takes a Slytherin to understand a Slytherin, I always say."
Harry hadn't ever heard Hagrid say that, but it raised a good point. "Um, in that case you must have thought it was pretty strange for him to adopt me."
Laughing, Hagrid began to shake a little bit like Harry always imagined Father Christmas did. "Aye, a bit, I s'pose," the half-giant admitted, a wide grin breaking across his features. "But then 'e told the 'ole Order, 'e did, about 'ow the 'at 'ad got it wrong all them years ago, 'ow yeh'd talked yer way out a Slytherin to begin with."
"He told the Order about that?" Harry crossed his arms, a little bit miffed. "Well. He's not as closed-mouthed as I thought, is he?"
Hagrid made an effort to reign in his laughter. "'Arry, 'e was defendin' yer rightta be told a fair bit more in future 'bout plans and schemes and such. Claimed yeh had good instincts, 'e did, and 'e was promisin' that with 'im to bring out yer Slytherin side, yeh'd end up with all the cunnin' yeh could needta be a full member come yer birthday."
"Oh." Harry felt his anger subside. "That's all right, I guess. So did he convince Dumbledore to let me in when I turn seventeen, then?"
Hagrid shrugged to say he didn't know. "I'm thinkin' that's atween yer father and Albus."
"Yeah, okay--"
Whatever else Harry might have said was cut off by the noise of the Floo flaring. Snape strode out, as regal as ever in his bearing, followed closely by Draco who looked all right until he caught sight of Hagrid. The Slytherin boy visibly flinched, actually stepping backwards into the flames for an instant. With a look of profound irritation, Snape grabbed hold of Draco's arm and yanked him forward again.