"Normal!" Harry stopped in his tracks and glared at Neville.
"Yeah, normal. Seamus is treating you the way he treats everybody, and the others think it's all funny because well, Snape telling you to be good is sort of funny, Harry. But more than that... Look.... everybody gets teased about their family. How many times did Seamus bring up my Gran's taste in clothes after that lesson with the boggart?"
Harry's anger started to die. "Um, too many to count, I think. I mean, he didn't get off it for about a year."
"Right. And with Ron it's all those rabbit references, you know, cause his parents have so many children they must get up to a lot of... well, anyway, Seamus doesn't mean anything bad. It just means he likes Ron. And he likes Hermione too, or else he wouldn't always be joking that she'd better remember to brush her teeth, see? Everybody's family is quirky in one way or another. And if Seamus is overdoing it, well... it's only because you're just like us now. You finally have a family."
Sitting down on his bed, Harry thought about that. "But I had a family before," he said, chewing his lower lip. "Seamus never teased me about them."
"Well, he pretty much couldn't," Neville said, smiling in sympathy. "All anybody knew was that they were Muggles. Seamus is hardly going to think that's quirky. And besides, after a bit we began to realise that you never got letters, so we figured it wasn't a good situation for you at home. Nobody wants to hurt you, Harry. And that's just the thing, see? Seamus is only teasing you because he saw how you stood up for Snape the night you came back. It was sort of obvious that you.... er, love him. And that makes you normal, Harry." Neville suddenly laughed. "Not that it's normal to love Snape... see, even I'm not above a spot of teasing. But all our families are weird in their own ways, and we love them anyway, that's what I meant."
"So this is Seamus' way of saying he's okay with Snape being my father?"
Neville shook his head and answered in a dry voice. "I don't think Seamus actually knows why he's suddenly teasing you. He just thinks it's funny. But he never thought it was funny that you didn't get to go home for Christmas, you know. And he never once teased about that, did he? But you're happy having Snape for a dad, and that makes it all right to poke fun. Just... try to remember, however much a buffoon Seamus ends up being, his heart's in the right place."
Harry couldn't help but sigh. Now that Neville had explained, it all did make sense. He wondered why he hadn't seen the jokes for what they were. Friendly teasing, emphasis on friendly. "You're pretty good at figuring things out, Neville. You could give Hermione a run for her money, even."
The other boy blushed. "Nah. It's just that we're sort of alike, Harry. Growing up without your parents makes you think more about family than you might otherwise."
"Think I have to apologise for yelling that his head was up his arse?"
Neville laughed. "No, because right about now Ron is probably calling Seamus an idiot, and Seamus is deciding his head was up his arse. It'll be all right, Harry. Just... if he says something else about Snape, take it how it's meant, all right?"
"All right. I... you know I still don't really feel like playing games but now I think I'd better go show there's no hard feelings."
Neville stood up and opened the door, nodding, and together they walked down the stairs.
"Sorry, Harry," Seamus mumbled when Harry sat down with the others.
"Yeah, me too," Harry admitted, even though Neville had said he didn't need to apologise. He gave the other boy a smile, and Seamus smiled back, and that was that.
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Friday rolled around, along with another Potions class. This time, Harry was considerably less nervous about having his father teach him. As it turned out, though, he had no reason to be nervous at all; Professor McGonagall was the one who walked through the door when it was time for class to start. She set an essay, asking them to explain in detail the brewing sequence of the Magma Potion, including an analysis of dangers inherent in each step.
She fobbed off every question posed about where Professor Snape might be.
Harry thought he knew, though. The expulsion hearing was set for that evening, after all. Snape must still be busy preparing for it. As Draco's Head of House, he'd be expected to have an opinion on the matter; Snape was no doubt going to attempt to sway the Board of Governors toward his point of view.
Harry finished off his essay as quickly as he could, then waited impatiently for Ron and Hermione to finish so they could walk him down to the dungeons. Of course Hermione took the full class period plus ten extra minutes. It was all Harry could do not to go grab her by the arm and drag her away from quill and parchment. Finally, though, she was ready and they headed off.
Harry stopped when they reached Snape's hidden door. "Better let me go in alone again, I think."
Hermione's answering nod was brisk. "When should we come back for you, then?"
Good question. "Um, I might actually spend the weekend here," Harry hedged.
Ron made an impatient noise in the back of his throat.
"Well I came back last night when you asked!"
"When your father asked, you mean!"
"See, you do call him my father."
At that, Ron heaved a sigh. "Harry, you're missing the point. You've been down here an awful lot already this week, don't you think?"
"Well it hasn't exactly been an average week, has it?"
"But the whole weekend?"
"Listen, if Draco gets expelled then Severus will need the company--" Not to mention, we just might be packing for Argentina, Harry thought, even though Snape had said he wasn't going to brush up on his Spanish. "Anyway," Harry added, "I'm supposed to do extra potions lessons every Saturday. I agreed a while back to come down here for that."
Ron looked as though he might argue more, until Hermione said, "I'm sure that the professor can bring you back to the Tower whenever you finish with your visit, or lesson, as the case may be."
His friends waited until Harry had the door open, before giving him a little wave and heading back the way they had come.
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Draco was sitting on the couch, a morose frown on his face. "Took you long enough."
Harry figured that the magic doorbell must have been ringing, and that Draco knew who was out there because of the door parchment. "Well, Ron and Hermione and I had some things to discuss."
"Oh, I see. It's not all right for me to talk to you alone, but it is all right for you to talk to them alone?"
Tugging off his robes, Harry settled into a chair. "I thought you wouldn't particularly want to see them just before the hearing. Where's Severus?"
The Slytherin boy shrugged to say he didn't know, but the gesture communicated a good deal more than that.
"I'm sure whatever he's doing is something to help you," Harry reassured his brother.
Draco's grey eyes blazed. "How naÔve are you, Potter? There is no helping me. I'm a lost cause, always have been."
"Severus will pull a rabbit out of a hat somehow, I just know it."
"He'll what?"
Harry smiled slightly. "Muggle expression. It just means... well, he has plots inside plots. He wasn't even in class today, and you know how seldom that happens. It'll be..." He almost said all right, but remembering how badly that sentiment had gone over before, Harry cleared his throat and switched to, "Look, whatever happens, we're all three of us in it together. And we'll get through it, I swear."
"Noble sentiment," Draco sneered, then leaned his head back against the couch. "You know what, though? At this point I don't even care. I just want it to be over."