Sighing, Harry glanced about for any sign of the shard he'd used from Sirius' mirror, but it was missing as well. Hmm, maybe the wall would start showing the proceedings again as soon as the Governors lifted their warding spells.
Hermione, he realised, was tapping him on the back, her touch insistent. Can we talk now? she mouthed when he glanced over his shoulder at her.
"Yeah, it's fine," Harry said, grimacing. "Too bad, eh? I really wanted to see how Lucius Malfoy might try to sway them, and see what they decide..." Forcing his mind off the disappointment, he turned to face his friends. "Anyway, I guess you realise now that I heard everything you said up there. Um, thanks for trying, you know? It was good of you not to mention the black eye. I mean, I know you don't much like Draco..."
Hermione, Harry saw, looked about as close to tears as he had ever seen her. "I don't. But that's not why I wrote that awful letter. I wasn't trying to make trouble, I just thought you needed help, Harry--"
"I know." He tried to smile. "Maybe it'll be all right."
Ron made a sound halfway between a laugh and a snort. "He obviously matters to you, even after the black eye thing. Oh, well. I do believe you, you know... he didn't kill Parkinson. So I guess he doesn't deserve to be expelled, git though he still is."
Harry smothered a slight smile. "Uh, Ron... are you embarrassed that you helped defend Draco Malfoy?"
Ron's skin flushed. "Yeah, guess so. The stuff in the hearing's confidential though, right? Nobody in Gryffindor'll have to know?"
"It's supposed to be confidential," said Hermione using one of her more smarmy voices. "What were you thinking, Harry, spying like that?"
"I was thinking--" For just a second he wondered if he should just come out and announce that Draco was his brother. He still didn't think it would go over so well, though. "Look, I had to see how he was holding up. He puts on a front for you guys, but around me he's more relaxed and... well, he's a little bit like a basket case these days. It's all the stress."
Hermione sat down on Draco's bed, then crossed her legs at the ankle and looked up at Harry with a frown in her eyes. "The stress must be something awful," she sympathised. "His front cracked even with us, Harry. Wednesday morning when we came to fetch you; Draco talked to us for a bit while you were getting dressed. He..." She broke off, clearly uncomfortable, but then must have decided that Harry needed to know. "He seemed pretty convinced that he was going to get expelled. Normally I don't think he'd let us see how much it bothered him, but Harry... what he talked about most was how you were going to need all the protection you could get, how Ron and I had to be on guard because... ah, well actually he said that he'd probably get nabbed by his father and he thought he'd break under torture and they'd find out about your wandless magic and dark powers... it was awful, the things he said."
"Yeah, even I felt sorry for the git," admitted Ron as he flopped down onto Harry's bed.
"I felt sorry for him," said Hermione slowly, "but what got to me more than that was... his attitude, Harry. He was worried about what all that might mean for you. And... well it was probably that more than anything else that made me want to help him with the expulsion thing. And I don't mean so that information about your dark powers stays secret. I mean... Draco took me by surprise, saying things like that."
Ron nodded, the gesture glum. Harry could tell his friend didn't want to respect anything about Draco. But he'd had no choice but to respect that.
"You're calling him Draco," he told Hermione. "In the hearing it was Malfoy."
"Well I didn't want to sound like I liked him. I don't like him, all right? No matter what he said about me being clever, or pretty, even, I still think he largely adheres to pureblood beliefs. But... I don't want you to think he's my enemy either. Because if he's for you, well, then he can't be."
Ron, Harry noticed, didn't nod at that claim. Probably more than he could stand to admit.
Harry sighed, thinking it was pretty sad that Draco had felt a need to say all that to Ron and Hermione. "He's not going to get abandoned to Voldemort just because he gets expelled. Severus and I told him that, and in no uncertain terms, too. You might as well know that if worse comes to worst, Severus will resign and the three of us will leave the country."
Hermione uncrossed her ankles and leaned forward, her palms on the edge of Draco's bed. "Leave the country, Harry!"
"Yeah, mate, you can't leave Hogwarts--"
"Sure can. Look, I don't want to go abroad, but Severus and I are not going to let Lucius Malfoy get his hands on Draco." Sighing, Harry admitted, "I wish Draco could believe that. But he doesn't understand."
"Doesn't understand what?"
Harry gave Hermione a careful glance, then studied Ron. Maybe they could stomach the truth, now. Maybe Draco's admission of concern for Harry would smooth the way. "Draco doesn't understand love," he said, sitting down next to Hermione and looking across the room at Ron. "He's got no idea how much I love him."
Ron had been fidgeting up until then, but that claim had him going completely still. "Uh... yeah. You... you know it never once occurred to me, you two sharing a room but... uh, oh Merlin, Harry. Are you trying to tell us you've ended up.... uh, attached to Draco Malfoy?"
Harry didn't like the way Ron had said attached. At least Hermione hadn't got hold of the wrong end of the stick. When Harry glanced at her to check her reaction, her lips were pursed as though she'd just love to smack Ron. Hard.
Oblivious to that, Ron went on in a strangled voice, "You don't want to snog him, do you?" And then, sounding like he'd die on the spot, "Have you already? No, wait. I don't want to know. Is that all right? Some things friends just don't need to know--"
"Oh, get your mind up out of the gutter!" Hermione exclaimed, though she glared at Harry. "How long were you planning to let him make an arse of himself?"
"I just wasn't sure what to say," said Harry, colouring. "It's not every day I get asked if I'm snogging Draco Malfoy!"
"No is what you say, Harry. And I don't know why Ron's thought processes should surprise you. He's the one who noticed you could stand for Professor Snape to touch you, and all at once decided that it went way beyond a hand on your shoulder--"
"I didn't really think that," shouted Ron as he jumped to his feet. "Would you stop throwing that in my face? I never really thought that. I was just angry that Harry announced he wanted him for a father. I was so angry I couldn't see straight, all right?"
"Are you still?"
Ron sat down again and shook his head at Harry. "No. Be good, all that... Snape seems like he's all right as a father, as far as I can tell."
Harry held in a grin. "As far as you can tell?"
"All right, fine. He seems like a good father, full stop."
"Seems?"
"Cut it out, Harry," snapped Ron, unamused. "There's a limit to how much I can admit without sicking up, you know. It's not easy for me, and hinting around that you're falling in love with Draco Malfoy isn't making it any easier--"
"Oh for God's sake, Ron! Nobody's falling in love. He's my brother!"
Ron stared at Harry, his eyes wide as saucers. "That's almost worse."
"No, it's not. It's great, because if you get to know Draco, you find out he's got this whole family-loyalty thing that's really important to him. Except, the Malfoys have disowned him. So Severus and I are his family now. Which actually isn't the only reason Draco's on my side, but it probably helps him feel better about it."