Draco and Harry abroad, he mentally amended. His family wasn't going anywhere without him.
As Snape and Draco walked from the boardroom, the magic image followed along, obeying Harry's last spoken command. His father and brother began traversing the long corridors to return to the dungeons, Snape still holding Draco by the arm, supporting him. Neither one of them said a thing as minute past minute they walked; Harry thought that rather strange. He was just about to tell the picture frame to go back to normal when Lucius Malfoy stepped lithely out of a side corridor and stood blocking them both. How had he gotten there so quickly?
Probably knows some secret passages...
Harry held his breath as he waited to hear what Lucius might have to say.
"Such a pity," the blond man oozed false sympathy. "Such a terrible shame. I did what I could for you, Dragon, when the Governors convened in closed session, but alas... it seems your conduct has simply been too egregious to overlook, this time."
Draco looked up, his eyes dull as he surveyed this man who was supposed to have loved him. He didn't reply. He didn't even grimace. He just looked... lost.
Letting go of Draco's arm, Snape stepped half in front of his son as though to shield him, his stance one Harry recognised from all their practice out in Devon. His father was ready for an attack, even though Lucius likely had enough subtlety not to launch one at such a time and place. Constant vigilance, Harry thought anyway. Good.
"If you'll excuse us, Governor, Draco has several things to occupy his next hour."
Instead of responding to that directly, Lucius drew Draco's old wand out of his pocket and began to twirl it between his fingers. "It's always nice to have a spare, don't you think? Two is better than one? Given your recent behaviour, Professor, I take it you agree. Allow me to enlighten you, however." Lucius dropped his voice to a smooth, menacing whisper. "A spare does you no good at all when you end up losing them both."
Harry shuddered at the word spare, to say nothing of the double meaning in all that. Lucius wasn't talking about wands at all.
Snape said nothing to the taunts, which of course only inspired Lucius to continue.
"I'm rather impressed with how seriously you're taking this self-imposed commitment of yours, Severus. Especially considering what little regard you obviously have for other commitments." His lips curling, Lucius gave a casual shrug "My cast-off as well as a pitiful mistreated little boy complete with cupboard phobias. You must really be feeling an urge for repentance." His smile grew even more smug, if such a thing were possible. "Or maybe throwing around points and detentions is no longer sufficient to vent your frustrations. If you have any trouble disciplining the pair of them I know a rather useful spell--"
"Get out of our way, Lucius," growled Snape, teeth bared.
"Ah well, I suppose the final outcome left much to be desired." Lucius pocketed the wand and brushed his hands together as though to clean them of something particularly foul. "No matter, I'm sure I'll have the opportunity to demonstrate that spell, and many others, to you very soon. To all of you, including that scar-headed misfit you took in. A Gryffindor. Whatever were you thinking? I hear you healed his eyes? You might as well not have bothered, as he'll certainly prefer not to see what I've been saving especially for him. But father knows best, eh? Until then."
With that, he was stepping past Severus and Draco and striding smartly down the hall, his booted heels making clicking noises against the stone.
Draco stumbled over to the wall and leaned his shoulder into it, breathing heavily through his mouth. Snape went to support him, pulling him straight away into a close embrace, one hand moving to rub slow circles over the boy's back. The moment he was touched, Draco made a horrible gasping sniffling noise that just about broke Harry's heart in two.
"Harry," said Hermione in a wavering voice. "We really shouldn't be..."
"Yeah," said Harry thickly, moving towards his bedroom wall. "Go back to the way you were..."
The images vanished into stone, the enchanted picture frame abruptly clattering to the floor. Funny, it usually emerged from the spell hanging just where it had been before. And what was worse, there was still no sign of the shard of mirror he'd used. Harry glanced about everywhere, biting the inside of his own cheek in his worry, but it was no use. As far as he could tell, the mirror had been used up somehow. Consumed by the magic, probably.
Harry sighed, trying not to let that bother him as he picked up the picture frame and muttered a sticking charm to get it to stay in place on the wall.
"Yeah," said Ron, nodding at Harry's sigh. "Not even Malfoy deserves all this."
"Draco," corrected Harry. "He's on our side now; you even admitted yourself that you knew as much."
"Draco," said Ron, sneering it.
Well, it was a start.
"You'd better get going," Harry said, setting his wand down on the bed. "Really. Severus is going to be upset enough with me over the wall thing... uh, not supposed to do that spell... anyway, if he sees you down here, Hermione, after the way Fudge used that WFS letter to discredit your testimony..."
Hermione leapt up as though the bed had sprouted blast-ended screwts. "Right then, we'd better be off--"
By then, though, it was too late. The front door was creaking open on its hinges.
"Oh God," said Harry, wishing he had his dad's old cloak so he could toss it over his friends before his father saw them. Or before Draco did. He'd hardly want Ron and Hermione to see him at his lowest point.
Which they did already, thanks to me, Harry thought, feeling guilty.
Nothing to do now but brazen it out, though. Harry headed for the living room.
"Hey," he said, looking from Snape to Draco as they hung their cloaks. He tried not to look at the empty patch where Draco's Slytherin crest used to be. "Um..."
"You and I will be having a rather strongly worded talk," Snape bit out, his dark eyes flashing.
"Yes, sir," Harry said, chastened. "Draco, I... uh, heard. I'm really, really sorry."
The Slytherin boy's eyes were rimmed with red as he finally turned away from the wall to face Harry. "How did you hear?"
Harry bit his lip. "Well, I--"
He didn't get to finish the explanation, though. Ron's voice cut across his. "Harry, you should maybe come see this. Uh, Draco too..."
"Oh. They told you," Draco sneered as he follows Harry over to their bedroom. "And since when does Weasley call me Draco? That's all I need--" He stopped speaking abruptly when he came through the door and saw a small pile of clothes and books on the floor where his trunk used to be. "Weasley, what in bloody hell did you do to my things?"
"Me?" Ron huffed. "I was just standing here, and poof! Your trunk vanished in sort of reddish haze, and there was nothing left but that stuff there!"
"Oh, no..." Draco took three giant strides to cross the room and dropped straight to his knees to sift through the pile. "Reddish haze," he dully repeated, shaking his head. "Fucking goblins. Ought to be strangled, the lot of them."
"A financial spell, then," Snape confirmed. "The terms of your vault."
Draco rose shakily to his feet and tried to make light of it, whatever it was. "So much for nominal control."
"I don't understand..."
"Oh, how hard is it to grasp, Potter? I have to be a student here to keep my money, good standing, all that. Terms of the fucking trust. I told you that."
"Language, Draco," Snape said, rebuking him that time as he nodded slightly to the side. Towards Hermione.