"Oh, so that hovel in Devon is a case of your strategically not flaunting your own means, Severus?"
"Draco!" shouted Harry, too appalled to let that comment pass.
Draco rounded on Harry. "I told you, didn't I, that it's only poor wizards who think having money is gauche?"
"You also told me that Lucius didn't approve of those diamond buttons either!"
"TouchÈ," muttered Draco. "Can we be off now, Severus?"
Snape just stared at him.
"Oh fine, I apologise!" Draco suddenly blurted. "I don't know why I'm in such a foul mood, I really don't. I should be happy to be adopted. I am happy. I'm ecstatic, overjoyed! But at the same time I just feel so... irritated! About everything!" He turned away in a swirl of cloak that echoed Snape's flair for the dramatic. But Draco wasn't being dramatic for show, not that time.
Walking over to where his brother stood, Harry spoke quietly over his shoulder. "It's horribly confusing at first. I know, Draco."
"Yeah," said Draco, turning around again, this time slowly. "Maybe that's it." He looked a bit lost for a second, and then as though he couldn't bear for anyone to see that, he adopted his superior air again. "Or maybe I just need a change of scenery. Merlin's word, I'm tired of my universe being limited to these rooms and Devon. Can we be off?"
"In a moment. Harry, do be sure to visit soon, and please remember that if you need any help with your... ah, project, I'll be entirely at your disposal."
"What project?" asked Draco, narrowing his gaze.
Harry couldn't imagine why the well-wish should have to be a secret, but Snape evidently felt it should be. "Uh...."
"Integrating himself into his new House," said Snape with a tight smile. "Harry's still intent on that but as you've just expressed in extraordinarily clear terms just how much you detest Slytherin, I wasn't sure you'd still appreciate the prospect."
Draco made a face. "Probably still a good idea, if for no other reason than that Harry's plenty Slytherin himself." His voice acquired a smug tone as he shook a chiding finger in Harry's face. "It's no good to live in denial, you know. Best to face facts."
"I'll keep that in mind," Harry said, even as he shoved Draco's hand down.
"But... be careful," cautioned Draco, all at once dropping his condescending air. "I mean it, Harry. Bella and Erik are probably just the tip of the iceberg. You won't know whom to trust, so promise me you won't trust anyone. Not one Slytherin, promise. Well, except for Severus."
"And you."
Draco gave him a swift look, but before he could reply, Snape had taken him by the arm and was ushering him out.
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"Draco Snape," said Ron, shaking his head as he reached for another slice of pumpkin bread that evening at dinner. "That's just strange."
"Can you stop saying that?" Harry asked with exasperation, as that was about the fifth time Ron had brought it up. He looked around for Hermione but it didn't look like she'd ever returned from her Arithmancy review with the Ravenclaws. Too bad. She was usually pretty good at talking sense to Ron. "He's tired of people confusing him with Lucius, all right?"
"It's still strange. And you and him brothers, I mean actual brothers..."
"Yeah, well we were already, I told you that. So now it's official." Harry shrugged, and made a show of concentrating on his meal. It didn't work.
"I thought you were mental and you'd come to your senses eventually! But this... this isn't going to go away!"
"No, it's not." Setting his fork down with a thud, Harry stared across the table at his best friend. "Are we going to have another huge row? Because I'm getting pretty tired of your not being there for me, Ron."
"I... Look, Harry, it's a bit much is all--"
"It's the way things are," Harry shot back. "Like Severus being my dad. I put up with shite from you over that because keeping your friendship was worth it, but I'm really hoping you can be a little more grown up about things this time."
"But it's Draco, this time! Draco sodding Malfoy, Harry--"
"No, it's Draco Snape, and he's my brother!" Realising he was breathing hard, Harry tried his best to calm down. "Look, how would you feel if I hassled you all the time about Percy?"
"It's hardly the same thing! Percy's a bit of a prat but he's not anything like... him."
Harry decided it wouldn't do much good to start detailing all the reasons he had to dislike Percy Weasley. "Ron, I'm not saying you have to be mates with him or anything like that. Just don't be a bastard to him, that's all I'm asking. Don't start anything."
"Like I ever have!"
Harry leaned forward on his elbows. "You're even poorer than a Weasley... you call that not starting anything?"
"Well, it was true," Ron said in a voice just about as smug as the one Draco had been using lately. "And serves him right after all the cracks he's made about my dad's job over the years."
"It's not true now. He's just inherited another huge vault."
"Figures. Who'd he kill?"
That was close enough to the truth that Harry flushed.
Ron's voice dropped to a bare whisper. "Oh, shite. You mean he really did kill somebody?"
"No, of course not!" Harry sighed then. "Look, it's kind of complicated and nobody has any proof, and none of it is Draco's doing, but the inheritance does look a bit sticky. Not that it bothers Draco one bit. The way he was raised was pretty sick, I think. And if I can say that then you know it really was. But that's all beside the point. Are you going to give me grief and try to get me to turn my back on him the way you did with me and Snape? Because I won't do it."
Ron cleared his throat. "Harry, listen. You're acting kind of like a little kid at Christmas, don't you think? This brother thing is like you have some new toy, all shiny and exciting. And you can't help it because you were starved for family growing up. But the shine's going to come off and you're going to see that Draco Snape isn't so very different from Draco Malfoy, after all."
"I think it's safe to say the shine's off already," said Harry, thinking of Draco's atrocious behaviour. "But you've got it wrong if you think this is only about me having a brother. As far as I'm concerned, the best thing about all of this is that I get to be a brother, see? I'm not about to be a bad one, I'm just not."
Picking up his fork, Ron pressed the tines over and over into his mushy peas, making a right mess of his plate. "Yeah, okay, I see what you mean. I don't know why you have to lecture me, anyway. I didn't pick a fight with him, not once in all those times we visited the... you know. And I testified at his stupid hearing. For him. Now that's going above and beyond. I don't remember him thanking me, either."
"I'll mention the oversight. So are we all right?"
"Yeah, we're all right," muttered Ron. "I don't like it but... yeah, we're all right."
"Good." Harry grinned, and grabbed a banana from the platter that had just appeared.
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Monday morning dawned bright and clear. For his part, Harry found it hard to believe that only one week earlier, he'd been ill with anxiety over getting back to classes. Things just seemed normal again; everybody was even used to his Parseltongue incantations by then. Well, everybody except Professor Aran, but Harry was practising on his own to make up for class being a waste of his time. Then again, Aran's class always had been a waste of his time.