"I wondered about it," Harry wryly admitted. "Well, serve him right if we start using the word."
"Like he needs to be any more conceited," groused Ron.
Harry thought better than to point out that he thought Draco was a pretty insecure person at heart. "All right, no quizzex then. Well, I'll head down to the common room, then. I have to get these copied and look at those other well-wish books Hermione dug up and work on that extra essay Severus set me and--"
"Planning to fit some sleep in there somewhere?"
Harry waved off that thought. "Oh, I'll be up later. After Hermione finishes copying my notes so I can send them to Draco."
Ron frowned. "That could wait until tomorrow, you know."
"No, I promised my father I'd owl down my notes every night," Harry insisted. Neville gave him a concerned look then, but Harry ignored it. Neville couldn't understand what Snape must be going through, dealing with Draco at his very brattiest. Harry owed it to his father to be as helpful and cooperative as he could.
"Well, all right," murmured Ron, shaking his head. "I'd do your notes myself, even if they are for Draco, but my copies always have those awful smudges."
"It's all right."
Sighing then, Harry headed down the stairs to the common room.
------------------------------------------------------
He was halfway through his essay when Hermione finally walked in, her arms overflowing with books. "Just how late do Ravenclaws study, anyway?"
"Ha. I notice you're still at it," retorted Hermione as she flopped onto the couch on the other side of the table.
Harry sighed and pushed his essay across at her. "Tell me if that last part's clear, the bit about the wizard who strapped a magic floater to his broom and ended up swept out to sea."
Hermione read his essay through from the start. "Looks all right so far. Though I can't think when Professor Snape has ever appreciated your Quidditch analogies, Harry."
"Yeah, he mentioned that." Harry took his parchment back and read a sentence or two, thinking they sounded depressingly like those first-year essays Snape had let him correct. Only with better spelling. "Maybe I'll just start over from scratch--"
"Harry, it's fine."
"Well, it needs to be better than fine. Severus was pretty upset with me and I want to show him that I understand why!"
"Harry..." Hermione shook her head. "No, never mind. You'll figure it out."
"Figure what out?"
"Having a dad." She paused as though weighing her words with care, but ended up not saying anything more... at least, not about Harry and Snape. Instead, she settled her books onto the table. "I'm late because of something one of the Ravenclaws said about well-wishes, actually. Did you know you're supposed to give some thought to the vase you use as well as the plants?"
Great, more research. Just what Harry needed. He was having a hard enough time trying to find wishes that Draco couldn't take the wrong way. "No, I didn't know that."
Hermione nodded sagely, despite the fact that she'd just found this out herself. "Whatever you pick, it's supposed to represent the father to the newborn... I mean, to Draco in this case."
"No wonder he gave me my well-wish in a potions vial," Harry said, thinking back. "I don't want to copy that though, so what's left? A model cauldron just a few inches high?"
"That'd be adorable!"
Figures a girl would think so, thought Harry. "No, Hermione, it's be daft."
"With a tiny fire underneath it--charmed to not really get hot, of course..." Hermione glanced at him through her lashes. "No? All right. Just as well then, that I went to the library and got these." She pushed a stack of books across the table. "Family histories. There's something about the Snape lineage in every one. The way you keep insisting the rest of us call your brother Draco Snape, I thought you might want to make his new name sort of central to the whole well-wish."
Harry flushed remembering how Ron had reacted upstairs to the whole name thing.
"But what good are family histories going to do?" he complained. "I mean, unless there's some kind of vase that goes along with the name."
"There's a crest," said Hermione, flipping through one of the thicker books until she found it. She flipped the book around on the table so Harry could see. "Here."
The Snape Family Crest, the heading read. Beneath it was a full-page illustration of... well, Harry supposed it was some sort of crest, but it wasn't like one he'd ever seen, and not just because it was moving. No horses or helmets or feathers here... nothing anyone could recognise, in fact. The crest was shaped like a shield, but it bore no emblems of any kind. Instead, looking at it was like staring into a kaleidoscope. Abstract shapes swirled 'round and 'round in patterns, the colours cycling through greens and greys and blues, with an occasional hue from the rest of the rainbow. It was hypnotic, Harry thought. And weird.
But he sort of liked it.
"I don't think my Duplicaro is really up to transferring something like this," he murmured. A wanded spell might be powerful enough, he thought, but immediately discarded the idea. After the research he'd done for his essay, he knew it really wasn't worth the risk.
"I thought mine might be," Hermione said, smiling. She drew a piece of parchment out of another book, and passed it to Harry.
"Nice." Harry studied the copy closely. "A little too blue in places, I think..."
"Took me sixteen tries," admitted Hermione. "Each one was better, so..."
"Why would you go to all that work for Draco?"
"It's work for you, silly. You've been slaving away, putting off your schoolwork so you can figure out what to wish for Draco--"
"Well, he's hard to wish for, as it turns out."
"I bet."
"He's suddenly being a total snot, in fact."
Hermione giggled. "Suddenly, is it? Where have you been for six years?"
Harry stuck out his tongue at her.
Hermione pushed her hair off her face. "Padma asked how you were, by the way. That's how this started. I said you were making a well-wish, and she wanted to know what sort of a vase would represent Snape. And when I realised you had to figure that out as well, I thought I'd try to help you out."
"Oh, you did," Harry assured her. "Snape family crest. It's perfect! It represents Severus like it's supposed to--well, I hope it does, no telling if this is the right branch of the Snapes, but anyway... see, I think Draco thinks I'm a little bit jealous that he has Dad's name and I don't, and maybe this'll help show him that I'm fine with it."
"Are you fine with it?"
"Yeah, of course," said Harry dismissively, his mind on other matters. Maybe he'd been going about looking for wishes all wrong. Maybe if he started with the name Snape and Draco's need to be seen as something other than a Malfoy... "You're brilliant!" Harry suddenly exclaimed, snatching up a pile of parchments and tearing them in half.
Hermione's brows drew together. "Well, yes... but Harry, your essay really wasn't that bad..."
"No, no, those were my notes for the well-wish," Harry explained. "I just had a better idea for how to go about deciding on the wishes. Not even Draco will complain about them, I bet, not if I... well, I don't know if it will work out so I won't go into it. But I have to start my research over."
"Over!"
"Yeah. But it'll be worth it. Hmm, if I have a list by morning and I can see if Professor Sprout can get me the plants. Owl-order express, something like that."
"What's the rush?"