Snape didn't laugh. "It truly is necessary. I already intimated to them once that you were under my protection--"
"Yeah, Nott told me. See, he does let slip interesting stuff I need to know."
"No wonder you wish to continue in his company." Snape sipped his wine again then set his glass down. "However, having you there at my side as I state as much again will tend to reinforce the message and make you safer here. I propose we see to it tomorrow night after your Potions lesson has been concluded."
"All right." Really, that probably was the very best time, right after the students had spent a day in Hogsmeade. Everyone would be in about as good a mood as they'd ever get. Harry wondered briefly if Snape had thought of that, then almost scoffed out loud. Who was he kidding? Of course Snape had thought of that! "Um, speaking of Potions, you never did tell me what my punishment was."
Snape tapped the table with his wand, banishing all the dishes except Harry's bowl. "No, I didn't. I think perhaps a full day of brewing with me will suffice. Before we are finished, you will have produced an adequate Waldenholfer's Acuity Draught, along with a few other potions and elixirs you missed out on earlier in the year. Tomorrow, we'll say."
Harry smothered a laugh. "I was going to come and brew tomorrow anyway!"
"Yes, but how many of your friends know that?" Snape raised an eyebrow. "So then, this will give you something to complain about. I must keep up appearances."
"I thought I wasn't going to get any special treatment on account of being your son." Harry wasn't sure why he was complaining. He didn't want to have to scrub cauldrons, after all, but neither did he like being set apart from the other students. He was tired of being different.
"You're welcome to stay late and mince flobberworms if you like." Snape stared at him as though assessing his reaction. "No? Why don't we simply agree that if you lose control of your magic again in my class, you will be assigned a proper detention. Can your very Gryffindor sense of fairness bear that compromise?"
Harry thought it was surprisingly reasonable coming from Snape, but something about it still bothered him. "Suppose I do my homework properly and all that and come to class prepared, but I still have troubles with the Parseltongue working right? That wouldn't be my fault, would it? So I don't think I ought to be punished for it."
Snape's nostrils flared. "I should expect less of you simply because your magical state poses you a challenge?"
Put like that it was hard to say yes, Harry thought a little resentfully.
"Should I also expect less of students whose magic is by its nature weak, Harry? Or should I insist they overcome that obstacle, even if it means putting in ten times as much effort as other students must devote?"
"Oh, all right." Feeling full, Harry rubbed his stomach a bit as he gave in on that one. "You're right. I'll just work harder, whatever it takes."
"It almost always takes sufficient sleep," Snape hinted.
"I'll be good," Harry promised, yawning. "And speaking of sleep, can you walk me back now? I think I'll turn in early and catch up."
"We have one more thing to discuss, actually. When you come down tomorrow, I would request you not do anything to alter the state of your room."
Harry blinked. "What are you talking about?"
Snape suddenly looked about as uncomfortable as Harry had ever seen. "Draco," he announced, his tones short and clipped. "He is being far more difficult than I had anticipated, and I admit I've been at somewhat of a loss for how to deal with him."
Uh-oh, that sounded pretty bad. "So, you changed my room around or something?"
A sharp scoffing noise filled the room. "No, certainly not. I merely told the house elves that until they hear otherwise from me, they are to leave your room entirely alone. If Draco will not do his lines or his schoolwork, he will not have the cleaning and tidying services he takes for granted."
Harry set his spoon down. "He's refusing to do his lines and his schoolwork? I've been knocking myself out getting those notes copied every single night, and he's not even bothering to use them?"
Snape picked up his wand and banished Harry's dessert, the motion something furious. "He insists that as he has been expelled he no longer has to do any assignments. I am attempting to disabuse him of the notion."
"And the lines?"
"We've had more than one row about the lines." When Snape glanced at Harry, his dark eyes reflected pure frustration. "I can't seem to make him budge on either issue."
Harry reached a hand out and caught his father's fingers in his own, squeezing them as Snape had done so many times for him. Sometimes the simplest touch could convey mountains of reassurance; he knew that.
His father had taught him.
"Thank you, Harry," Snape said, his voice pitched low.
Harry smiled a little, but not in amusement. It was more an expression to bolster the man. "So, you told the house elves to let Draco clean his own room, and he's being stubborn and letting it turn into a pigsty, I guess?"
"It was cleaner when you had geese and sheep in there."
Harry winced, remembering the mess the animals had caused. "I won't clean the room either, I promise. But what else have you tried? I mean, to get through to Draco?"
Snape pulled his hand from Harry's and began counting on his fingers. "All the books except his schoolbooks are charmed to stay shut, now. The Floo connects to the kitchens only during mealtimes and of course it's long been warded so he can't actually travel through it alone at any time. When he started amusing himself by taking ten showers a day I limited the hot water, as well."
"So you're grounding him, basically." When Snape stared at him, Harry murmured, "Muggle term. Hmm, I don't know what else to suggest, really..."
"I don't expect you to solve this," Snape assured him, rising to his feet. "I simply needed you to realise that your room must be left for him to clean. Or not -- he knows he can have the elves back in just as soon as he begins doing his own work."
"He'll come around," Harry promised, standing up too and going over to give his father an encouraging hug. One more thing he'd learned from Snape.
"Merlin, I hope so," Snape groaned. "But my hair may be as grey as Albus' by the time he does."
------------------------------------------------------
"Well, wish me luck," Harry said as he hovered outside his father's door, clad in dress robes and clutching a tumbler filled with flowers.
"With Draco or with the Slytherins?"
"Both, I think," Harry told Ron. He held up the well-wish. "Does it look all right?"
Ron took a moment to study the crest. "Blimey, you even got it to move!"
"Yeah, and it looks even more stunning on glass than parchment."
Harry carefully avoided looking at Hermione as he delivered the veiled compliment, but her cheeks still went pink. And Ron saw.
"Oh, no wonder it looks so good. Miss Duplicaro herself transferred it." Rounding on Hermione, he snarled, "So you've been helping out Draco, have you?"
"I've been helping Harry!"
"Oh, sure."
Hermione stamped her foot. "Ronald Weasley, you're an idiot!"
"And you're bloody pathetic, you are--"
"You're both right," said a new voice from the door that had swung silently open. Draco's voice.
Hurriedly stuffing the well wish behind a fold in his robe, Harry turned around. "Hi, Draco."
"Oh, so you remember my name?" Draco turned on his heel and stomped off.
When Harry glanced back at his friends, he saw that Hermione was biting her lip in sympathy, while Ron was going red with anger. Well, at least they'd forgotten their annoyance with each other. For the moment, at least.