"He can't talk to you like that--" Ron started to say.
"Oh, like Fred and George never talk down to you," retorted Harry.
Ron lowered his voice to a harsh whisper. "If you ask me, he doesn't deserve all the fuss you've gone to for him!"
"Well, nobody asked you," was Hermione's crisp reply.
"Shut up, Hermione!" Ron shouted back.
"I'll second that," called Draco from inside Snape's quarters.
Ron turned to Hermione with an I-told-you-so expression all over his face.
Hermione ignored it. "You have a nice day, Harry. We'll see you later."
"Yeah, see you later," Ron echoed, but he hesitated when he turned to leave. "Listen, Harry, I guess he can talk to you like that it you're willing to put up with it. But when it comes to brothers, I know what I'm talking about. Don't let him walk all over you. You have to give as good as you get."
"I'll keep that in mind." After Ron was down the hall, Harry went in and shut the door, careful to keep the well-wish hidden as he hung his school bag on the peg he always used for his stuff. "Where's Severus?"
Draco looked up from the sofa, where he'd apparently thrown himself in fit of pique. He actually had one foot on it and the other one on the floor. "Out."
"Out? He knew I was coming..."
"Well, Potter--" Draco suddenly broke off and shouted at the walls, "That's ten more points from Slytherin, mind!" Just as abruptly, he went back to his quietly contemptuous voice, "We thought you'd be here at ten. But oh no, you couldn't bear to leave your precious Mudblood and Weasel, could you--"
"Shut up!" snapped Harry, all his patience evaporating. He could put up with as much rudeness as Draco wanted to dish out, when it was directed at him, but he wasn't going to listen to Draco insult his friends.
Jumping up from the sofa, Draco narrowed his eyes. "Oooh, and who's going to make me?"
Harry clenched his fist, concern for Draco's obvious jealousy warring with his anger that the other boy had used that awful word. "I will, and this time you won't be landing any sucker punches," he grated.
"Why, because you'll use your scary dark powers on me? Oooh, I'm so frightened, Potter..."
Harry took a step towards his brother. "You use that nasty word again, even once, and I'll throw you to the floor and bloody your face, I swear." Another step forward. "And if you're Gryffindor enough to pull your wand on me again I might just shove it up your nose!" One more step, and he was close enough to touch Draco. "But I wouldn't pull my wand on you."
"Why the hell not?"
Harry reached out and gave Draco a tiny push that caused the other boy to tumble backwards onto the sofa. "Because I love you, you moron."
Draco hurriedly sat up, colour high in his cheeks as he muttered, "You don't fight fair."
Chuckling a little, Harry sat down, too. It was a little tricky keeping the well-wish hidden, but he managed. "I'd think you would admire that, Draco. You know, Slytherin?"
"You're a bit behind the times, but that's what happens when you can't be bothered to come down even once all week," retorted Draco. "Haven't you heard the news? I hate Slytherin."
Harry ignored the part about him not visiting. "Oh, come on, no you don't... listen, Goyle asked me how you were. Seemed to miss you helping him with his homework."
Draco flushed even pinker. "I didn't help him, Harry. I don't do that. I just let him copy off me."
"Funny, when you were tutoring me I thought you were pretty good at it. Well, after I started believing you wouldn't kill me. You never once offered to let me just copy."
"Yeah, 'cause Severus would have killed me."
"Oh, how would he even have known--"
"Apart from the fact that you're this goody-two-shoes who would have run to tell him?"
"I am not!"
"Are too. I bet you've even got your extra essay all done already, don't you?"
Now Harry was the one flushing. "How do you know he set me an essay?"
"What, you think he's your father only? He does talk to me, you know! It's not like there's been anybody else to talk to down here this week, now is it!" Draco narrowed his eyes. "So is your extra essay all ready to hand in, you show off?"
"Yes!"
"Ha! I knew it!"
"Why don't you worry about doing your own assignments instead of getting mad that I'm doing mine?" shouted Harry.
"Oh, so he told you about that, did he?"
"What, you think he's your father only? He does talk to me too, you know!"
Draco was breathing heavily by then, his chest moving up and down in rapid sequence. As if he couldn't bear to be near Harry, he moved to one of the chairs in the room, crossing his arms in front of him as he sat down in a huff. "So why are you so dressed up, anyway? It's kind of stupid considering you're here to brew."
By then, Harry was wishing he hadn't worn dress robes, or even made Draco a blasted well-wish.
"Oh..." Draco's expression suddenly brightened. Just as if he hadn't spent the whole visit so far being an utter arse, he all at once drawled, "He comes down in dress robes and asks straight away for Severus, and he's been keeping one hand tucked away all this time... I just wonder. Could he have a well-wish for somebody, hmmm?"
Harry was too irritated to go along with Draco's lightning change of mood. "Maybe I just don't want you to see the hand I melted off during Potions yesterday."
Draco's face went pale. "Severus didn't say... oh yeah, right, Harry. That makes sense. Dress robes go so well with a melted hand, after all." He barked a short laugh.
"Well, I did melt the classroom floor, anyway."
"You did not!"
"Yeah, I did." Harry leaned his head back and sighed. "Wanded magic, just a tad. Accident."
"Oh great, just let the niffler out of the bag, Harry! Let everyone know your secrets! It's not as if you might, say, need them to stay alive, is it!"
Well, at least that time Draco's sarcasm had a real point. He did care, he just didn't know how to say so without cloaking it in hostility. "Nobody knew what went wrong," Harry explained, suddenly exhausted. "Severus saw to that. And I'll be more careful in future."
"You'd better be, or I just might shove your wand up your nose!"
Harry thought that was a funny threat when he heard it come back at him, but he didn't smile, because it reminded him of what had started them fighting in the first place. "Don't call Hermione that filthy name again."
Draco didn't say he wouldn't. But at least he didn't start going on about how he would, either. That had to be worth something.
------------------------------------------------------
"Good morning, Harry," said Snape as he stepped out of the Floo. As he looked to his right, his gaze seemed to settle on the stack of blank parchment sitting on the dining room table. Harry thought he saw rather than heard a sigh.
"My social calendar has been rather full this morning, I'm afraid," Draco drawled. "But now that Harry's finally deigned to visit us, I'm sure my spirits will pick up and I'll be able to fit a line or two into my busy day."
Harry stood, wishing Draco would shut up. He was nervous enough without all the sarcastic commentary. Everything he'd read in the last few days seemed to blur in his head until he could hardly recall what he was supposed to do or say. Until, that is, he remembered Draco doing this months ago.
Snape had been deeply moved, Harry knew.
That helped steady his nerves.
Harry walked across the room to his father, withdrawing the well-wish from the fold in his robes as he moved. Once he was close enough to Snape, he smiled and reached out for both Snape's hands, awkwardly holding the flower-filled tumbler between them. Then, it was just a matter of looking into his father's eyes. In them, he found all the pride and confidence he could possibly need. "Severus... upon this hallowed day your joy is made complete. May the years to come be many, and overflow with all I wish for you and yours."