Snape smoothly interrupted him. "I think that's a discussion for another day, Harry."
"Oh yeah, well you can bet that you and I will be discussing it!" Harry shot back. "Because I had a right to know about that chocolate cauldron, didn't I--"
"Right now what matters is your brother," Snape interrupted again, his eyes this time glaring daggers.
Harry nodded, his lips pressed tightly together.
"Oh, so I matter, do I? I was getting the feeling only Harry and elves do. For your loyal service..." Draco slammed his glass of juice down onto the table. "Well, I'm not stupid enough to think the worst you'll do is demand I apologise to that Wobby."
"Dobby!" Harry shouted.
"So, let's have the rest, Severus. What exactly is my punishment? I think you've let me stew long enough, don't you?"
"I'd rather not discuss the matter until we reach Devon."
"We're still going on holiday?"
"We're still a family."
Draco blinked, his eyes suspiciously bright. He turned away to wipe at them, and stared at the table. "I thought you wouldn't want to be around me much, not after this."
Snape walked across to the boy and laid a hand on his shoulder. "Draco... You have disappointed me more than I can say. But you're my son. I won't stop loving you, not ever."
"L- L- Lucius did!" Evidently frustrated with his own tears, Draco pounded a fist on the table.
Moving around to the front of the boy, Snape clasped both his hands and squeezed. "Lucius didn't love you, not as I do. When you rescued Harry's wand, that was a terrible betrayal in his eyes, and his response was to utterly repudiate you. And now, what you have done here, it is a terrible betrayal as well. Of me, this time. But I will not repudiate you, Draco. I will never disown you."
"I... I..." Draco couldn't finish; it sounded to Harry like his throat was clogging up with tears.
"That's not to say I can protect you from the consequences of your thirst for vengeance," Snape quietly went on as he moved one hand to rest atop Draco's bowed head. "We have to live with the results of what we have chosen to do, Draco. And nothing... not love, not family, not even the loyal support of Harry Potter can shield you from what logically must follow now."
Draco gasped and raised a tear-stained face. "The Aurors?"
"We'll talk about it out in Devon," Snape said again, then turned to his older son. "Harry, have you Sals with you?"
Harry reached into his pocket and fished her out.
"I'll hold her while you Floo up to your common room and collect your things."
Harry had already packed for Devon out of the things he had here at home, but he supposed it would be better to go get Sals' box, not to mention a few other items. Handing his father the snake, he questioned, "But wait... Floo to my common room, did you say?"
Snape extended a tiny vial of powder from his pocket as Sals slithered up his arm to loop around his neck. Harry thought the man looked vaguely put out by that. "My quarters connect to the Gryffindor common room, yes."
Harry wondered if perhaps that was one of the things Snape had arranged when he'd vanished last night. Presumably he hadn't wanted to walk Harry up as that would mean leaving Draco alone. Not a good idea considering how unstable the other boy seemed. "How long have your rooms been linked to the Tower?"
"Nearly six years."
"Six years!" exclaimed Harry.
"Yes. Albus saw to it almost as soon as you were sorted into Gryffindor. In case of emergencies. Madame Pomfrey can Floo directly in as well."
"But you hated me..."
His father curled his lips in a rather rueful smile. "Oh, yes. I do believe I told Albus in rather scathing terms that Gryffindor could see to its own. But then I found out at your first Quidditch match that Minerva had no notion of the kind of danger you were in, and I stopped resenting the connection quite as much. Though of course that didn't mean I liked you any the better."
Harry shrugged to say that was all behind them and didn't matter now. "I wish you'd told me about the Floo earlier. Well, at least now I won't have to walk down all the time--"
Snape held up a hand. "I would not recommend you use the Floo connection except when the other students are largely absent, as today. Or in case of emergency. Otherwise, it could engender ill feelings. Students are not normally permitted to utilise the common room Floos, you understand."
He laid a slight amount of stress on the word normally, which made Harry think the man probably knew Harry had used his to talk with Sirius. Or maybe it was a slight dig at Draco, who had flinched on hearing it.
Still, Harry said, "Oh, the other Gryffindors won't mind--"
"It was my understanding that you had no wish for special privileges."
"You would remind me of that," Harry said a little sourly.
"A father's prerogative." Snape shrugged. "So then, hurry along and collect what you need. Draco, you claimed last night to be packed already, but I'm afraid that amidst all your other lies I don't quite know what to believe. Is that in fact the case?"
Draco flushed, his eyes still rimmed with red from his crying. "I'm packed," he quietly said, meeting his father's eyes.
"I don't need to go check on this to have faith it might be true?"
That time, Draco did nothing more than shake his head.
"Very well." Snape banished away what remained of their breakfast. "You may continue your lines until Harry returns."
For just a moment--a heartbeat only--Harry wondered if Draco was going to go back to his longstanding defiance. Then he saw the other boy pull his parchments back towards him and bend over them once more, his hand trembling as he started to write.
"Harry, go," Snape urged.
Nodding, Harry uncapped the vial of powder he'd been given and stepped into the fireplace.
------------------------------------------------------
When he got back, broom in hand and a few other items in his arms, Draco was still industriously writing away. Snape was sitting at the table with him, a book in hand. Harry almost choked when he saw which one it was. Adolescent Trauma: The Road to Recovery.
Harry sort of doubted it was happenstance, Snape deciding to read that book right in front of Draco.
"I'll just go put these with the stuff I'd already packed," said Harry.
Snape nodded absently as he turned the page.
Harry got everything but the broom into his duffel, then took a last, depressed look around his room, wishing he could cast some cleaning spells in here as well. But Snape's we have to live with the consequences of our actions speech was still weighing heavy on his mind. Draco had lost any right to expect that Snape would trust him with magic for the time being, so he'd have to live without.
Though Harry couldn't help but wonder what other consequences Snape had in mind for his brother. He couldn't really imagine the man assigning more lines, or setting an essay, even. Five feet, Draco. Describe in detail why one should not poison one's fellow school mates.... No, that was just bloody ridiculous.
But what else was there to do? Snape wasn't the sort of father to administer a wizard's beating, after all. Harry couldn't even imagine the man ever slapping either of them.
And anyway, what good would a slap do? Draco needed a consequence more serious than that, surely. Snape couldn't intend to call the Aurors, though. He wouldn't have arranged for Dobby's silence were that the case.
But Kingsley Shacklebolt is an Auror, Harry suddenly thought. And he's in the Order, too. Maybe Snape firecalled him last night and asked him to throw a good hard scare into Draco...
Would Snape trust Kingsley to not charge Draco for real, though?
Harry's head was starting to ache, so he gave up wondering what his father had in mind and went back out to the living room.