Draco nodded, and then, as if in need of a distraction, looked his brother up and down. "Hmm. Say, that's a really nice shirt."
"Yeah. Good present. I guess that makes us even, since the amulet saved your life."
Draco raised an eyebrow.
"Yeah, Nott had a Portkey, but it failed when the amulet went crazy." Looking down, Harry mused, "You know, it's strange the amulet did a thing like that. It wasn't supposed to. I think it must have had something to do with my dark powers. Oh... I bet I know."
"What?"
"Well...." Harry glanced back up. "You'd hexed me, right? And I broke the hex, but I never really told you how. I... I was so worried for you, Draco. I was lying there," he pointed to the spot, "absolutely convinced you were going to get killed. I had to be able to do something to help you. I just had to. And for some reason, I guess it was instinct, I started concentrating really hard on how much I loved you. I mean, I didn't want to lose my brother just when I'd finally got one. And then, I don't know... it was like I could feel my dark powers start bursting through my skin. I thought I was just breaking the hex but now I think I must have been firing up the amulet, too."
"Oh, Merlin." Draco stepped back, a bit unsteady on his feet, and leaned on the wall for support. "I... that was you, making the amulet heat up like that?"
"Well, it kept them from using magic on you. No Portkey, no feather-light charms to get you across the grounds faster," Harry said, a bit defensive. He was afraid that Draco was going to go off again about how Harry was to blame for that horrible burn.
Draco's voice was quiet with shock. "I'd just punched you in the face and cast Petrificus on you! And you saved me?"
Harry smiled. "That's about it."
He saw Draco swallow. "So you really do love me."
"I've only said so about a hundred times. What, did you think I was joking?"
"No, I thought you didn't know what you were talking about! I thought you were in love with the whole family idea, and sooner or later you'd get tired of it. Well, of me. I didn't think you'd get tired of Severus."
Oh, God. Draco expected that people who said they loved him would later admit that they never really had. And that, more or less, was exactly what Pansy Parkinson had done. She'd pretended to love him, and made it convincing by using a potion. And now they had to tell him that it never had been true.
They couldn't just let him hear it from Nott, or keep it from him forever. Draco would want to know the whole plot, everything about how he'd been framed. He'd demand to be present for Nott's interrogation. And he wouldn't understand if Severus said no.
"I'm not going to get tired of having a brother, Draco. Well, not any more than normal brothers do."
Draco swallowed again. "I guess this means I can't hold the burn against you any longer. Or resent being scarred, not if that's what kept me from being Portkeyed back to Lucius to be tortured to death."
"Yeah, but your shirt saved me from pretty much the same thing, so it's like I said. We're even." Harry stared at Draco for a couple of seconds to make sure he really understood. He didn't want gratitude between them. That wasn't what being brothers was about. "Um, Dad? Do you want to do the Truthful Dreams thing now, or should we talk to Draco? About... um... well, the Aurors will be here soon, won't they?"
Draco looked from Harry to Snape and back. "Talk to me about what?"
"Er..."
"Harry, the Aurors will not arrive until I summon them. We have as much time as we need."
To get Draco through this, Harry mentally finished.
"But I thought you did ask the headmaster to contact the Aurors already. You know, during my eye exam?"
"That was merely a contrivance so I might search Mr. Nott's dormitory, given that most of Slytherin is in Hogsmeade. I found nothing of use." Snape nodded as though coming to a decision, and laid a hand on Draco's shoulder, something he hardly ever did, or at least, not in Harry's presence.
Draco looked up into his father's eyes. "Talk to me about what?"
Snape's voice was gentle. "I think perhaps you had better sit down, Draco. We really do need to talk."
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Coming Soon in A Year Like None Other
Chapter Eighty-Seven: A Word, Severus, if You Please
Comments very welcome,
Aspen
Chapter 87: A Word, Severus, if You Please
http://archive.skyehawke.com/story.php?no=5036&chapter=87
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A Year Like None Other
by Aspen in the Sunlight
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Chapter Eighty-Seven:
A Word, Severus, if You Please
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Draco didn't sit down as his father had asked, or at least, not until Snape gently steered him over to the sofa and gave him a slight push onto it.
"What's this all about?"
Harry sat down too, right next to Draco, though really he felt more like lying down. It seemed to him that the burn, and then the partial cure, was sapping all his energy. Part of him almost wished he'd have stayed in the hospital wing as Madam Pomfrey had said. But a much bigger part of him knew he needed to be here.
"It's about Miss Parkinson. Draco... before we left Hogsmeade Mr. Nott enlightened us as to certain details you should be cognizant of."
Draco crossed his arms and leaned back a bit. "I can tell it's bad, otherwise the two of you wouldn't be looking at me like you think I'm about to crack in half."
"I think perhaps you can guess at the truth," Snape quietly said as he sat down in a chair opposite Draco but slightly to the side.
Draco went so stiff it didn't look like he was even breathing any longer. "You're going to say what Harry's been saying all along, aren't you? That Pansy was part of the plot. That she wanted me dead. That she was betrayed by allies instead of killed by enemies. And you're going to say you know all this because Nott spilled it under Veritaserum. That only proves that he thinks it, though, not that it's true. Don't you see? Pansy was probably telling everyone in Slytherin that she hated me. Otherwise she'd have been in danger."
Snape started to say something, but fell silent when Draco abruptly stood up. "I won't listen to the two of you slander her memory."
"Draco--"
"I won't, Harry!" shouted the other boy. "She loved me and I can prove it! Nobody could write letters like hers unless they were completely head-over-heels in love! You want to see them, eh? Well, do you?"
"No," said Harry quietly.
"You?" asked Draco, rudely pointing his finger at his father.
Rising to his feet as well, Snape said only said one word. It wasn't yes or no. "Potion."
Draco blinked, too startled to put that together for a second. Then he began to scoff. "Oh, sure, potion. That makes a lot of sense. If she hated me there's no way she'd have taken a love potion. She wouldn't have wanted to get fixated on me!"
"No, but she would have wanted her letters to deceive the protective spells on the Floo." Severus' voice was calm, but his words were relentless. "She would have wanted you to believe her protestations of love. She would have wanted to convince you to go meet her. With these objectives in mind, she consented to drink the love potion that Mr. Nott had procured."