"Wotcher, Harry!" Tonks looked him up and down, nodding as she chewed her gum. "Bit of a scare today, eh? But you seem to have come through all right. Good thing you've got a friend like that to watch your back!"
Oh, so they'd already told her the Ron-saved-Harry story. Harry did his best to smile. "Yeah, he's great." He glanced over at his father, who was standing, leaning on the mantle, looking slightly wary about something. "Where's Nott?"
It was Tonks who answered. "Oh, you don't have to fret about him bothering you again, Harry. He and his nasty little crew are being tucked away in Azkaban, pending trial as we speak. Kingsley's seeing to it."
Harry blinked, sure he'd missed something. His nasty little crew? "Who... uh, how..."
It turned out that he had missed something. Lots of things. Literally. "I took the liberty of allowing you to sleep through the formalities," Snape announced, pushing off the mantle to come stand in front of his son. "You needed it."
Formalities was an odd way of putting it. He'd let Harry miss the second half of the interrogation!
"I needed it?" Harry exclaimed, more than a little peeved.
"Yeah, you did, you prat," said Draco from where he was sitting. "So don't complain."
Harry almost stuck out his tongue, but realised that would be a little immature. He sat down opposite Draco and glanced at Tonks and then his father. "Um, you already did the thing with Truthful Dreams, then? So who was Nott working with?"
"Besides Lucius Malfoy, you mean?" asked Tonks, curling a lip as she looked over at Draco like she blamed him for his father's crimes. "A couple of seventh-year Slytherins, Harry. They were all in it together. Along with Pansy Parkinson."
"Torquay and Greezer," Draco snarled, his fists clenching.
Harry didn't recognize the second name at all, but the first rang a vague bell. "Oh... Torquay..." he glanced at his father. "Isn't he the one who was talking to you about being your apprentice, something like that?"
"No doubt the better to observe me and report on my doings." Snape shook his head, clearly saddened at the behaviour of some members of his House. "The plot seems to have been limited to those three."
"And Lucius," added Draco, still in that same vicious tone. "And unlike the students, he's been officially marked, so it shouldn't be too hard to prove his loyalties. If not for him, Pansy would be alive. He's the one who demanded a student be murdered, who suborned the whole plot. So he'd better get kissed, he'd just better--"
Tonks' mouth dropped open and her gum fell out. "You want your own father to get kissed, Malfoy?"
"It's Snape!" yelled Draco, leaping to his feet. Tonks stood up too, her Auror training appearing to kick in, since her wand was out and she looked primed for combat, her eyes glowing a fierce orange as if to intimidate her opponent.
Draco wasn't intimidated, though. Harry doubted he'd even noticed. "Don't you read the papers? It's Snape, got it? And that Dark-Lord-licking-thestral's-arse isn't my father! He's just some man who fucked my mother, all right? And then he did his best to fuck me, too, or fuck me over at least--"
"Calm down, Draco," said Snape, coming over to put a hand on the boy's shoulder.
Draco was quaking with rage, but not so much that he didn't hear the warning in his father's voice. Or maybe he could feel the warning, Harry thought. Snape's hand looked like a claw digging into Draco's shoulder. Harry thought it a bit harsh, really.
But then again, Snape knew what Harry didn't. He knew what he was going to say next. And he obviously knew how hard it would be for Draco to endure.
"Lucius Malfoy isn't going to be charged," Snape went on, his voice quiet with terrible resolution.
"What? NO!" shouted Draco, trying to wrench himself free. Snape reached out with his other hand, and pulled Draco into an embrace. More to control him than to comfort him, Harry thought. But that made sense. Draco's silver eyes were wild with rage. He looked fully capable of murder. "What do you mean he isn't going to be charged? Merlin's beard, what's wrong with you? I understood about Samhain, you didn't want to put Harry through the trauma and all that and the Order had found out that Lucius had set up an alibi anyway, so... but you can't let him go, not this time. He as good as killed Pansy!"
Tonks had gone white. Completely white, as only a metamorphagus can do. Her face and hair were the shade of snow, and even her eyes seemed to lack irises. She snapped out of it in a second, though, and returned to her usual self, though she still looked uncommonly pale.
"We can't charge your... er, Lucius," she whispered, sitting back down as though to put an end to the confrontation. She looked at Snape, almost as though asking for help with this. "We... ah, we don't have the evidence."
Draco yanked himself out of his father's arms and whirled to face her. "Well, if you don't, you investigate, you stupid woman! Didn't you learn how in Aurors' training? And besides, I don't believe that. You've got Torquay, Greezer, and Nott all on record as to who was pulling their strings! You've got--"
"No, we don't," Tonks quietly corrected. Her wand was still in hand. Now she used it to conjure loosely rolled scroll of parchment. "There's the official record."
"What do you mean, you don't," scoffed Draco. "I was there; I heard them." He snatched the scroll and began to read it. It didn't take him two minutes to get the gist of the matter. "Oh, nice. Creative editing. You know, somebody should really inform the Ministry that their Aurors play fast and loose with the truth."
"You weren't complaining about it the last time I was here."
"Yeah, well the last time," shouted Draco, "you were protecting the innocent, namely me! And this time you're letting a murderer off the hook! Am I the only wizard in the world who can bear to stand up to the likes of Lucius Malfoy? What's he got on you, eh?" He rounded on Snape, then. "And I have to know what he's got on you! I can't believe you're going to let this farce of a statement go into evidence!"
With that, Draco flung the unrolled scroll straight at his father's face.
It fluttered harmlessly to the ground.
Harry couldn't bear it any longer. Tonks was cooperating with the decision to leave Lucius out of it, so at some point Snape had obviously told her about Remus' secret mission. Kingsley Shacklebolt must know as well.
"You have to tell Draco," Harry said, his voice earnest. "Really, you have to. This is just cruel."
Snape gave a stiff nod. "I should have told you before, but the Order was keeping this in the strictest confidence. Not even Harry and I knew about it until fairly recently. But there's a good reason why Lucius must not be incarcerated pending trial, Draco. Or kissed. Or interfered with in any way."
Draco sat down again and crossed his arms. "Well, I'd just love to hear it, Severus. Because I personally can't imagine why you want to keep the man in a position to do these awful things. He's killing students in your own House. And trying his best to kill your sons. Now, I know you aren't the most fatherly of wizards, to say the least, but I still think you'd have a shred of concern about a homicidal maniac sitting on the Board of Governors free to wander the castle at will--"
"Draco, let him talk!" interrupted Harry.
"Oh, certainly," sneered Draco. "Well?"
Snape sighed. Harry wondered then if it was costing his father something to say good things about Remus.
"For months, a certain Order member has been impersonating Lucius Malfoy at key moments. The purpose being to sow discord among the Death Eaters and cause Voldemort to devote his time and attention to the trouble in his own ranks. Judging by the relative lack of Death Eater activity in England, I would say the plan has been at least partially successful."