"But you know he's not always right. What if he's wrong about this? I--"
"Harry, let me attempt to explain this with a new approach. I said before that every Order member is in danger. But the greater point of this is that each has chosen to be in danger. All of us who stand against Voldemort have done so of our own free will. Lupin and I both did so years ago. Draco, too, has made his choice. Before he was your brother, even. You bear no responsibilities for those decisions."
Snape paused to take a breath. "Your problem, I must think, lies in your 'saving-people' impulse. You've been led to believe that you are the saviour of the wizarding world. Let me assure you that you are not. You may be destined to face down Voldemort, but every human being is responsible for saving himself. Sometimes that requires sacrifice. But you are no one's guardian, Harry. It is not your place to take that choice away from anybody."
Snape's dark eyes were sympathetic, yet resolute. "Nor, Harry, is it your right to do so."
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Coming Soon in A Year Like None Other
Chapter Eighty-Eight
Comments very welcome,
Aspen
Chapter 88: Students and Saviours
http://archive.skyehawke.com/story.php?no=5036&chapter=88
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A Year Like None Other
by Aspen in the Sunlight
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Chapter Eighty-Eight:
Students and Saviours
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Harry sighed as he sat down to Sunday lunch with his family. He'd spent the whole morning working on his Occlumency, but he hadn't made any progress at all. After his success at mastering it earlier that year, Harry had been sure that he'd be able to switch from using a fire-image to some sort of snake. Maybe a trail of fire that looked like a snake. Something. All he needed was a little guidance. His Dad inside his mind again, showing him how to make it work.
But it hadn't worked. Not at all, and Harry felt miserable. And not just that, but hot and sweaty as well.
"I'm no good at Occlumency either," Draco glumly confided. "At least you know how to do the usual kind. I can't even get that down."
"Stop exaggerating, Draco," Snape said as he joined them at the table. He looked as worn out and frustrated as Harry felt. "Your skills are coming along."
So... apparently Snape had taken Harry up on his suggestion that Draco should learn to Occlude. That was nice. He wondered why they hadn't mentioned it to him, but figured it didn't really matter. Maybe Draco hadn't wanted to say anything until he was pretty good at it. In that case, his saying something now, just to make Harry feel better... well, it was brotherly.
But then again, so was Draco. Sometimes, at least. The rest of his comments during lunch on Sunday made that clear.
"I've been considering about your glasses-solution," he said, glancing pointedly at them before he resumed poking at the cheese topping on his French onion soup. "And really, I think it's a disaster in the making. You don't wear those monstrosities all the time, for one. What if next time you're attacked in the shower?"
"I suppose I won't shower in Slytherin. How's that?"
"Not very funny, considering how much your father trusted Wormtail when he shouldn't have."
"My friends are a whole lot more trustworthy than Wormtail!"
"Even the fifth-years? Even the seventh-years? How well do you know them, Harry?"
Well, Draco probably had a point there. Not that Harry thought he was right, but still... he paused to think a moment. "Oh. Well, my vision's not that bad, you know. I bet I could look down and see..."
Draco had been pushing his cheese down into the soup by then, but that had him looking up. "Something...ah, snakelike?"
"Sals on the floor, I was going to say!" exclaimed Harry, blushing.
"You shower with her?" asked Draco in a haughty tone.
"No, but I will. And I'll keep her box on my night-table so I can look at her if my glasses are off at night, all right? Not that I expect to be attacked in my bed."
"I still say, a tattoo's the way to go. Look, we could charm it with something really powerful so the image couldn't be obscured or burnt off or whatever."
Harry folded his arms, obstinate. "Severus found a way to get around the Dark Mark, Draco. The Dark Mark Voldemort himself applied. I think that establishes pretty clearly that a mark can be messed with no matter how it's warded. No way am I getting one."
Draco shoved away his bowl. "Listen, Harry--"
"Why aren't you eating the soup you ordered?" Harry crossly interrupted. "I don't think you've even tasted it! After all your whinging about the boring food they serve in the Great Hall, too!"
Draco narrowed his eyes like he hadn't overlooked the change of subject. "It smells wrong."
"What, off?"
"No, wrong. Like Dobby's had a hand in." Draco sighed. "Nothing I order tastes right. I noticed it at breakfast as well--"
Snape put down his forkful of quiche and pulled Draco's soup bowl towards him. "It smells like caramelised onions and Gruyere cheese, Draco."
"There's something else in there," the boy insisted. "And the cheese! It's just a little bit too yellow, don't you think?"
"I think you're paranoid," Snape said bluntly. "Eat."
Harry thought Snape was a fine one to talk after he'd skipped meals for months, but then again, someone actually had been trying to poison the man. Whereas Draco suspected Dobby for no good reason at all.
Well, except a guilty conscience. Actually, that Draco could have one was encouraging.
Harry got up from his meal and yelled for Dobby.
The elf appeared in the wink of an eye, wearing several baggy sweaters and a top hat. "Harry Potter is needing Dobby?"
"Yeah." Harry stopped to think, something he probably should have done a minute earlier. Snape's expression said he thought so, too. "Um... you'd do me a favour, wouldn't you, if I asked?"
Dobby's hat jiggled as he bounced on the balls of his feet. "Oh, yes, Harry Potter! Yes, yes!"
"Well, Draco feels bad about the whole fairy cake thing. You remember. He's worried the elves are still mad about it and might put something in his food."
Dobby's eyes, huge in any case, got even bigger than usual. "House-elves?" He turned to Draco then and shook his head in emphatic denial. "No. Oh, no, no, no! Dobby must punish himself, now!"
"No!" yelled Harry, grabbing both Dobby's wrists before the little elf could start. "He didn't think you were doing it," he said, giving Draco a warning glance that he'd better not contradict him. "And I don't want you to tell the other elves, because I know they aren't doing anything wrong, all right? Draco's just upset. What I wanted was just a promise. I know you'd keep any promise you make to me."
"Oh, yes of course, Harry Potter sir!"
Harry let go of Dobby's wrists and turned to his brother. "And you, you'd believe Dobby would keep his promise?"
Draco curled a lip. "In general? Ha. But since he worships you, yeah, I suppose."
"He does not worship me!"
"He'd promise you anything."
Harry couldn't really dispute that, so he stopped arguing and tried to figure out how to word it. He didn't want to add to Dobby's food tasting duties. Actually, whenever he thought about those he still felt faintly ill. "Promise you won't let any elf... well, or anybody else, put anything harmful in Draco's food."