"Oh." Harry blinked. "Well, you could have explained that."
"Severus said you'd understand, like with me being at Samhain. But..." Draco looked away. "Don't you get it? I didn't want to talk about it! I wanted to be Draco Snape! To you, to everybody. No more Malfoy."
"I understand not wanting to talk about things, yeah. All right."
Draco rubbed his temples as if the conversation had given him a headache. "Good, because we're doing far too much bloody talking right now. Merlin, I'm tired. I really should rest, but we still need to figure out how to get Severus here--"
Draco suddenly sat bolt upright and clutched his wand, a glazed, far-off look in his eyes, like he was listening to something Harry couldn't hear. When he spoke again, his words were a slur of noise. "Yes, all right. Right now..."
"What's wrong?"
Draco looked like he was concentrating too hard to answer. Or maybe he hadn't even heard the question. He was already lifting his new wand, his arm stiff as he waved it in swirling patterns, his lips murmuring complex incantations full of sounds that seemed to loop back on themselves. Strange, strange stuff.
But then it came to Harry what Draco must be doing.
He was lowering the Malfoy wards.
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Coming Soon in A Year Like None Other
Chapter Ninety-Two: A River in Egypt
Aspen
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Chapter 92: A Portrait of Evil, Part I
http://archive.skyehawke.com/story.php?no=5036&chapter=92
Warning --- This chapter contains material that some readers may find disturbing.
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A Year Like None Other
by Aspen in the Sunlight
and Mercredi
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Chapter Ninety-Two: A Portrait of Evil
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The very moment Draco stopped speaking, three figures began to shimmer into existence in the room. As soon as he heard the first pop, Harry tensed and raised his wand, moving so that he could keep the sleeping snake in view.
But it was Severus, Dumbledore, and Remus, who were Apparating in. Harry slumped in relief, his glance flicking over to where Lucius Malfoy lay so still and cold. Not dead though, Harry thought. The man couldn't be dead.
It couldn't be that easy to kill someone.
Could it?
The minute Harry asked himself that question, a spectre of Cedric Diggory rose up to haunt him. How much time and effort had Wormtail put into his Avada Kedavra that night in the cemetery? Harry shuddered.
Snape emerged first from the haze of Apparition, his wand drawn, his whole stance tensed as though for battle, his head whipping from side to side to assess the room and its occupants. An instant later, Dumbledore finished Apparating, and Remus soon after him, but Snape paid no attention to either one of them. Rushing forward to where Harry and Draco were standing together, he gathered them both in his arms and hugged them tightly against him.
Harry figured his dad must already have seen the state Lucius was in. Well, of course he had. Otherwise, Snape's first order of business would have been to protect his sons, not embrace them.
Snape didn't say anything, not for several seconds, but perhaps he couldn't. His breathing was rough and laboured. He trembled slightly as he hugged Harry and Draco close, holding onto them even after he dragged in a final harsh breath and began to speak. "You're all right, aren't you? Both of you?"
Snape clearly meant the question, but he gave neither boy a chance to answer, suddenly yanking them so firmly against him that Harry couldn't breathe. That was all right though. He liked the warm feel of Snape's cloak beneath his cheek. He even liked the slight scent of potions clinging to the fabric, because . . . well, that was what his dad smelled like most of time, wasn't it?
Of course his father was aggravating all of the bruises Harry had just gotten from that dreadful chair, but he didn't mind. The slight pain just made everything more real. His dad was there. They were safe. Harry didn't know how his brother felt about being squished like this, but one thing said a lot: even though Draco must be in some amount of discomfort due to all those nasty bites, the other boy wasn't struggling, either. Not at all.
After a little while longer though, Harry pushed at his father a bit. This was all well and good, but he did need air sooner or later. He sucked in one huge breath, and then another, and then he felt able to speak.
"I'm fine, Dad. Just fine. But Draco got snake-bit-- a lot, by--"
Snape set Draco away from him and stared into his son's face, his black eyes riveted, his lips tight with distress. One long index finger reached out to trace the bite marks on Draco's face. It came away smeared with the healing balm Draco had applied. "Lucius set snakes on you?"
Since it wasn't like Snape to ask something so obvious, Harry took it as a sign of just how unnerved their father was. Rattled, even.
Draco nodded, the motion looking sort of shattered. "P- p- portkeyed me into a p- p- pit full of . . ."
"Oh, Merlin," With a sharp indrawn gasp of horror, Snape pulled Draco close again, making a patting motion all over the boy's back, as though to reassure himself that his son was still in one piece.
"The pit must have been awful, but Draco killed a snake to try to bring it to me," said Harry, so proud of his brother he felt like he'd burst with it. "And when it got taken from him, he cast Serpensortia instead to help me out."
Going still, Severus flicked a glance to the snake sleeping on the rug not far from them. "Ah." Then he looked more closely at Harry. "Your glasses. Your crest."
The words sounded like statements, but Harry thought his father was probably trying to ask questions instead. "Lucius smashed my glasses just for spite, to taunt me about my eyes and how he was going to--" Harry shuddered, unable to voice the rest. "But the crest . . . I was trying to use it and Lucius realised, and put it all together, figured out I needed a snake to incant . . ." Harry felt himself blush a bit. He knew how incompetent that must make him seem.
Snape narrowed his eyes. "I think you'd best tell me everything from the beginning."
That was probably a good idea, but Harry didn't really feel up to it. He was afraid his father would insist, though, so he raised his voice a little. "Dad, those snakes weren't just snakes, they were vipers! And Draco was bitten by dozens of them! He's still got a fever and everything. He needs to see Pomfrey straight away, don't you think?"