"Yes, sir." Harry held still while his da waved his wand, then wiggled a bit тАУ just enough to confirm that his bum was unStuck. "Erm, DaтАж"
"Yes?" Snape eyed him forbiddingly. What now? A complaint about being subjected to a Sticking hex?
Harry looked suddenly serious. "Did you know what was going to happen today in class? To Pettigrew, I mean? Did you know he'd end up тАУ like that?"
"You mean dead?"
Harry nodded soberly.
Snape considered. How much to reveal? He wanted the boy to learn to think like a Slytherin тАУ since it was widely acknowledged that Gryffindors didn't think; they just screamed and leapt тАУ but at the same time, Harry was only eleven. Wasn't that too early to explain how one went about plotting someone's death? "What do you think?"
"Well," Harry said carefully, "I was thinkin' about what you said before."
"AboutтАж?"
"About how if someone's comin' to kill you, you need to wake up early an' kill them first. And, well, Pettigrew was sort of coming to kill me, right? I mean, when Voldesnort comes back тАУ " Snape was pained to realize Harry accepted the Dark Lord's return as a given. He was correct of course, but it still gave the Potion Master a pang to hear the boy speak of it with such resignation " тАУ then he would've done his best to help him kill me, right? 'Cause they're still mad that I didn't die when I was a baby, yeah?"
"I have no doubt but that the Dark Lord continues to seek your death," Snape said as gently as he could. "And that he will enlist the aid of his followers to achieve that goal."
Harry nodded. "So you got up early an' killed Pettigrew before he could kill me," he said simply.
Snape nodded in confirmation, watching the boy closely.
"This way there'll be one less person there to help Voldesnort hurt me." He sighed, looking downcast. "I wish they'd just leave us alone. It's not like I want to have to fight stupid old Volauvent. I'm just a kid!"
There was a sharp pain in Snape's chest as he once again grasped Harry's chin, forcing the boy's gaze to meet his own. "I will not let anyone harm you!" he said fiercely. "I will take whatever steps are necessary to ensure your safety."
Harry looked at him, startled. "Oh, I know that, Da. I just hope that next time poor Neville isn't caught in the middle like that. He was really upset afterwards."
Snape blinked. He hadn't actually thought about what the Longbottom boy's reaction might be to having been labeled the unwitting agent of Pettigrew's demise. Considering how high-strung he was already, the child might actually require some sort of mind healing. "He was upset?" he echoed, wondering a bit guiltily if he needed to speak with the boy's grandmother and suggest a visit to St Mungo's.
"Yeah, he said that if he'd put his potion on Trevor an' it melted him, he'd've felt just awful."
"Longbottom was concerned about his toad?" Snape repeated stupidly. "Not about Pettigrew?"
Harry looked at him oddly. "Why would he worry about Pettigrew? Don't you know what happened to Neville's parents? He hates Death Eaters."
"Longbottom told you about his parents?" Snape knew he sounded like an idiot, but he couldn't seem to stop himself from restating what Harry had already told him. At the start of the year, Dumbledore had told all the faculty that the Longbottom boy apparently refused to talk about his parents with anyone. His grandmother said he was practically phobic about the subject and broke into tears when it was even indirectly broached. That was why, for all of his many snarky comments to the moron, Snape had been exceedingly careful never to so much as allude to his parents, tempting though it had been to inquire whether Longbottom's idiocy was genetic.
"Well, yeah. I mean, everyone saw me doin' my 500 lines about my relatives so they knew they weren't really nice or anything, and that now I was living with you. An' Neville told me that he lived with his gran and his great-uncle an' sometimes he wished he could live somewhere else too. Not that they're awful like Uncle Vernon, but just that sometimes they don't really understand what a kid needs, yeah?" Harry added, correctly interpreting the look of concern on his guardian's face. "So I asked what had happened to his parents, an' he told me. He really hates Death Eaters, Da. I mean, that's why he's got to live with his gran an' why he doesn't remember his parents any more than I r'member mine. So when we were talking after class an' everyone was sayin' how Pettigrew had been a Death Eater an' Sirius was innocent and all, Neville said he was really glad that Pettigrew had melted. He was just worried what the potion might've done to Trevor if he'd put it on him first."
Snape blinked again. Oh. Well. That wasтАж good news. "I see. Hm. Well, it is getting close to dinner time. You should be on your way. I want you to drop something off at the Hufflepuff Tower for me on your way to the Great Hall."
"Okay," Harry chirped agreeably. He liked doing things for his da.
"Here." Snape handed the boy a sealed scroll. "Give this to Miss Bones."
"Susan? Okay." Harry suddenly gave his guardian a sharp look. "It's not something bad, right? 'Cause those 'Puffs cry really easily."
Snape smirked. The boy was sounding more and more like him every day. "No. It is something on the order of a Christmas amnesty. I assure you Miss Bones will be very grateful to receive it."
Earlier that day, the girl had tearfully admitted she had only been able to copy one and a half chapters of her Potions text in the allotted time. Given the length of each chapter, that had been more than Snape had expected. While he had sneered that she would obviously be busy over the holiday, he knew perfectly well that he would have to release her from the punishment тАУ if only to avoid having her aunt emerge from the fireplace like a deranged Father Christmas and hex his arms off.
The scroll that Harry would deliver contained a brief note informing Susan that she had earned an Outstanding on her final exam of the term. That being the case, it was apparent that she had in fact made an acceptable effort to study the material and he was therefore, this one time, going to waive the rest of her punishment assignment. He had also added a postscript to review pages 445-447 on the differences between pickled newts' eyes and pickled frogs' eyes.
He had been honest with Harry that Susan would welcome the message, but he had been somewhat disingenuous about the likelihood of tears. Having been introduced to the concept of "happy tears" by Harry, Snape was gloomily certain that Hufflepuffs were likely to engage in such outbursts as well, and he had no intention of being anywhere in the vicinity in case if Susan Bones greeted her reprieve with an outburst of snot and other body fluids.
"Bye, Da. See you after the Feast!" Harry called, making his exit.
Snape watched after him, wondering if the boy was ever going to inquire as to their Christmas plans. He suspected Harry was avoiding the topic lest he be disappointed, as he undoubtedly had been in previous years.
However, Snape was тАУ thanks to the Weasleys' input тАУ reasonably certain the brat would be pleased. Harry would be staying with him at Hogwarts through Christmas Day тАУ the Weasleys had offered to take him for the entire holiday, but Snape hadn't been about to allow that. Several weeks with those redheaded menaces would corrupt the boy beyond all hope, requiring Snape to engage in stern remedial measures to restore appropriate behavior patterns. And of course the mutt expected to see the brat as well. Taken together, it meant that Harry would split his time among Hogwarts, the Burrow, and Switzerland.