Snakes and Lions

Repositioning

When Harry passed the Slytherin table, at breakfast, Draco continued to accompany him. For a confused moment, Harry wondered if Draco was going to come to the Gryffindor table. He didn't think that would be allowed. Halfway there, however, Draco turned, strode a short distance down the Hufflepuff table, and stopped.

"Johnson."

Darren Johnson looked up. The people around him stopped talking. In the silence, Harry could hear Draco's words, even though he was twenty feet away.

"My condolences on the loss of your family."

Many of the Hufflepuff students twitched, shifted uneasily, or glared. Still, none spoke.

"I thought you would like to know that I've given up on my own."

Draco pivoted precisely, and strode away to a belated rise of murmurs and exclamations. He sat at an empty spot at the end of the Slytherin table.

Harry spent most of breakfast watching Draco and the other Slytherins. He wondered how much the others knew of what had transpired. Goyle was not present, and Harry was certain that Slytherin House must, at least, know of his father's death. Crabbe was sitting by himself, looking rather lost. Over the course of the meal, Zabini, Parkinson, and a fifth-year whose name Harry did not know all came to sit briefly near Draco and exchange a few sentences with him. Zabini left looking uneasy, Parkinson furious, and the fifth year contemptuously amused.

Harry had decided he was finished with breakfast and should go speak to Draco himself when a fourth Slytherin beat him to it. Professor Snape came down from the staff table, his usual smooth, predatory glide taking him straight to the spot before Draco.

Harry stood up. He had not been able to tell Draco about Snape's loyalties before last night, and it had not crossed his mind in the short time he could have done so. Now he could see Draco on the edge of panic.

Draco and his head of house exchanged a few words. Snape gestured to the door, and Draco slowly got to his feet and stepped back over the bench. Then, quite suddenly, Draco bolted for the door. Snape spat an exclamation, then followed, striding as fast as his dignity would allow.

"Draco will kill him," Harry muttered. "Or try, anyway." When Snape was halfway to the door, Harry made up his mind. He was not dignified. He vaulted the table, knocking over something that crashed loudly and caused several people to cry out, and he raced for the door. He passed Snape just as they gained the hallway. The heavy doors of the Great Hall swung closed behind them.

I guess Dumbledore thinks Snape and I can handle Draco, Harry thought, or maybe that I can handle Snape and Draco, or Snape can handle Draco and me. He reached for his wand. It came down to the inescapable conclusion that adding more people would not help the situation.

In the instant it took him to decide this, he spotted Draco. The Slytherin, at the far end of the hall, turned and drew his wand. Harry saw his mouth open.

"Expelliarmus!" Harry bellowed, and Draco's wand shot out of his hand.

"Harry!" Draco screamed, angry betrayal clear in his voice.

Harry closed the distance between them. Draco punched him in the gut and turned to resume running. Harry tried to straighten against the pain, to follow, but by the time he managed to take a step, Draco was already down, immobilized by vines that had shot from Snape's wand.

"Mr. Malfoy," Snape growled, "this is hardly necessary."

"Harry!" Draco screamed. "Believe me! He's a Death Eater! He was there!"

Harry approached at a cramped walk.

"I was there, Mr. Malfoy," Snape said angrily. "Thanks to you and Mr. Potter and your damnable inability to inform anyone of your intentions, I shall not be able to return." The snapping fire in the Potions master's eyes faded slowly. "It's over," he murmured, so quietly Harry was not sure he was still addressing them.

His expression hardened again. "Draco," he said coolly, "I was Dumbledore's spy before you were born. I returned to it when Voldemort returned. Last night ... I was unprepared for your actions."

"Oh, good! I'm pleased to know you found our study session convincing," Draco sneered. "Did you think you had me nicely prepared?"

"I did not even know you were being presented until I arrived!" Snape growled. "Your father had told me it would be over the summer."

"Perhaps he was getting suspicious of you," Harry suggested.

"Harry!" Draco protested. "You don't believe this rot, do you?"

"Listen," Harry said firmly. "On one occasion, I gave Dumbledore information on Voldemort when Professor Snape was present. We used this information successfully. I have been present for two of Snape's reports to Dumbledore, one on the same occasion. I have shared plans with him. It took me a few years to trust he was loyal, but I believe it, now. And he has always protected me from serious harm, even at his worst."

"As I have always protected you, Draco," Snape snarled. "As I would whatever I thought of the Dark Lord. I followed here, on the chase, in case I was needed, and I betrayed my true alliances by attacking your father, when first he attempted to curse you." Snape's mouth curled in a bitter sneer. "This will cost us. My information has been invaluable. But you are my spellchild, and I could not watch that monster kill another of his children."

"Kill?! My father had no other children!" Draco answered, staring at Snape as if he were mad.

Snape fixed him with a hard, black gaze. He drew himself up and his robes in, in that haughty way that made Harry want to cringe. Draco just glared arrogantly back at him.

"Surely, Draco, you remember when you were promised a sister?" Snape said softly. "I remember when you were told she had not lived. You destroyed everything you had set aside for her in a ten-minute tantrum, then locked yourself in your room and cried. That made him angry. I had to persuade him that a six-year-old would still be emotional, no matter how well trained...."

Draco's eyes had lost focus. Harry could seem him struggling to remember, or perhaps not to remember.

"They said she wasn't strong enough."

"Or too strong. The Decernenti favors boys, you know. Girls are more alert, and do not retain their mother's womb instincts as well. None of your father's daughters survived."

"Decernenti," Draco repeated at a whisper, his eyes wide. He started to tremble.

It took Harry a moment to place the word. Decernenti. Sifting. The now-illegal practice of dropping babies off towers, to ensure you would not waste your time raising a squib.

Snape snorted. "Not that your father considered favoring boys a disadvantage," he said. Harry thought he was attempting to lighten the conversation. "Girls do not carry on the family name. It's no wonder the old families cannot keep their population up, with all of them trying for sons." As Snape spoke, he released Draco from his bonds. "Don't run, now, boy. I went to considerable trouble to keep you alive last night; I'm not about to kill you, today."

Draco, still wide-eyed, nodded.

"Would you feel safer with Potter along?"

Draco looked at Harry uncertainly. Harry extended Draco's wand to him. "I was just trying to keep you out of trouble," he said. He looked between the two of them. "You know, this would be much easier if either of you had ever decided to trust the other."

Draco gave a contemptuous snort as he rose shakily to his feet. He took the wand, and, after handling it briefly, returned it to his robe. "I never had any reason to trust him. I'm not sure I do now."

Snape's black eyes clouded over with something quieter than anger. Harry pushed back a stirring of sympathy for the Potions Master.

"You might have risked it," Harry said to Snape. "You tested him, and the word went to Dumbledore, not his father."

"That was you!" Snape snarled. "All that proved was that he was too selfish to sacrifice you." He raised an eyebrow as Draco let Harry take his hand. "Which points up another reason why the old wizarding families are failing to adequately repopulate," he added dryly.

Harry stood frozen. Was that ... a joke? from Snape? No, maybe perhaps just an insult? Draco, beside him, glared.

"I assure you, spellfather," he said, "I will have children, and more than one."

Snape hesitated. "Better than I have done," he admitted. "Come along, now. I haven't got all day."