Dumbledore nodded. "So while the prophecy does not appear to hold, you did survive an attack by Voldemort, and it is unlikely that he will let that go. So I wanted to let you know that some of the circumstances might have changed, but I am still here to support you and will be happy to provide any backup I can."
"Um. Thank you, sir." Harry thought back to one of Mr. Malfoy's tirades about Dumbledore that he'd witnessed and barely kept from shaking his head. His life was so strange now.
"Off to class, now, both of you," the Headmaster said, with a flap of his hand that seemed to say Snape was just another student. Harry shivered as he walked out the office door. It was bad enough dealing with Snape as a professor, but it would a ton worse if he was a student who Harry would probably be required to be polite to because, of course, he would be Draco's best friend.
"Henry! There you are!"
Harry looked down the corridor as he and Snape stepped out past the gargoyle, and blinked. "Draco? Aren't you supposed to be in Herbology?"
"So were you." Draco gave Professor Snape a suspicious glance. "When we realized you weren't there, Professor Sprout excused me to look for you."
"Oh." Harry supposed he still wasn't used to having a protective brother who followed him everywhere, or would have if they were in the same House and Harry was minded to put up with his nonsense. "I'm fine. I was just with the Headmaster. He wanted to speak to me and Professor Snape."
Professor Snape shook his head at that, and gave Harry one more inscrutable glance before disappearing down the corridor. Draco walked beside him determinedly as they went towards the Potions classroom.
"I appreciate you being here," Harry started, because one thing he had learned was that he had to show he appreciated Draco or nothing would get done, "but you don't have to hold my hand as if I was a baby, you know."
"I know." Draco's eyes were distant. "But I have to guard you."
"Draco, I'm fine."
"You got taken from us once, Henry. Who knows what other people are planning? It could happen again if we don't watch over you."
"Is that why there were Tracking Charms on my trunk and my clothes?"
"Oh. You found those?" Draco's casual act would have worked better if he hadn't stumbled to a stop for a second.
"Yes." Harry stopped and turned to face his brother. Draco did the same thing, and Harry sighed and patted him awkwardly on the shoulder. He still didn't really know what to do with his brother. Draco seemed to have no problem swinging his arm around Harry's shoulders and even hugging him sometimes, but Harry had never had anyone his own age to do that with. Dudley was hardly the hugging type, except in the sense of "I'll hold him still and you hit him."
"We just want to know where you are," Draco said quietly. "Like I said, what if someone else is planning to take you from us?"
"Who would this person be?" Harry folded his arms.
"I don't know." Draco's eyes were so haunted that he abruptly looked ten years older, a lot more like Mr. Malfoy. "But my mother trusted her cousin and invited him over to the house after we were born, and there weren't many people in that trusted little group. Someone else could be out there. Someone who doesn't think it's right that the Boy-Who-Lived is with the Malfoys. Even someone who doesn't think that it's right for the Malfoys to have a son who was instrumental in defeating the Dark Lord."
"His name is Voldemort."
Draco flinched hard enough to almost fall over, and shook his head as he turned away. "Whatever you say, Henry."
"Harry," Harry muttered, but he could tell from the set of Draco's back that he wasn't going to get Draco to say it. He sighed and followed him the rest of the way to the Potions classroom.
....
"You all right, mate?"
Harry nodded to Ron, and tried to ignore the feeling that he should be looking over at Draco on the Slytherin side of the room. He wasn't sure what would be worse at the moment, to see Draco looking back or to see him turned the other direction. "Fine. Professor Dumbledore wanted to talk to me about some things that have changed now that I'm a Malfoy."
"Oh, yeah." Ron sighed and drooped his shoulders for a second. Then he shook his head and went back to crushing dandelion roots with the side of the knife. Harry had showed him how to do that after some lessons he'd had himself from Mrs. Malfoy during the holiday, and it seemed to work better. "I know you're fine. It's just that—"
"Silence, Mr. Weasley."
Ron being Ron, he just waited until Professor Snape walked past, with yet another funny look in Harry's direction, and then went back to talking, more softly than before. "Halfway thought me and Fred and George were going to have to come get you out of prison with another flying car. But I suppose in Hogwarts there wouldn't be bars on the windows."
Harry grinned and started to answer, but Draco said loudly, "What?"
"Mr. Malfoy?" Professor Snape asked in surprise, looking over his shoulder.
Draco had slammed his knife down in the middle of the table and was staring directly at Ron. "What did you say?"
"I said that we would have had to get Harry out of prison the way we did over the summer—oomph!"
Harry had stomped on Ron's foot at the same time as Hermione had done it on the other side, but it was too late. Draco had gone paler than Harry knew was possible given the color of their skin, and was shaking his head a little, as if trying to bring something into focus that he could barely see.
"This is quite enough of an interruption to our Potions class," said Professor Snape, his voice tight and low. "Weasley, five points from Gryffindor for your outburst. The rest of you, return to your potions."
For a long moment, it seemed Draco was having a real struggle about whether he should, but in the end he picked up his knife and returned to cutting. Harry sighed in relief. With all luck, the comment would blow over, and he could tell Draco—when Draco had calmed down a little—that Ron was exaggerating.
"You should tell someone, you know," Hermione muttered from the other side of Ron.
Harry only nodded, and said nothing. Maybe he should, but he was going to choose when to do it, not have it happen because of a stray comment Ron had blurted out.
"Sorry, mate."
Harry shrugged with one shoulder at Ron. "It's fine. Not your fault."
Ron seemed happy enough with that, and went back to helping Harry make their potion. And if Harry was getting two concerned, narrow-eyed glances, one from the Gryffindor side and one from the Slytherin side, it wasn't like he had to turn and look at them.
....
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