kbinnz - Harry's New Home

"Why, Mr Potter, of course the newspaper was interested in learning that students at Hogwarts had been threatened by a troll," Lucius answered before Snape could. "Hogwarts is getting to be a very dangerous place."

"And yet despite the troll's efforts, the boy is fine," Snape replied coldly. "You would do well to remember that."

"Did they write about everything?" Harry demanded, oblivious to the undercurrents between the two men. He looked at Snape beseechingly. "Did they say aboutтАж you know?" At Snape's look of incomprehension, he threw an agonized look over his shoulder at Lucius, then hissed, "You know. About our punishments an' all?"

Snape rolled his eyes. Children! "No, Mr Potter, although I am all too aware that the public's insatiable curiosity about you doubtless means that they would like to know that you were smacked and restricted тАУ " Harry squirmed, casting a mortified glance at Lucius' amused face " тАУ no such information was contained in the article. It merely noted that a troll had entered Hogwarts and threatened several students before being neutralized. Most of the article focused on the obvious need to improve the school wards lest such a thing happen again."

"Oh." Harry was relieved. He didn't want everyone to know such embarrassing details about his life. It was bad enough that most of the school knew! "So are they going to be? The wards, I mean. Improved."

"Oh, yes," Snape replied calmly. "The public outcry was enormous. Fudge authorized the additional expenditure last week, and I understand the Headmaster will have the new wards in place very soon."

If he ended up writing any more press releases, he was going to have to add "journalist" to his resume, but after Albus banned all reporters from school grounds, the Prophet had been only too glad to accept his account of the event, under a penname. And that allowed him the opportunity to improve the school wards, further safeguarding his charge. He had been telling Dumbledore for years that the wards were getting worn, but in the absence of any credible threat, his words had fallen on deaf ears. Other areas of castle maintenance had always been seen as more pressing.

Well, no longer. Now Albus was installing some of the most powerful and comprehensive wards available, aided by Gringotts' best.

Lucius looked as if he had smelled something unpleasant. "I see," he said shortly. "And what about the Quidditch game? What happened there?"

"Did that make it into the newspaper too?" Harry asked in disbelief.

"No. That I heard about from Draco," Lucius admitted.

"Have you found your two books?" Snape interrupted before the brat could answer Lucius' question.

"Erm тАУ one of them," Harry admitted.

"Then go find another. Run along!" Snape's tone admitted no room for discussion, and Harry hurried away. The Potion Master turned to Malfoy, eyeing him assessingly. "And what do you know about the Quidditch game?" he asked coolly.

Malfoy spread his hands in a mocking gesture. "Why, nothing, Severus. Only that it appears that тАУ again тАУ your ward was the victim of an attack. That sort of thing seems to happen quite frequently, doesn't it?"

"Mm. And yet, the boy is fine, and it's his assailants who are suffering ill health." Snape was doing everything in his power to spin events to carry that message. The stronger and more invulnerable the boy appeared, the fewer Death Eaters would have the courage to attack him, particularly in the absence of Lord Voldemort to spur them on.

Malfoy frowned. "I've thought about what you said," he said, abruptly changing the subject.

Snape raised an eyebrow. "And?"

"I admit you raised some ideas that wereтАж newтАж to me, but you can hardly expect me to throw in my lot with some child on the basis of a few lucky encounters."

Snape's eyes narrowed. "Is that what you would term surviving a Killing Curse?"

"No one knows whether that was the boy or his mother or even some miscalculation on the part of тАУ" Lucius glanced around and lowered his voice "- the Dark Lord."

"And the troll? And the latest attempt on his life?"

"Suggestive, but not compelling," Lucius said dismissively. "The boy needs to do more to prove he is indeed a match forтАж Well. You understand what I mean."

"The boy is merely eleven and already he has achieved what no other wizard has done."

"I'm not yet convinced. When I am, I'll let you know."

Snape inclined his head and moved away. In truth, he'd gotten more of a concession from Malfoy then he had expected. Obviously the Dark Lord's defeat ten years ago had shaken him badly, not to mention the near disaster his allegiance had caused his family. Voldemort's methods may have attracted someone of Lucius' rather unusual tastes and his notion of pureblood superiority had doubtless appealed to the blond's vanity, but Lucius' primary loyalty would always be first and foremost to the Malfoy name. Unlike his sister-in-law, whose fanaticism for the Dark Lord knew no bounds, Malfoy had only been in it for the torture and the power. He had never had any desire to promote Voldemort's philosophy at the cost of his own interestsтАж hence his pleading the Imperius, while Bellatrix's unwavering allegiance to Voldemort had ensured her the cell next to Black's.

Of course, while Malfoy was unquestionably out to cut the best deal he could for himself and his family name, until he was convinced that it was in his interests to ally with Harry and not against him, he remained dangerous. Snape wasn't sure what Lucius had meant with his comment about Harry needing to prove himself. It sounded somewhat ominous, though Snape was reassured by the prospect of the new wards that would soon be in place.

He collected Harry, reviewed and grudgingly approved his book selection (one was on famous Seekers while the other, titled 'There and Back Again', appeared to be a travelogue), then escorted him to the ice cream parlor. He had known this was going to be a chore, but he was genuinely surprised by how impossibly the brat behaved.

Harry's eyes were enormous as he stared at all the different kinds of ice creams. He changed his order three times, running from one end of the display counter to the other in an agony of indecision. Finally Snape's patience snapped, and he ordered the boy to one of the tables under threat of a sticking hex.

A few moments later, he arrived at the table bearing the boy's enormous sundae and his own modest scoop. "Have you calmed down yet?" he grumbled irritably, shoving the sundae in front of the little monster. "You're carrying on as if you've never had тАУ oh." Abruptly he understood the reason for the boy's excitement.

Harry reddened, but he didn't confirm Snape's suspicion. He didn't have to.

"Well." Snape struggled to recapture some of his earlier irritation lest this useless surge of pity overwhelm him. Even his own father тАУ on the few occasions he wasn't drunk and abusive тАУ had taken him out for ice cream. "I daresay that we will have many opportunities to have ice cream in future," he informed the brat, "and I expect you to bear that in mind and behave with a modicum of dignity."

Harry's embarrassment drained away. Professor Snape had just promised to take him for ice cream lots of times! And wizard ice cream looked lots better than the boring old Muggle stuff. Harry almost wished he could go back and tell Dudley what he was missing. "C'n I тАУ I mean, may I start?" he asked

Snape nodded and Harry dug in with gusto. MmmmmmmmMMMMMMMMmmm. It really was every bit as good as he'd dreamed. Yes, there had been the odd scoop of ice cream with dessert at Hogwarts, but never a sundae, and never these exciting flavors either.

Harry shoveled another spoonful into his mouth and moaned in delight. Professor Snape had even let him get a banana split. Harry had longed for one ever since reading about them many years ago. He'd made the mistake of telling his fat cousin how much he wanted to try one, and from that moment on, he'd had to watch Dudley order them over and over after. Needless to say, Dudley had made sure Harry never got to so much as lick the spoon, no matter how much he'd begged or how hard he'd worked to try to earn one.