Draco was staring out his window at the falling snow. His father had greeted him when he returned to the manor with a heartiness that was overwhelming. He had asked about how the plan was going and wanted to know why Potter wasn’t there with him. Draco had said that his rival had mentioned other plans for the holidays, praying his father wouldn’t ask him what those plans were. To his surprise, the expected interrogation did not come. Draco wondered about that; he never would have dreamed that his father could so calmly accept an apparent sign of failure. He couldn’t possibly have already known...? But no, that was ridiculous.

His wandering thoughts, in search of some less disturbing topic, turned to why it was that the spoiled Boy-Who-Lived-to-Make-the-Wizarding-World-Worship-Him had seemed so unconcerned about spending the vacation at the school when all his friends were going to be elsewhere. Could it have anything to do with the spell he had overheard his father mentioning yesterday? Then again, how could it? If Lucius knew about it, it was virtually guaranteed that the Dark Lord knew about it too, which would make it worse than useless as a pitiful Light attempt at offense. On the other hand, if it was something that the Dark confederation was using, that would mean that Potter must have some other reason to stay at Hogwarts.

A tiny trickle of water slid down his window, collecting several other droplets from melted snow flakes as it ran down the pane. Draco stared at it in contemplation. Somehow, this must all fit together, he just knew it.

Maybe when he figured out that riddle he could determine why Snape had seemed oddly protective of the Boy Wonder lately as well. They couldn’t be connected in any way, could they? Draco shook his head and snorted softly. In the meantime, Draco resolved to keep his ears open. If that meant more skulking outside his father’s study, well, he would just have to avoid being caught.

“Sseverusss, I wasss wondering when you would come to ssee me.” The cadaverous figure stepped out of the shadowed recess that housed a hidden doorway and moved to the over-sized chair used as a throne.

“I fear I come with bad news, my lord.” The kneeling man swallowed uneasily. “It seems I have failed you.”

“Oh? How do you mean, my Sseverusss?” There was a cruel smile on the too thin lips and in a sudden flash of intuition Severus new that what he was about to say would come as no surprise to the Dark Lord. That would make his job even more difficult. How much did the dangerous wizard know, and from what source?

“I have managed to estrange Potter, my lord. It was…unintentional, but, I fear irreparable.” He spoke hesitantly and with a hint of cringing fear in his voice. Exactly as Voldemort would expect, which was fortunate, because he really did not know how his master would react, only that it was certain to mean pain for him.

“And how did thisss falling out occur?” The tyrant’s voice was deceptively mild, and Severus could feel his heart rate speeding up and the muscles in his back clenching even more than they had been.

“As my lord has no doubt foreseen, there was a certain difficulty in corrupting the boy under Dumbledore’s nose. I was unable to spend as much time with him as I needed. Also, Potter became…envious of my more open relationship with Draco Malfoy. I believe this jealousy may also be the cause of the failure of Malfoy’s attempts to befriend Potter.”

“You think the Boy-Who-Lived wasss jealousss?” Voldemort’s eyebrow arched in disbelief.

“I do, my lord. He cannot bear to have anyone better than him in a chosen pursuit. The fact that I could overtly devote more time to what he presumed was Draco’s continuing education…” Severus trailed off, and looked regretful. A drop of sweat trickled down the back of his neck.

The key to everything when dealing with the Dark Lord was balance. The balance between truth and deception, between servility and strength, and between furtiveness and openness; such things were crucial. If one was too open, Riddle automatically assumed something was being hidden. On the other hand, he believed that his followers could truly hide nothing from him, and he was greatly amused by and humored their attempts, seeing himself as a sort of indulgent father in that regard.

“Ironic, isss it not, Sseverusss, that the rivalriesss that plagued you in sschool continue to haunt you to thisss day?” Severus bowed his head lower. “Well, fortunately for you, I have another plan which hopefully will ssalvage thisss little messss.” Voldemort peered down at him. “Would you like to know what my plan isss, my Sseverusss?”

Snape swallowed and felt another trickle of sweat. “As my lord pleases,” he murmured, struggling to keep his voice steady and disinterested.

A frown flashed across the megalomaniac’s face but a second later he was laughing. “Sso charming, my Sseverusss. But, asss it happensss, I do not pleassse. And I cannot allow your foible to go unpunished.” Severus braced himself, knowing it was futile.

“Crucio.”

So, Severus had broken off teaching the brat. Well, the more he thought about it, the less that surprised him. That so delicious surge of anger along the tenuous new link he had created should have told him. Odd that it was so tenuous, too. Any student of the Dark Arts should have cast enough dark spells that the link should have a firm hold. Then again, perhaps the link's strength varied with how recent the dark magic usage was. He would have to look over that old manuscript again.

“What?” Lucius breathed softly to himself. He was standing back a little way from the Dark Lord. Normally he wouldn’t have tolerated others between him and his master, but said master had already assigned leaders and teams for the missions he was detailing now. Lucius had had the good, or bad, depending on how things went, fortune of being declared a leader, as had Severus who was standing next to him.

“I’m certain the Dark Lord knows what he’s doing,” Severus said serenely. A trifle too serenely, in Lucius’s opinion. He was certain that his old school chum was up to something, had somehow betrayed everything they stood for, but he could not prove it. Even the curse the Dark Lord had placed Severus under had not revealed anything damaging. What was even more frustrating was that the suspicious looks that their master should have been aiming at the school teacher were now bent in his direction.

“Sseverusss, Luciusss, you feel no need to lissten to my insstructionsss?” The oily voice of the serpentine terror of the wizarding world stopped Lucius mid-glare.

“Your pardon, my master,” Severus replied quickly, though without seeming quick, curse him, “I was merely assuring my colleague that you had good reasons for ordering us to deface the targets, rather than to destroy them.”

“I do indeed, Sseverusss. Do you know what they are?” Voldemort’s head cocked to the side and his voice was deceptively mild.

Snape bowed his head. “I would not presume to claim to know your mind, my lord, but, I am certain you would not give such orders were they not the best way to further the noble goals you have espoused.”

“Ah, my Sseverusss,” the skeletal face smile dotingly. “I wonder that I should ever have questioned your loyalty.”

“I hope I shall never give you reason to question my devotion to you again, my lord.”

The pale mockery of a man laughed aloud at that, “Yesss, I am certain you do. However, the reasson for my ordersss, which I will share with you now, are that I wish to sstrike the mosst fear into the heart of the wizarding world. Alsso, thisss misschief of oursss tonight will throw them off guard for any future plansss we may wish to make.” There was a malicious sparkle in his eyes as he suggested the possibility of future plans that made Severus shiver, though he was careful to suppress it. All hints of lightheartedness were gone from the insane wizard’s face, however, when he looked at Lucius. “Doesss that ansswer your quesstionsss, Luciusss?”

“Yes, my lord,” the blonde said quietly, bowing low. He would keep a close eye on Snape and bring any evidence of betrayal to his master at once. In the meantime he could only hope to demonstrate enough devotion to keep the Dark Lord from being too interested in him.

The headlines of the Daily Prophet on the morning of the twenty third of December screamed that the Dark Lord, He Who Must Not Be Named, had returned with a vengeance. Though he would never admit it, when Harry saw them, he shot a quick glance at the far end of the table, just to make sure that Snape was okay. Upon seeing the git sitting in his usual spot, however, Harry turned back to the paper and his breakfast. Gringott’s, the Ministry, and Trafalgar Square had been hit. It seemed that no one had been injured, but there was a fair amount of damage. Also, the Dark Mark had been present in copious numbers, both hanging in the air and, curiously, spray painted on the buildings and statuary of the area. The muggles, it was reported, were in an outrage while the wizarding community seemed to be caught in a paroxysm of fear.

Harry read the newspaper grimly and tried to figure out why he had a niggling feeling that something was wrong. He finally attributed it to the fact that he had slept no worse the last night than he had for the past week or two and turned grimly back to the bangers on his plate.

He supposed that it would have been a bit too much to ask that Voldemort not make some sort of grand gesture in token of the season. Still. As he sliced into the second sausage it occurred to him that it was odd that no one had gotten hurt. Especially given the Dark Lord’s deep hatred of muggles. He glanced up at Dumbledore who nodded amiably at him, leaving Harry to wonder if that was an acknowledgement or an answer.

As the headmaster exited the Great Hall he paused for a moment and said, “Come talk to me this afternoon, Harry; we have much to discuss.”

Harry nodded, a cold weight settling into the bottom of his stomach. He had a feeling they were going to end up discussing Snape, which wasn’t something Harry wanted to do. Just thinking about that slimy Slytherin made his skin crawl. He would have expected a betrayal of this sort from Draco, but he had though that he was safe from any such thing with Snape.

Clearly that was just another mark of his idiocy, Harry berated himself. Of course that greasy git had to win him over first for the betrayal to work. It was just his stupidity and mindless dependency that had let him fall for it. The more fool he. Well, Harry told himself that he would never need anyone else again.

The small reasonable voice in the back of his head pointed out that his friends would never let him withdraw so much, but he ruthlessly told it to shut up and that if he didn’t tell them they would not know. The voice tried to whisper that his friends were smart enough to figure it out, but Harry was scrupulously ignoring it in favor of building up walls of icy indifference.

Severus, who had not dared to skip breakfast that day, particularly given the previous night’s…activities…was watching Harry out of the corner of his eye. He was relieved to see that the boy was eating, but knowing Harry it was one step forward, two steps back. If he was eating, that just meant that he was planning something to inflict more guilt on the adults around him.

No, that was unkind, Severus chided himself. Furthermore it was giving Harry more credit than he deserved. Harry never seemed to plan his two steps back, he just did it. And he was probably entirely unaware of the guilt anyone else felt about it. Ah, to be young and self-centered, Severus thought dryly.

Still, he glanced at the youth again, Harry was not entirely self-absorbed, he decided as he watched the young wizard frowning over the Daily Prophet. Perhaps oblivious was a better word. And perhaps if he kept analyzing Harry’s faults he wouldn’t have to face the fact that it was he who was at fault in driving Harry away. Again.

-----

It was definitely afternoon, and Harry was making his way over to the headmaster’s tower. He didn’t really want to go. He walked over to the gargoyle and kicked at the base. It startled him when the statue began revolving open and Snape stood there on the staircase behind it. “Professor Dumbledore sent me to fetch you,” the potions master said in explanation.

Harry glared at him and resolutely brushed past him, ignoring the urge he had to run away from all of it. He suppressed a growl when he saw that the older wizard was following him up the stairs.

“Ah, Harry and Severus,” Dumbledore exclaimed welcomingly when they reached the tope of the staircase.

“Headmaster,” Severus greeted politely. Harry merely nodded.

“Sit down,” the old man said with only a hint of twinkling in his eyes. “I imagine, Harry, that you have some idea of what I’ve asked you here for,” he said as they complied.

Harry nodded again. Dumbledore sighed. “I feel that you should know everything about what happened, we owe you that much, at least.”

Harry, who had been looking at the edge of the headmaster’s desk, found his eyes drawn inexorably upward. “What do you mean?” the youth asked, a sinking feeling in the pit of his stomach.

“It is a rather long story,” Dumbledore said. “I hope you won’t mind if I have a spot of tea,” he waved his wand and an entire china tea service appeared. “Help yourselves, and I’ll begin at the beginning. Dumbledore waited a moment while they fixed their cups then leaned back, cradling his own tea in his hands.

“I hope you will forgive me for bringing it up, but it is important. I’m sure you remember the events of the spring, particularly as took place in the Ministry building.” Harry nodded coldly. “Yes, well, the staff for the Department of Mysteries was well aware of the fact that someone fell through the veil, they even managed to discover who it was. The circumstances of his fall managed to raise some rather interesting questions about his guilt, most of which Cornelius has avoided and ignored, primarily because he did not inform the Daily Prophet of the event. Since Sirius was your godfather, had there not been other complications, he could have petitioned for guardianship of you and the Ministry would be able to do very little but comply.”

Harry felt a twinge at that and tightened his fingers convulsively around his tea cup. “As it was, he could not petition. I do not know how familiar you are with the Black family tree, but I’ve no doubt that you have divined the nature of the majority of the family.” He paused for a moment as though expecting Harry to reply, but Harry remained silent.

“Sirius had three cousins. One of them is Mrs. Tonks, Nymphadora’s mother. There is also Bellatrix Lestrange. The third is Narcissa Malfoy. Well, as you may imagine, the Tonks cousins have been disowned by the family. Even Tom Riddle would admit that there are insurmountable animosities between you and Madame Lestrange, so that left Madame Malfoy. You see, while they cannot directly petition for your custody, it is possible, that if you requested it, since Narcissa was Sirius’s cousin, the Ministry would allow your guardianship to go to the Malfoys. It would be a little more difficult, given the family’s recent encounter with the law, but still possible since the guardianship would go to Narcissa, who is still a model citizen, and not Lucius. The Ministry, no doubt, would prefer to keep you in the wizarding world and in wizarding hands at all times, rather than letting you go to your muggle relatives every summer.”

Harry felt a cold stealing over him. He could see where this was going, he thought, and he did not like it in the least. “Well, when Riddle found out that you were staying with Severus for the summer, he was persuaded that it would be best to make some effort to subvert you, instead of attempting to kill you straight out. Severus was instructed to teach you the Dark Arts, and to continue your education here at Hogwarts as much as possible. Meanwhile, he spoke to Lucius, who spoke to his wife, and later to his son.

“While you were at Diagon Alley with your friends, for reasons that are as yet undisclosed, Narcissa confided in Molly Weasley. She told us a great deal that we already knew, but also some things that we did not. It is fortunate that Molly Prewitt and Narcissa Black got on well enough in school that their discussing their children when they meet by chance in Diagon Alley should be rather unremarkable. So, when you returned to school, Draco received instructions from his father. He was to take any and all actions necessary to befriending you.

“Naturally, he went to Severus, who has long been a mentor of his, and one of the few adults he trusts, for help. I believe, Severus, that you mentioned that you gave him general directions and did not divulge any information you felt Harry might want kept private?”

Snape inclined his head, “That is so, Albus.”

“I instructed Severus not to tell you of this plan. I felt that it would be safer for all involved for you to react naturally to Draco’s overtures. I also felt that you and Draco could be rather good friends if other circumstances could be overlooked. I do hope that you won’t hold any of this against Severus or Draco, and that, if such a thing appeals to you, that you will consider carefully before you decide to petition for the Malfoy family guardianship.”

Harry stared at the aged wizard before him. There was an odd and unfamiliar glimmer in his eyes, not at all akin to the usual sparkle that could be found in them. It took Harry several moments to determine that it was apprehension. Suddenly the cold that had filled him exploded into rage. “Perhaps Snape did only follow your directions,” he said in a half-choked voice, “but it was still his choice to follow them. And I doubt you need have any fears that I will become a Malfoy. Draco has made it quite clear that he doesn’t particularly care for me and was only befriending me because Lucius told him to. I am not such a fool as to trade even the Dursleys for that.” With that, Harry got up, set the tea cup down, and stalked out of the office.

When the door slammed closed, Albus slumped a bit. “Well, that did not go at all as I expected.”

“No, it didn’t,” Severus replied with a sigh.