And the best part was that while Draco had been splashing about in the pool, he'd figured out a way around the underage magic laws. A foolproof way.
He wrote the letter that night, sneaking out to the table after Harry and Severus were sound asleep. Just a few carefully worded sentences; that was all he needed. He slipped the small square of parchment into an envelope and addressed it. He'd rather have spoken to a school owl directly, but considering how they sent their post from Devon, he didn't have that option.
Draco popped the lid off the charmed box and almost dropped the letter in.
But at the last second, he decided he'd be wiser to include an additional incentive, considering with whom he was dealing. Fetching the letter out again, Draco added a post-script and included five shiny Galleons in the envelope, then charmed it so they wouldn't rattle en route.
Holding his breath, Draco pushed the letter into their post box and quickly closed it. When he opened the box again to check, the letter was gone. Come morning, or possibly even sooner, it would be on its way, held securely in the beak of an anonymous school owl.
Not that the letter itself was anonymous. It couldn't be, not if Draco was going to be able to straighten Rhiannon out.
Draco tip-toed back to bed and tried to sleep, but it was no use. He lay awake thinking. Planning. Dreaming, even. Two days, maybe three, and he'd be able to show Rhiannon some magic.
Including her own.
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Coming soon in A Summer Like None Other:
Chapter Thirteen: Diamonds Aren't a Girl's Best Friend
Comments very welcome,
Aspen in the Sunlight and Mercredi
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Chapter 13: Diamonds Aren't a Girl's Best Friend
http://archive.skyehawke.com/story.php?no=13093&chapter=13
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A Summer Like None Other
by Aspen in the Sunlight
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Chapter Thirteen:
Diamonds Aren't a Girl's Best Friend
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"Yeah, that does feel better," said Harry, stretching out his fingers a little. He hadn't even realised how much they'd been aching until today, when opening a bottle of salad cream had made him gasp in sudden pain. Snape had at once advised him to go outside and cast a few wanded spells. Sure enough, that had done the trick. Three or four levitation charms later, his hands felt back to normal.
Turning, he saw his father leaning against the cottage door, his eyebrows drawn together. Well, it had to be faced some time. Harry walked over to him.
"What?"
Snape looked as though he didn't much appreciate the tone Harry had used. "You know perfectly well what."
Yeah, Harry did. Of course he did. "I'm not really having trouble managing my powers. It's just that after what happened in your quarters that time, when I was so angry with Draco--"
"My quarters, are they?"
The way Snape asked that broke the tension; Harry chuckled a little. No doubt about it, Severus Snape was a master at more than Potions. Even when he was being fatherly, he had droll commentary down to a fine art. "Home, I meant. Back home. Though I kind of think of this cottage that way, too, you know." Swallowing, Harry thought fast. He hated to disappoint his father, he really did. "Um, well, anyway, my fingers have been feeling fine, and I haven't accidentally loosed anything frightening lately, so I guess I figured, you know, that it probably wouldn't happen again."
"A bit of a risky assumption, I would think."
Harry sighed. "Yeah. I guess it was."
"You guess," repeated Snape in a dry voice. "No one else can manage your dark powers, you realise."
"Deep powers," corrected Harry. "I still don't like that other word."
Snape frowned. "If you had the confidence in yourself that you should, you wouldn't mind my characterising your powers that way. It is the most common phrase to use, you realise."
Harry flushed. "It's not that I think I'm dark, exactly. I mean, I never did really think that. I was just trying to make sure I never could go that way. I didn't want anybody able to use my fear of needles against me."
"You seem able to talk about the issue with more ease, at least."
"Well, Marsha knows her stuff, I guess."
"Either that, or telling your friends has been salutary."
Hmm, maybe that was what was making the difference. Harry hadn't thought about it much before, but looking back, telling Ron and Hermione had probably been a very good idea. And that had been Snape's idea, not Marsha's.
"So you're the one who knows his stuff," said Harry lightly. "I knew you'd be a great father. Just like I wrote on those adoption papers."
Snape shrugged. "If I 'know my stuff,' as you put it, one must wonder why you've ignored my advice regarding your dark powers."
That time, he said dark with a little bit of emphasis, like Harry was just going to have to get used to the word.
"When we were still dueling all the time it was easy to remember to cast something wanded once we called a halt," said Harry, sighing. "But then once I got back into classes I had loads of things to do."
"And you've been worked like an elf this summer."
That time the commentary was more sarcastic than droll, Harry thought. "I've had a lot of free time since summer began," he admitted, sighing. "But I . . . er, forgot."
"You forgot."
"Everybody forgets things sometimes, Dad," said Harry, curling his upper lip a little.
"What a completely brainless response. Worthy of a first-year. A first-year Hufflepuff."
Harry flushed.
"And I don't appreciate the manipulation, either. Don't start complimenting my parenting skills in the middle of a discussion about how lacking they've evidently been. It's akin to Draco calling me Dad only when he wants something."
"He's been trying to stop that," said Harry, his nostrils flaring. "And what's this about not manipulating you? I thought you liked to see me manoeuvre!"
Severus' lips curled. "Ah. I do, yes. But not in this case."
Real helpful, that, thought Harry. But all he said was, "Well fine, then. I did forget. My hands weren't ever hurting and I wasn't having any trouble with accidental magic, so it just didn't seem so urgent, all right?"
"You weren't having trouble with accidental magic because nobody had made you furious enough. Notwithstanding your ridiculous squabbles with your brother."
Harry waved a hand. "Oh, he's just annoying sometimes. It's nothing serious. You forget, I grew up with Dudley, so I know what it's like to have a truly awful brother. Not that he was my brother, but you know what I mean."
"I don't forget," said Snape in a serious voice. "I think about your former home life more than you know."
And talk it over with Dumbledore, too, thought Harry. Or maybe Marsha.
"All right, well I won't forget either," said Harry. "About releasing some of my deep . . . er, dark, I mean, powers. And when we go back to Hogwarts, I'll figure out some way to keep it up. Maybe after my sessions with Marsha we can come out here so I have a safe place to let loose. That'd give me one day a week. Would be enough, I think."
"You expect to need her counsel for that long?"
"Yes." Thinking back to how he'd been afraid that Snape would unadopt him, and then how he'd been so jealous that it burned inside him whenever Snape and Draco would closet themselves together to work on exotic brews . . . not to mention thinking of that portrait of Lucius and what Harry had let it convince him to do to himself . . . Harry didn't have any doubts. "Yes, I want to keep seeing her. I'll let you know when I think I don't need that any longer."