Draco gave her a puzzled frown. Harry hid his smile. Tonks had obviously learned that the best way to handle Draco was to state facts and act as if all reasonable people agreed, and Draco would basically go along because he wanted to be seen as one of the reasonable people.
"Is it really?" Hermione asked, and then she and Tonks were off in a discussion of teaching standards that bored Harry so much he started packing up his things. Ron gladly imitated him, and Draco trailed after them as they left the classroom, calling, "Bye, Tonks!" over their shoulders.
Unusually, Fred and George were waiting for them outside the classroom. Harry could practically feel Draco getting all stiff and protective behind him. He held out his hand towards his twin while giving Fred and George a wary smile. "Hi, you lot. What did you want?"
"Saw something we thought you should know about," said the twin Harry thought was George.
"Yeah, unusual," said Fred, with a nod. "And it's not like the person in question—"
"Does things like this on a regular basis. Professor—"
"Snape is packing up his classroom, and dropping loud hints that he wants to see you—"
"Right away. I mean, he wants to see 'Henry Malfoy,' but that's what it amounts to." George shrugged. "Said it loud enough that—"
"He must have reckoned we were hiding there," Fred said, and exchanged a grim look with George. Harry thought they were probably more worried about how Snape had known they were there than why he wanted to see Harry.
"Reduced to playing messenger owl, are you?" Draco asked with a nasty sneer.
"Not reduced." Fred put one hand in the middle of his chest.
"One of our favorite roles, that is," George said, with a nod. "Especially—"
"When we get to open the messages and confiscate things that might be with them." Fred leaned forwards a little. "Like boxes of sweets."
Draco stared at them, his jaw dropping a little open. "Did you take that box of sweets that my mum sent us?" he demanded, folding his arms and vibrating as if he was about to leap on both the twins.
"We'll never tell," said George, while Fred, standing slightly behind him, nodded emphatically, his eyes locked on Draco.
Draco shrieked and drew his wand. Harry hesitated, but Fred winked at him, and he abruptly realized what this was. The Weasley twins were distracting Draco so that he wouldn't insist on going with Harry to talk to Snape.
Harry mouthed, "Don't hurt him," and hurried off. Ron, who seemed torn between cheering on his brothers and cheering on Draco, stayed behind, and Harry saw Fred shift a little so that it would be harder to look down the corridor after Harry.
Harry took a deep breath. Snape had been one of the people who'd acted weirdest after Harry had discovered that he was Draco's brother. Harry had no idea what he wanted to talk about now, though, that he couldn't have talked about in the last year and a half.
No way to know without going there and asking.
.....
"Ah, Mr. Malfoy. Come in."
Snape's voice was carefully neutral. Harry stepped into the classroom without closing the door behind him, Mr. Tonks's lessons ringing loudly in his head. He might need to retreat at any moment.
Snape turned to face him. Harry let his eyes dart from side to side in the moment before he started speaking. The classroom looked surprisingly bare, and it took Harry a moment to realize that all the vials Snape usually had ready for student potions, plus some shelves of books on the far side of the room, were gone.
"You are owed the truth," Snape said, staring at him. "But it took me some time to decide how to tell you."
Harry licked his lips and shifted from foot to foot. Mr. Malfoy would probably be tutting at him right now for so openly showing his discomfort, but Harry honestly couldn't help it. He wasn't used to this kind of Snape. "I mean. Um. Thanks, sir. But if you don't want to, you don't have to."
"I am leaving. This will be my last chance to do so."
Harry felt his mouth fall open. "You mean, leaving leaving? Not coming back?"
"Your eloquence astounds me, Mr. Malfoy," Snape said dryly, and Harry felt his ears turn an even brighter red than Ron's. It was the one thing he most disliked about looking like his family, this pale skin. "But yes. I have already submitted my resignation to the Headmaster. There is no reason for me to stay any longer."
"And that's what you wanted to talk to me about?" Harry asked, trying to choose the smartest of the questions that were swarming around his head.
Snape nodded and gestured to the table in front of his desk. Harry sat down and tried to look as adult and serious as a conversation with Snape seemed to warrant.
"I know the Headmaster has told you about the prophecy," Snape said, his gaze disconcertingly direct. "And it is true that no one exactly knows what will happen with it now, when you are not the child born at the end of the seventh month, nor born to parents who have thrice defied him. However, I am in agreement with Professor Dumbledore that the Dark Lord still believes in the prophecy, and his belief, rather than its literal truth, is the important thing."
Harry just nodded. He was worried about the prophecy himself, and didn't think that Voldemort would just hear that he was really related to the Malfoys and say, "Oops, I made a mistake." But he didn't know what to do about it, or how it related to Snape's leaving.
"I made an Unbreakable Vow to protect you," Snape said bluntly. "Or, rather, to protect the son of Lily Potter."
"Yes, sir," Harry said, because he'd already known this. He felt his skin tense all over and prickle. He'd tried to talk to Snape earlier in the year about the Vow and what it meant, but Snape had always ignored him or found an excuse not to talk to him. It was more than startling to suddenly realize he was about to get what he'd wanted, when he'd already given up on seeking it.
"I was the one who delivered the prophecy to the Dark Lord," Snape said. "Therefore, when I realized that it had caused him to target Lily Potter, who had been my childhood friend, I was filled with remorse, and went to Professor Dumbledore. I switched sides. I promised to spy for him, and I made that Vow when you survived."
Harry felt as if the world around him was reeling. He had wanted information, but he hadn't thought he would get this much, and not like this. Or this information, to tell the truth.
"You—you were the one responsible for the Potters dying?" he whispered. "That was—that was terrible of you, sir."
....
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