Whelp

you know you blew up the squid?'

Severus stopped with the page of the journal half-turned, and listened carefully, as Harry whispered, 'I never!'

'You did,' Draco sounded a little smug. 'It was disgusting, really. Blue slime all over the place. You got the tentacle that had you, and two others, too, I think.'

Harry looked miserable and pulled his lower lip in between his teeth. 'I just wanted it to let me go, so I could help you.'

'You were the one in trouble. I didn't need any help.' Draco smirked. 'Comes from having a better broom.'

'Oh, yeah,' Harry said, and his lips turned downward even more. 'I s'pose mine's gone, innit?'

'It fell in the lake. I didn't see where it went after that.'

Harry nodded, and Severus could tell the boy was trying hard not to cry as his fingers toyed with the blanket he was tucked under. Severus' gaze flicked to Draco for an instant, quick enough to see the look of indecision before the blond offered, 'You can use mine sometimes, if you want.'

Severus smiled behind his journal as Harry said, 'Really?'

'Sure. But, er, we can't fly over the lake again, right?'

Harry's eyes got big. 'Right,' he swore. 'No more lake.'

Another, longer pause, then, 'Why are you scared of the lake anyway?'

'I wasn't scared,' Harry hissed, sounding scandalized by the very idea.

Draco frowned at him. 'All right. Why didn't you like it, then?'

A much longer pause. Severus held his breath, waiting to see if Harry would tell his friend about what Petunia had done. He'd seen the memory of it in the woman's head, the night he cast Legilimens upon her, but Harry didn't know that he knew. Harry, in fact, didn't know he knew anything at all about the Dursleys, except what the boy had told him himself. And, he had yet to tell the boy that he'd seen Vernon and Petunia and meted out punishment. That could wait for another time, however.

Draco waited patiently, too, a feat for which he had likely received training from his father, and Severus had almost decided that his son wasn't going to answer at all before Harry opened his mouth again. 'I don't like water like that. Deep and stuff.'

'But why?'

Harry gave a little shrug and stared at his hands. 'I almost drownded,' he said, so softly Severus had to strain to hear.

'Honest? Where? How?'

Once more Harry surprised him. 'Bathtub. I was real little.'

'You're still little.'

'Well, I was littler.'

Draco wrinkled his nose, and Severus knew the boy wanted to correct Harry's speech, but was frankly shocked when Draco passed on the opportunity and instead said, 'I probably wouldn't like lakes either, if I'd nearly drowned.'

Harry gave him a small smile, and their conversation turned to the tea they'd had with Hagrid and how drooly the gamekeeper's dog was. Both of them were laughing inside of a minute.

Severus finished turning the page and picked up reading again.

---

'Father,' Harry whispered, and Severus opened his eyes from where he was dozing on a Transfigured chaise longue. Draco was sleeping in a bed on Harry's other side, since Poppy had refused to let him take Harry back to their quarters, and Severus refused to leave either boy alone for the night. The boy's nasal snores were extremely un-Malfoylike.

Severus had told both of them a night time story – which Poppy apparently found uproariously amusing, to judge by her expression – and tucked them in, then read to himself for a while before closing his eyes. He'd assumed, with the sleeping draught Harry had been dosed with, that the boy would not wake till mid morning. But it was only 2am, now.

'Yes, Harry?'

The boy's eyes were hidden in the little bit of light from the moon that shone through the infirmary windows, and his face lay in shadow. Even so, he saw the boy swallow hard and fight to keep his gaze steady. 'I'm sorry, 'bout the squid, and my broom, and getting my hand wet, and getting hurt again.'

'I know you are, Harry. We'll talk about it tomorrow, with Draco, too.'

'Yes, si – Yes, Father.'

Severus hesitated, but he knew he was going to need to address this issue sooner or later. Eventually, the boy would need to face his fear of water. He'd tried to, Severus knew, and if it hadn't been for the squid, he might have gone a step toward overcoming it. But now . . . Very slowly, Severus raised the chairback until he was upright, and moved his hand forward so it rested on the blanket next to Harry's.

'I know what happened to you in the bath, when you were younger, Harry.'

Harry's mouth fell open and he shook his head.

'Yes, I do. I . . . saw a memory of that, your Aunt's memory, and I am more sorry than you can imagine, for what happened to you.'