And Then There Were Three

Chapter 23

Harry and Draco stood in opposite corners of the kitchen.

Rook paced back and forth between them. He would nudge first Harry's hand, whining when he didn't give him any attention, and then move on to repeat the process with Draco.

Snape was also pacing. In the parlor, back and forth in front of the fireplace. Every time he thought he was calm enough to face his two boys, he remembered the events of the last thirty minutes, and resumed his pacing once again.

Alan and Marie Dubois were thrilled to hear of Evelyn's engagement. However, Marie was less than thrilled to hear about it only hours before meeting her new future brother-in-law. A meeting which started out perfectly fine, and ended in utter disaster.

The dinner portion of the evening had gone smoothly, with adults and children getting along well. It wasn't until the after dinner drinks that things began to go awry.

Snape was listening contently as Evelyn lead the conversation with her family while Harry, Draco, and Brielle disappeared into the parlor. For a while, all was quiet, then suddenly the house burst into sounds of explosion after explosion, all coming from the parlor.

Snape and the others were immediatly on their feet and they raced down the hallway, wands raised as if expecting to find an attack.

Instead, what they found were three teenagers standing in the middle of the room, eyes wide as they looked around at the distruction. Their faces were covered in soot and their hair stood on end.

The room was littered in glass and debris and burn marks covered the walls.

"What happened in here?" Alan exclaimed, eyes scanning the room.

"Are you three alright?"

"Are you hurt?"

Both Evelyn and Marie immediately began inspecting them for injuries, turning their heads to the side and running a quick diagnostic spell on them. Though they assured them they were all fine, the two women wanted to be certain.

"We were playing Exploding Snap," Brielle explained, stepping away from her mother.

"Except Exploding Snap doesn't cause damage like this," Alan said, already waving his wand at the mess and putting everything back in order.

"It does when you play with a prank deck," Snape offered, his dark eyes boring into Harry and Draco, who both remained silent.

This wasn't the first time Snape had seen the effects of a trick deck of cards. One day last year, a few of his 4th year Slytherins had gotten hold of a deck and nearly blown up their dormitory. Every card exploded at once, sending them flying like small missiles in every direction.

Snape had been so angry that after he'd seen to it that all four boys were unharmed, he gave them each detention and confiscated every deck in Slytherin house until he could be sure there weren't any more.

"We didn't know it was a joke deck," Harry defended.

Snape only narrowed his eyes at him.

The evening ended soon after that. The boys made their appologies for the mess, then Snape sent them home through the floo, assuring them that he would be right behind them.

Another five minutes passed and Snape finally walked through the kitchen doorway.

"Alright," he said, crossing his arms over his chest and leaning his hip against the counter. "Turn around and someone explain to me what happened tonight."

Harry and Draco both turned around, but neither gave any explanation, and eventually, Snape's eyes settled on Harry, hoping he would be the easiest to convince to talk.