She produces a conspiratorial titter.  "Yes, I see what you mean."  Maybe she can get Millicent or somebody to tell her who the "good families" are.  "Still, though, Pansy's just another student.  It's Snape I'm really worried about."

Draco leans in a little, and in a low voice says, "You know, I've heard things from Father about Snape."

She matches him.  "What sort of things?"

"That he was in with Maledict Gaunt," Draco says quietly.  "Before your parents defeated her, I mean.  He switched sides around that time, made some kind of deal with Dumbledore.  But Snape wasn't under the Imperius like Father was."

"Really."

She evinces shock.  But that checks out, really.  Snape had once been Maledict's ally, but betrayed her for Dumbledore.  That could explain both Snape's keen understanding of Maledict and his hatred for her.  But what to do with this?  The Malfoys are also Maledict's enemy.

"...I don't know much about Dumbledore."

"That's right," Draco says slowly, "you got stuck in Muggle America after Maledict's fall, didn't you?"  He pushes his empty plate away.  "Why don't you meet me in the common room after lunch.  We can talk properly," he says significantly.  "I'll catch you up on how things really are in Magical Britain."

Hmm.  This could be useful, the Malfoy take on the country.  And she gets the impression Draco thinks she's valuable, or maybe that Lucius has told him to make friends with her.  - Well, if the Malfoys are in her debt, Lucius wouldn't want them working at cross purposes.

"Right," she says.

A quick, conspiratorial half-smile.  Then, genially, at normal volume: "See you around, Clover!"

"See you!"

She finishes her own lunch,

and meets Draco, not long later, in the Slytherin common room, at one of the little tables next to the wide glass windows looking out into beneath-the-surface of the Hogwarts Lake.

"So how are things really in magical Britain?" she asks.

"What do you already know?" Draco asks.

She wants to parlay Lucius into an ally against Snape.  She will want to present to Draco a face that can be swayed to the Malfoys' side, let him think he is collecting her when in fact she is collecting them.

The common enemy of the Malfoy family and the child-identity Clover is wearing is -

"Maledict Gaunt," she begins, "was gathering followers until ten years ago, when she came after my family and was somehow killed.  I don't know exactly how.  She'd been - recruiting and blackmailing and Imperiusing powerful people, both publicly powerful people like your father and some people in the Ministry, and powerful criminals.  She was - collecting people."  She puts distaste into her voice, as she says this.  The false Clover she is wearing loathes Maledict Gaunt, and thinking of herself as collecting people feels pleasantly Maledictlike, so it's probably a framing that the false Clover would find distasteful.  "Most people thought she was a conspiracy theory.  Dumbledore was one of the people who didn't, and was fighting her in secret.  Maledict was recruiting people and gaining allies for the purpose of gathering as much magical power as she could.  Her Ministry contacts passed her things that their Curse-Breakers retrieved, her criminal contacts fed her illegal Dark objects and creatures.  Once she died, her criminal followers got their hands on things she'd stolen and tried to use them to make their own bids for power.  When your father was free he was able to help the Ministry track down a lot of Maledict's former allies, especially spies she'd had within the Ministry.  There was a lot of fighting and danger in the aftermath of Maledict's death, but thanks to your father and Dumbledore, Magical Britain is peaceful again."

Draco nods.

"Right," he says, "so it sounds like you've mostly been learning about Maledict and the last ten years, am I right?"

Nod.

"Well, the game Father is playing is a lot bigger and a lot older than Gaunt," he says importantly.  "How much do you know about why wizards are in hiding?"

...She's going to go ahead and let Draco think he's got her hooked.  She laces her voice and face with intrigue.  "Why are we?"

"Muggles hate us," Draco says darkly.  "They fear us and loathe us because we can do things they can't.  They used to burn us alive and they tell their kids it was a tragedy because they accidentally killed a lot of other Muggles instead of real witches.  Before Hogwarts was founded it was old wizard families who could teach their kids enough magic to really stay safe, and M- Muggle-borns who could only survive by sucking up to the other Muggles and promising to use their magic to help in the fight against the real wizards.  Salazar Slytherin wanted Hogwarts to be a place where the oldest and strongest and purest wizard families without Muggle loyalties could pool their secrets and their powers, to become stronger together.  But Godric Gryffindor convinced everyone else to let in the Muggle-borns too, out of misguided charity.  And then came the Statute of Secrecy, and we disappeared into Muggle myths, and now everyone's forgotten about the threat Muggles pose to us.  People like Dumbledore only care about seeming kindly to the Muggle-borns and half-bloods who are diluting our families' blood, but Father knows the score, he knows that Muggles are still a threat.  Right now he and his allies are the only people who still remember."

She keeps her fingers steepled and her face intrigued, nods along.  "Where did Gaunt fit into all of this?"

"Gaunt didn't trust the old wizarding families, she wanted to take all the power into her own hands personally.  That's why she bewitched Father instead of just allying with him.  And Gaunt was very deep into Dark magic.  There's doing what you have to do to protect your people, and then there's - " Draco gives her a dark look.

"And Snape's into Dark magic as well, and now he belongs to Dumbledore," Clover prompts.

"Right," says Draco.  "Dumbledore makes a lot of noise in public about abhorring Dark magic, but I don't know what else he'd want Snape for.  But really you should talk to Father."

"How would I do that?"

Draco taps his chin contemplatively.  "Maybe you could come to Malfoy Manor for the winter hols.  I'm sure he'd be delighted to have you stay with us."

"Visiting Malfoy Manor does sound lovely - " polite smile - "but I'm not sure I want to wait that long to do anything about Snape."

"Well, he is suspended, there's not much he can get away with doing to you for a little while.  But I understand.  Why don't I tell him what we've talked about in my next letter, I'm sending it off this evening, and ask him to reach out to you?"