Hi!

In the story Severus isn´t yet of age and that´s why they have made some preparations that would allow safe brewing without the use of wands (I´m sure such stuff is sold somewhere in Diagon Alley...).

I hope you like this. And even if you don´t, be nice and give me some pointers :)

-everyJohn

Dull day light managed to shine to the room through the gap between the heavy curtains. It cast interesting shadows on the ornamental wall papers of the Grimmauld place number 12. Tall mahogany cupboards and bookshelves held slightly grotesque statues depicting magical creatures and hundreds and thousands of perfectly organized books. In every room, hanging from the ceiling, were big glimmering crystal chandeliers. Beautiful white and red cut roses were placed in vases on dressers. Huge perfectly polished mirrors stood in every corner so that a person unfamiliar to the house would hit his head to them many times in a day while trying to move around in hurry. All in all, everything in the mansion was so perfectly in place that any movement in anything would stand out like a screaming flaw.

In the dining room Walburga Black sat alone at the set table listening the slow ticking of the old tall-case clock. At times, she cast curious glaces to the door, which led to the basement of the building. During the past week her son had spent hours and hours there alone with his tutor. Brilliant lights occasionally flashed through the door frames and sometimes foul smelling smoke evaporated. She had also often heard loud bangs followed by brutal swearing of Mr. Snape.

When one of the loudest bangs today was followed by a crashing sound, Mrs. Black half way stood up. Then she, however, gave a frustrated sigh and sat down again. Her husband had disappeared early in the morning. To meet his "friends", he had said. To make matters worse Mr. Snape had made her and her husband to swear that they would in no occasion interrupt the study sessions he held. Mr. Snape had calmly explained that by breaking that rule Mrs. Black could endanger both her own and her sons lives. Mr. Snape´s black eyes and soft, almost gentle, voice had made Mrs. Black to take the warning seriously, but as the clock turned to dinner time and the flashing and swearing didn´t show any signs of ceasing, she turned to the house elf, Kreacher, and urged it to go and take a look in her stead.

/

"You utterly confuse me, Black! You seem to be doing fair well until I come to check the progress and then you suddenly blow it up like a FIRST YEAR DUNDERHEAD!" Severus yelled through the bitter smoke that filled the room. He fumbled through the floor to activate the ventilation system and managed to hit his toe into one of the cauldrons Black´s parents had bought to him.

The Blacks seemed to have this great mission of emptying the stocks of Potage's Cauldron Shop. Because of that the basement was now well equipped for a private brewing place. Actually far too well equipped, which made Severus both amused and furious at the same time. Nearly twenty different kinds of cauldrons of every size and color imaginable served only one function in Hogwarts level potion making and that was: Taking space. (His bounding big toe confirmed that argument true.) It was kind of insulting, how much money the Blacks used. All his life, despite the hard work and passion he had put into it nothing had come to Severus that easily. He had barely owned one pewter cauldron from his first year and had cherished it properly until Potter and his crew managed to permanently spoil it. During the following summer he had worked like crazy doing stupid muggle delivery summer job to earn enough to buy a new one for the next semester. He owned a pair of dragon hide protective gloves (school regulation required them), but didn´t dare to use them except from while dealing with truly dangerous potions in fear of breaking or dirtying them. And Regulus Black had gotten three brand new pairs of protective gloves from his parents just for the summer tutoring! If making potions was only about equipment, Walburga and Orion would have made sure that their son had mastered it already in age of eleven. Too bad for them... As surely as trolls stink, Regulus would need all the help Severus could provide to somehow survive the upcoming NEWT-courses in school. His skills in potions were simply abysmal, which was hard to understand as Regulus wasn´t even all that dimwitted.

"Are you doing this on purpose to piss me off?" Severus hissed suspiciously as he hovered over the younger Slytherin. The silver cauldron next to Regulus was darkened with charcoal and had a huge hole burned through it´s bottom. It was already the third time during this week that something like this had happened.

Regulus didn´t get a word of defense out from his mouth. The pale boy avoided his eyes and seemed to shrink in front of him. Such open submissiveness made Severus even angrier. "Thank Merlin for having rich parents, Black. If you were my student at Hogwarts I would throw you out. Permanently! For destroying school property and endangering your schoolmates and teacher!" Black didn´t deny it. His brown eyes were still wide from shock of the explosion and Severus had a feeling that he hardly recognized what his tutor was saying. "You amaze me time after time with your stupidity, Black! From where you picked this genius idea to drop in the mistletoe before the liquid is fully saturated? I even specifically reminded you about it. Have muggles stolen your brain too, Black? Is that an epidemic now?" Severus spit that out, voice full of venom. He didn´t intend to stop there, but his venting was cut short by a blood chilling battle cry. A furious house elf leaped through the air and a second later, two rows of razor sharp elf teeth sunk deep into Severus´s ankle making him howl from pain and horror.

"You filthy half blood! You is not worthy my master! You ugly, unruly, filthy! You dare to shout my master! You dare to scare and insult my dear dear master! You bad man! Be gone! Be gone!" The house elf shrieked. Regulus had to hold the wiggling and cussing creature with both hands to keep it from lunging back to Severus, who was just beginning to comprehend the situation.

Severus´s black eyes flashed dangerously. "Who exactly you are calling ugly, you smelly, wrinkled, dishcloth!" he hissed.

"At least me does not look like someone has held my head in sewage for months!" The elf shot back.

Severus´s hands trembled with anger and inched towards the wand in his pocket.

The elf´s eyes glittered with triumph as it took a fighting stance.

"STOP THAT RIGHT NOW!" Regulus screamed. He had finally gotten his voice back and stood now in between the wizard and the house elf, looking a bit faint. "But master, he was rude to you..." Kreacher tried blinking its big, watery, house elf eyes and wigging anxiously its long ears. Severus concluded to his disgust, that the little bastard tried to appeal cute.

"Severus... was not bullying me, Kreacher. Truly", Regulus assured the house elf. He looked really uncomfortable, but continued nevertheless: "Severus had a... good reason to get mad at me. I, um... made a stupid mistake." He blushed through his ears. "I could have severely damaged the house. Severus used a neutralizer and vanished the potion barely in time."

Kreacher tried to comfort Regulus by tapping his robe hem gently. It squeaked with really compassionate voice: "It´s no master´s fault. Master is learning. Halfblood should have reminded master."

Severus snorted.

The house elf turned to him and opened its mouth flashing its threatening set of teeth to him.

Severus rolled his eyes to the gesture and only Regulus´s interference kept the elf from retaliating.

The miffed creature cast one more dark glare to Severus before slouching towards the door. "Mistress want´s to inform you two... Dinner is ready", Kreacher informed with sour expression as it pressed the door handle.

The opened the door revealed the said mistress eavesdropping behind it. "What are you ogling, hag!" Severus snapped and slammed the door shut to her nose, before she could say anything.

Regulus and Severus were left in death silence.