Hi,

I´m excited to hear, what you think about this chapter, so be sure to comment :)

I don´t know if some of you have noticed the inconsistency in Severus´s use of Black and Regulus. There are quite many Blacks in the story (Regulus, Sirius and Orion), therefore using Regulus makes it easier to follow, who is the person in question. However, I don´t think that Severus would easily call other´s by their first names. Therefore, I made it so that as their relationship grows Severus will slip more and more into using Regulus. When he is in a professional role as his tutor (or angry with him) he will, however, use the more distant Black.

-EveryJohn

/

The next few days were nerve wracking. Severus was even more snappy and irritated than usual and would have preferred the company of steaming cauldrons over any human contact. To his grimace, that was impossible because of the tutoring sessions. To make the matters worse Walburga had demanded a demonstration of her son´s progress soon, and in Severus´s eyes there was yet no progress to be seen.

He decided to take a step back and instead of actual brewing they now spent most of their time in theory lessons and him teaching Black different preparation techniques. That was a short term solution. Actually, when it came only to theory, Black was already adequate enough. That, however, didn´t stop him from causing disasters out of nowhere. Today, for example, Severus had asked Black to bring cloydyflower buds, but the damned twit managed to bring dandylions. Then when he pointed out the mistake, the boy in his nervousness accidentally knocked a container full of dried cockroaches over his tutor´s head.

"You aren´t that daft, Black", Severus groaned while he picked cockroaches one by one from his black hair. "Tell me. What is this, Black?" His voice was misleadingly calm but at the same time he held his fingers in so tight fists that his whole upper body shook slightly. Black glanced furtively around as if searching for a cover from a ticking time bomb that was about to go off. "...nothing", he mumbled.

"You are a crappy liar, Black."

"It... really is nothing. I just lost my concentration for a moment..."

"Like Merlin knows you have been doing repeatedly during these weeks. This tutoring doesn´t advance your potioneering skill. It worsens them!" Severus snarled. He took couple of calming breaths before rising his black eyes to the boy. "If we continue like this, I can´t take any payment from your parents."

"I´ll try to do better. I really..." Black tried to assure. He wiggled nervously.

"So, you were merely fooling around until now?" Severus rose his eyebrows in fake astonishment. "And here I thought you were already trying your best!"

Regulus blushed to his ears.

Severus used the moment of silence to ask frankly: "Is it because of me?"

Black´s panicky expression was enough to answer that.

"There is no reason to continue the tutoring if my mere presence is making you fail", Severus grunted, slowly starting to turn away. He rubbed the place between his eyebrows with his fingers feeling suddenly very tired. "This is waste of time for both of us, Black. I will do what I should have done ages ago and tell your mother, that I´m quitting." He sighed. He didn´t like admitting defeat. And even less he liked going back to the Spinner´s end for the rest of the summer.

"N-no, you can´t! Please, Severus..." Black´s surprisingly firm hand wrapped around his arm stopping him in the midway. Severus scoffed, but Regulus looked genuinely desperate making him hesitate. "Then... bloody well, tell me, how we are going to manage this, Black! I refuse to continue like this", he grunted.

Black looked to his feet. "If only... you could not come around so suddenly. If you just stood a little further away... It´s just that you are very... intense. I don´t intend to, but I get startled", he stammered and blushed bright red.

"Hah! You need to learn to keep up your concentration even if someone suddenly walks in. Unexpected disturbances are a part of a potioneer´s career. Those happen enough already in school lessons and definitely more so, if you are going to be a healer", Severus claimed, but Black´s words got him to thinking.

"You don´t let my parents or me in either, when you are brewing..." Black muttered a little mutinously.

"Completely irrelevant."

That was where it was left.

/

Soon after that, Mr. Black knocked the door of their potions laboratory in the basement. He was very upset. It was revealed that aurors had been in contact with him. He was actually most nervous about aurors noticing the strictly regulated potions that Severus had been brewing in secrecy and calmed down considerably after Severus explained the real reason. He was further reassured after Severus told him that even if they searched through the house, they wouldn´t find anything illegal as the Dreamer´s Niff and the antidote to it had already been bottled and delivered to the buyer and the Delayer Remedy had basically the same basis as some other perfectly legal healing concoctions until the seventh day of the process.

Mr. Black gave Severus and his son a speech before the hearing. He urged them to reveal as little information as possible, claiming that the auror force consisted mainly of envious wizards that would do anything in their power to destroy the legacy of the pureblood families.

Severus knew that Mr. Black would be present in his son´s hearing. He would have wanted to be there also in Severus´s but wasn´t allowed as he wasn´t Severus´s legal guardian. Severus was asked if he wanted aurors to contact his guardian. The mental image of drunken Tobias suddenly being apparated to Grimmauld Place to be present in the interrogation of his wizard son that he hadn´t seen in almost an year was almost humorous. Severus declined. If his mother had still been alive, maybe he would have asked for her. She would have been repulsed and probably would have straight out refused, but bringing Tobias here would be merely petty harassment.

While one of the aurors went with Mr. Black and Regulus to Mr. Black´s office, two others grabbed Severus by the shoulder and disapparated with him.

/

Severus found himself in a large, white, brightly lit room without windows. He was put to sit on a stool, which was the only furniture in the otherwise empty room. One of the two aurors, a young modest looking man, whom he remembered vaguely from school, introduced himself as Frank Longbottom. He stood further away leaning to a wall while the other one, who told Alastor Moody as his name, circled around Severus like a starved predator. Mr. Moody was older and obviously more seasoned than his younger colleague. He had wild brown eyes and his face was sliced by a couple of wide white scars that stood out against the brown, weather-beaten skin. He asked sudden questions out of nowhere as if to put Severus out of balance.

"The night between the last Friday and Saturday. Where were you?"

Severus thought to himself, that straight out admitting it would be more suspicious than trying to lie at first. "I was at Grimmauld Place 12. I´m tutoring their son Regulus Black", he claimed. The man chuckled shallowly. "I don´t think so." He grabbed Severus´s long dark hair and pulled so that the boy had to look him to the eyes. "Someone spotted you and the young heir in the Knight Bus that very same night. How do you explain that? Better be honest, son." He let go of Severus´s hair and pushed him away so suddenly that the boy fell from the stool.

Severus hid his anger with another strong feeling, fear. Shakily he admitted to the aurors that he had tempted Regulus to come with him to muggle London. They had become lost while searching for food and were picked up by the Knight Bus.

He saw a glint of satisfaction in the auror´s cold eyes. "Someone paid for your travel. Who was it?"

Severus gulped. He had bit his tongue, when he fell and now his mouth had the taste of iron. "He said that his name was Henry Potter..."

"How convenient. Did you know that the same man was found dead only couple of hours later, from moors?"

"He... He is dead?" Severus acted surprised the best he could, but the auror´s eyes narrowed with suspicion.

"You claim that you didn´t know? That was all over the Daily Prophet immediately afterwards."

"I don´t have spare money to buy newspapers!" Severus hissed.

"We have also witness reports of you two going to The Leaky Cauldron with the man and staying there for quite a while with him."

"I can hardly help that he found us amusing and wanted to offer us drinks! Is that illegal? How could we have known that he would kick the bucket only couple of hours later!" Severus yelled frustrated.

That sort of questioning continued for a long while. He was asked same things with slightly different words repeatedly and any sign of hesitation or inconsistency was attacked relentlessly.

/

Scarface was talking something with his colleague, but their voices were so quiet that Severus couldn´t hear the words. As a result the younger auror nodded reluctantly and exited the room. He was left alone with Alastor Moody.

"Care to give me your wand for a check up?" Moody demanded, holding his hand in front of Severus.

"Is that a question or an order", Severus asked sarcastically.

"An order", the auror informed him dryly and almost ripped the wand from his fingers. Severus had always felt vulnerable without his wand and all the more in this strange distressing room. He liked dark and calm places with the smell of steaming potions and old books. Those kind of places gave him the feeling of security. This sterile, white room was completely different and it made him simply bristle up. He had to hold himself back not to hang on his wand with all of his strength.

The auror performed a priori incantatem to the wand. When he was shown only spells that Severus had performed weeks ago in Hogwarts on his last days there, he came back to Severus with a dissatisfied expression. "It´s your mother´s old wand, I presume?" He asked as if that was somehow incriminating. He gave the wand back to Severus, who nodded. "It seems clean, but that doesn´t prove anything. You could have easily used another wand."

Severus groaned inwardly. Were they determined to make him guilty of murder he didn´t commit? Were they so out of their wits that a poor underage half blood was the best they could come up with as a suspect?

/

The other auror came back and Severus was offered a small goblet of clear liquid. It looked like water. It smelled like water too, but Severus would have voluntarily eaten a pound of doxy eggs if it was water. He scowled the adults suspiciously.

"Aren´t you thirsty, son?" Alastor Moody urged with a small smile.

"Is drugging underage students by Veritaserum nowadays allowed even without any evidence of suspicion?" he commented snarkily.

"Drink it!" The auror commanded and when he didn´t immediately obey he did something with his wand and somehow Severus found his hand moving the goblet to his lips and him drinking the serum.