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A deep chuckle from behind him brought him out of the world of potion composition and back to the present, and Severus looked up. "Hm?"

Alastor's hand closed on his neck lightly. "Well, I suppose half the store is better than the entire store."

Severus glanced down at the pile of vials—which was kind of large—sitting on the counter in front of him. "I can put some of it back; it's not—"

Alastor squeezed his neck again. "Nonsense, I was just teasing." He made a sharp gesture, and two baskets floated over. "I noticed you haven't gone hunting for anything new for a few minutes; is this what you want?"

Severus nodded quickly. Well, there were a few other things that he certainly wouldn't mind having, but they didn't seem to be on the shelves. Which wasn't really a surprise. And it was probably just as well they weren't, in truth. He'd been trying to watch the prices of things he grabbed, but he knew that despite his best efforts it was starting to add up. It was kind of silly when he thought about it—after all, he wouldn't be taking any of this back to Hogwarts—but it could all be stored, and since Alastor had offered….

Alastor didn't seem concerned about anything going unused until summer, though, or even about the prices as he read the labels on the various vials. He simply put each in the basket after he'd checked it. "You've do have a few properly fun things in this collection, right?" he asked after a minute. "Because Merlin help you—and especially me—if my partner and his brother think you're only studying or doing schoolwork in your free time."

Studying potions was fun for him, but Severus didn't bother to argue the point as he held up another kit made by the same company that had made his fireworks kit. This one was for various types of magical goo, and he'd picked it up mostly on a whim. But a few of the projects in it looked pretty interesting. Aside from being able to see good uses for a couple types of goo outright, he had some ideas for combining others with other substances. "I think this counts." And he could probably get the two of them to test it for him if he asked correctly. Or he could test it on them….

Alastor shook his head and smiled as he scanned the description on the back. "Aye, I daresay you're right." He put the last vial in the second basket and then gave another shake of his head. "All right, then. I don't know about you, but I'm starting to get hungry."

Severus hadn't expected to be, not after Molly's idea of a good breakfast, but now that Alastor mentioned it, he noticed that his stomach was starting to grumble. How long had they been in here, anyway? He picked up the first basket quickly, tucking the kit under his arm, and Alastor lifted the other and led the way to the front of the shop.

It was more crowded on the street than it had been when they finally made it out of the shop, which probably shouldn't have come as a surprise. People would have had time to sleep off last night's revelry by now. It made juggling the bags a little interesting, though—potions ingredients couldn't exactly be shrunk and stuck in a convenient pocket—and it took them a few minutes to find a seat at one of the cafes.

They ended up being stuck towards the back, and Severus was surprised to find himself scowling at one idiot who wouldn't get his chair out of the way of Alastor's crutch. The whole thing was kind of stupid when he thought about it—Alastor was an Auror, and Severus knew perfectly well that he could take care of himself—but the man could see that he was in the way and there was no need for him to be such an—

"Severus?" Alastor asked, turning to look back at him.

Severus made himself look away from the arse. "Coming."

"Never mind people like that," Alastor said as Severus came alongside him again. "Not worth the time. Yours or mine."

Severus shrugged. He was used to people being rude to him, but…well, he didn't like it when they did it to Alastor. But since it didn't seem to matter to Alastor, he gave the man a final glare and went to join Alastor. They managed to wedge their bags behind their table, and he picked up the menu as soon as they were seated. "Can I have pie?"

"You can have a proper lunch. There's pie waiting for us at home."

"Yes, sir." Fingers flicked his forehead lightly. "Yes, Alastor."

"That's better. Got to break that habit of yours somehow." It didn't take him them but a minute to place their orders when a waitress came by, and then Alastor turned back to Severus. "Think you're about ready to head back to school then? Not too many days left."

Severus shrugged slightly. He was well aware of that fact, and he definitely wasn't ready to go back, but 'Merlin, no,' probably wasn't the appropriate thing to say here.

"Ah, well, I suppose no youngling looks forward to more classes while they're on holiday. At least you'll get see all your friends again."

'All his friends.' Right. When you could count them on one hand and still have fingers left to spare, that wasn't saying much. He settled for another shrug. "I guess. But all of the professors are going kind of classwork crazy with OWLs coming up." That, at least, was a normal reason for someone to be reluctant to go back to school. "It's nice to have a break and not have to think about all that stuff."

"Suppose that's understandable." It was Alastor's turn to pause, and then, "You know you're welcome back at home for the Easter holidays if you like. If you haven't other plans, of course. At least when I was in school, a lot of fifth-year students used to stay behind to work with study groups and such. Well, fifth and seventh years, I suppose."

"I don't have anything like that planned." Or any other kind of plan, as it happened. And short of a complete personality transplant he wouldn't; that was a given. Lily always went home for the holidays, so there wouldn't even be a chance of studying with her. "It's…." He picked at the table covering awkwardly.

"Severus?"

"I mean, you're sure it's not a problem if I come? I don't want to be in the way or anything." He knew Alastor had taken more days off than usual over Christmas, and he had no idea how many holidays Aurors actually got. It wasn't exactly a 'normal' job; they couldn't close the Aurors' offices and expect crimes to just stop on certain days of the year. Not to mention that given the conversation he'd overheard between Alastor and Molly…. "It's not like I haven't stayed at Hogwarts before." And he should study for OWLS, even if he did it it by himself. Even if he didn't have a prayer in Transfiguration, didn't care all that much about History of Magic or Astronomy, and expected the Potions exam to be a joke, it wouldn't hurt to review Charms and Arithmancy. And Ancient Runes always required studying.

"Of course you aren't a problem." Alastor's eyes narrowed suddenly. "Did Albus—Professor Dumbledore—say anything like that to you?"

"What?" Severus frowned. "No. I didn't talk to him at all except to say 'hello.'" Which had suited Severus just fine, but Alastor's question didn't give him a lot of confidence in what Dumbledore might have said to him.

"Good." Alastor shook his head.

"Did he say something like that to you?" He wasn't too sure that he wanted to hear the answer, but since Alastor had asked his question….

Alastor shook his head. "No, no, not exactly. Just a couple comments about being surprised that you were staying with me, and that taking care of younglings is harder than it looks." He snorted. "As though I hadn't figured that out for myself."

"I don't mean to cause trouble."

Alastor hooked a finger under his chin and tilted his head up. "You're no trouble, lad. I didn't mean it like that. Albus just gets odd ideas in his head sometimes." He snorted. "He's a bit of an odd man in general, I suppose. And, to be fair, I've never had much to do with any sort of youngster before so I should have expected him to be surprised."

Lunch arrived before either of them could say anything else, and Severus kept his attention on his sandwich through the meal. Which didn't taste as good as he'd thought it would. Alastor seemed to be telling the truth when he said Severus wasn't trouble, but…. He bit back groan. Why couldn't Dumbledore have gone to someone else's party?

Alastor stayed quiet as well, at least until they got home and got the ingredients put away in one of the side cupboards in the kitchen that had being going mostly unused.

"Is there anything that you'd like to work on now? Told you before that I'm not the best in the world at potions, but I daresay I'm qualified to chop and dice. Need to set aside part of the counter for it, I expect, since I don't want your ingredients mixing in with our dinners, but there should be plenty of room."

Severus hadn't really expected Alastor to help him, mostly to just be around like he said was required, but since he'd offered…. "Can we try one of the fireworks?"

Severus read through the directions one more time and checked the ingredient vials. The fireworks they'd finished yesterday had worked quite well—Alastor had apparated them to some deserted field in the middle of nowhere to test them out—and he wanted to see if the goo met with similar results.

The day after tomorrow he'd have to board the train to go back to Hogwarts, as much as he didn't want to think about it, but if he could get the echoing goo done tonight, he could test it tomorrow. Only on himself, since this was a Muggle neighborhood, but if it worked…well, he'd already copied down the instructions for one set of fireworks and tucked them into his trunk, and he knew the ingredients he needed for this kind of goo were all at Hogwarts as well. It wouldn't be a bad thing to start out the New Year with tricks no one, particularly the Moronic Marauders, had ever seen before.

Well, the fireworks he actually wanted to show Lily—not that he would really object to blowing one of them up in Black's face if he got the chance, but he thought she'd be impressed if he set a few of them off while they were in Astronomy class up on the tower—but he could think of a solid dozen rather sinister uses for echoing goo. Especially if he could figure out how to modify the echoes it made.

He tapped his fingers against the countertop and then checked the time again. Alastor hadn't said anything about having to work late, but Severus knew perfectly well that he didn't necessarily work on a set schedule. Severus had promised that he wouldn't do any brewing alone, and he planned on keeping that promise, but…. He turned firmly away from what had been designated the 'potions only' stretch of countertop and went to get the last of the leftovers Molly had sent home with them out of the preserver. Even if Alastor got home in the next ten minutes, he'd probably rather eat before brewing.

He'd just finished the warming spell for the meat when he heard a click from the front door, and he glanced back over his shoulder. "Alastor?"

"Aye, it's me, lad," Alastor called.

There was a rustle, probably Alastor putting his cloak away, and then he appeared in the doorway of the kitchen. "Hello, Sev—" His expression darkened as he caught sight of the lined-up vials, and his voice went stern. "I thought I made it clear that you weren't to do any brewing alone."

"I didn't," Severus objected. "I didn't even mix anything. I was just getting it ready. Dinner's ready too."

Alastor relaxed at that, and he shook himself before patting Severus' shoulder lightly. "All right, lad. I'm sorry; I shouldn't have jumped to conclusions. How was your day?"

"All right." He made a face. "I got the rest of my homework done." As annoying as most of it had been.

"Well, that sounds about as much fun as the paperwork I got to finish this afternoon. How about you let me get changed, and then we'll eat and then see what you've got lined up for brewing tonight?"

Severus nodded. He wasn't that hungry, but Alastor was, and if he ate now, he wouldn't have to stop in the middle. He hadn't seen any convenient let-simmer-for-an-hour breaks in the goo instructions.

"I think the Prewetts are planning to drag us out for supper tomorrow," Alastor said as they sat down at the table. "Not sure where—Gideon told me about it, and he was acting suspicious about the whole thing—but we'll stop by after work to pick you up so if you go out, make sure you're back by late afternoon."

"Actually, may I go with you to the Ministry?" He hadn't thought of it before, but that was firmly in Wizarding territory.

"Why would you want to do that?"

"I want to test the goo on somebody besides me."

Alastor frowned. "The Ministry isn't a place to play."

"No, I didn't mean test it there, but I could spend the day in Diagon Alley and then meet you back at the Ministry when it's time for dinner. I won't get into any trouble, I promise, and I won't bother anybody, I just want to make sure that it really echoes what it absorbs. That would be easier with more people around, but I can't do that in the village here without risking the Muggles hearing." Not that he wasn't certain that Muggles also had things that could store and repeat sounds, but he was pretty sure that they were all larger than a spoon-sized glob of goo. And he was very sure didn't look like spoon-sized globs of goo.

"You make sure you stay out of trouble," Alastor said firmly after a moment. "Find a few of your schoolmates to help you test it, not some poor unsuspecting shop owner. And not those boys you've had such trouble with, either; there's no sense starting any more trouble."

Severus' plans to use it on them at school all revolved around them not knowing about it, so that was an easy thing to agree to. Especially since they'd stayed at Hogwarts for the holiday.

"You'll be on your own for lunch," Alastor said after a minute. "Gideon and I have an interview up in Warwick and Fabian and Caradoc won't be back from Paris until mid-afternoon at the earliest."

Severus had no idea what the two of them were doing in Paris—he hadn't even known they'd left the country—but Alastor didn't look inclined to elaborate, so he just nodded. "I'll be fine. I promise."