Thank you again for all the reviews!

Chapter Nine—Suffer Little Children

"Welcome to Grimmauld Place."

Harry felt Severus's hand tighten in his. He looked down and smiled gently at the boy. It had been a fight to get Mariana to agree to let him bring Severus here, but when he had mentioned the extensive wards around the Black property, she'd agreed that if anyone could keep Seneca out, it would be the Blacks.

"This is young Prince that you mentioned," said Black, lounging against the wall near the door as if he didn't have a care in the world. Harry wondered if he could somehow get away with mentioning that having house-elf heads hanging on the wall wasn't the height of fashion.

"Yes," Severus said, tearing his attention away from the heads. "I'm Severus Prince." He bobbed a little and held out his hand.

Black smiled in a condescending pure-blood way as he shook Severus's hand. "And what a polite young gentleman. I can hope that my own sons will learn some of the same courtesy from your tutor."

"This is only a preliminary visit," Harry pointed as he and Severus walked down the corridor and Black closed the door. "I haven't agreed to tutor them."

"My sons are charming."

A statement isn't the same as an argument, Harry thought, but he kept his peace. That was a lesson he had taken to stating to Severus, who was as determined to learn argument as he as everything else, but he didn't think either Sirius or Regulus would be old enough yet to understand.

"This is our house-elf, Kreacher," Black continued in a light tone as he led the way down into the kitchen Harry remembered so well from Order meetings. The place was brightly-lit and clean now, although the light appeared to come from the walls themselves instead of windows. "He serves as Sirius and Regulus's caretaker when I'm called away. More often now that my wife and I are divorced, of course."

Harry wrenched his eyes away from Kreacher, who was staring at him. "I had no idea divorce was that fast."

"When you're a pure-blood with some power, it is." Black was staring at Harry, too, as if expecting some reaction to that statement. Harry shrugged with one shoulder. He wasn't going to play up to blood purists for anyone, and he certainly wouldn't include that in his lessons with Severus, Sirius, or Regulus.

And it's not even a given yet that you'll tutor them.

Meanwhile, Kreacher had kept on staring. Then he turned to Black and held out his hands in mute appeal. "Master is going to be letting the one who hurt our family sit here and eat?" he demanded in a hoarse voice.

Harry tensed, and the Elder Wand hummed in its holster along his arm. Severus stared at him. Harry gave him a smile as reassuring as he could, while he watched Black glance back and forth between him and Kreacher.

"He has already told me that he hurt our family, although so far he has refused to clarify the exact nature of that harm," Black murmured at last. His hand made a short curling motion that seemed to indicate he was thinking about stepping forwards and reaching out. Harry added coldness to his look, and Black moved away with his hands in the air. "I made the decision to allow him here anyway. Please bring the breakfast and then go and fetch Sirius and Regulus, Kreacher."

"Kreacher be doing as Master Black asks," Kreacher said, and bowed to Black while glaring at Harry as daringly as a house-elf could. Then he turned and popped away.

"How curious that a house-elf can sense something like that," Black said softly. "And I would hardly call Kreacher the most observation or best-educated of the breed."

Harry bustled Severus into the chair next to his, ignoring the way Black sat right next to him. If Kreacher wasn't going to talk about the time travel and destroy the facade Harry was trying so hard to build, Harry hardly would.

Eggs, bacon, toast, porridge, several different varieties of marmalade, more of dried fruit, thick pots of cream, steaming scones, butter, and so many glasses of juice appeared at the table that Harry blinked. Black gave him a complacent smile and reached for the toast and, surprisingly, a glass of pumpkin juice. "Kreacher does like to impress when we have guests."

"Even ones he despises?"

"Perhaps especially those. Do eat your fill, Evanson. You often look as though you don't."

Harry glared at Black for a second, then turned away to Severus, who was tugging at his sleeve. He banished the fleeting thought that it was unfair he was in a whole different timeline and yet got scolded for being thin anyway. "Yes, Severus? What is it?"

"There's too many," Severus whispered in a loud tone. "I don't know what to choose."

Harry could feel Black's amusement without turning his head, but he kept his concentration on Severus. "That's fine. You can choose whatever you like, and I'll tell you what it is if you don't know."

Severus shot a cautious look around Harry at Black, then nodded and chose a jar of orange marmalade and a scone. Harry stifled a pang that Severus's grandfather wouldn't let him have even these normal things, and began preparing a scone for Severus along with a glass of milk.

"Ah, Evanson. My sons, Sirius and Regulus."

Harry looked up with a smile that he couldn't help. He hoped Black would just attribute it to the fact that he loved children. Sirius was yawning and pushing a mop of wild dark hair out of his face. Regulus was toddling along behind him with the steps of someone who had barely learned to walk, his eyes wide as he looked at Harry.

"I look forward to teaching them," Harry said, and then caught Black's smile and added hastily, "If we all decide the arrangement would suit us, of course. Your sons should have a choice."

"I don't want the teaching," Sirius declared, and dropped into his chair to glare at Harry. "The tutors hurt."

Black's eyes turned furious in a way that Harry could, for once, empathize with. He wanted to murder Sirius's tutors himself. He faced Sirius and said softly, "I can promise you I will never hurt you."

Sirius stared at him and then shut his mouth again. It seemed he didn't know what to say. Harry could hardly blame him for that. He ruffled Sirius's hair anyway and smiled at him, then turned to Regulus. "What do you like to eat?"

Regulus curled up and buried his head in his brother's shoulder. But Sirius managed to whisper, "Toast and eggs." Then he added, "But Reggie gets porridge cause he's a baby."

Harry smiled, and reached for both.

Watching Evanson interact with the children was fascinating.

He forgot himself when he spoke to Prince, Orion thought. He was acting as though he was trying to keep from drawing attention to the boy, but when he did speak to him—which he did often, alternating back and forth between him and Sirius—it was with adult vocabulary. Although Prince usually nodded instead of replying, shooting wary looks at Orion all the while, it was obvious he understood.

A mystery there, one Orion intended to solve.

But the man was good with both Sirius and Regulus. The minute Sirius had muttered about tutors hurting—something Orion had not known and never would have tolerated if he had—Evanson had become a protector. Orion had no doubt he was seeing to the bottom of the man's essential nature. That was what he was.

And it explained his remorse at whatever harm he had inflicted on the Black family, Orion thought. The man would go to great lengths to avoid harming children, and probably saw himself as someone who defended instead of attacked.

Evanson caught Orion looking, and scowled at him. Orion smiled amiably back and reached for a piece of bacon.

Evanson blinked in what looked like shock. Orion shrugged. The man would learn, one way or another, that Orion was human and could be good for him.

"Would you recommend tutoring for my boys so young?" Orion asked. "Perhaps I was being rather hasty in thinking they should have it."

Evanson tapped his foot on the floor as he thought. He was the most expressive person Orion had ever met, and it was hard to keep his eyes off him. Of course, he let his face show his thoughts, and Evanson scowled at him in return.

"Not ordinary lessons, I suppose," Evanson murmured. "But ones that will ease their fears. And ones that can focus their magic."

Orion frowned. "You mean something specific by that, I think, but I don't know what."

"Accidental magic isn't as accidental as a lot of people think. It happens when the child is afraid or stressed," Evanson murmured, eyes resting heavily on Orion's sons as if he thought they would have reason to be stressed. Well, perhaps they did, Orion admitted, if only to himself. "They can focus it to defend themselves, with practice."

"I have never heard of such a thing."

"Insulted that such wisdom might reside in the son of a Muggleborn, Black?"

"No," Orion said, honestly. "Surprised because it sounds so useful, and I would have expected my family to discover it and make use of it before now." He leaned forwards, careful not to touch Evanson or look as if he was shielding his sons from the man, maintaining an earnest expression. "It's a good reminder for me of how much an ally can add to our strength."

Evanson eyed him as if he thought Orion was lying—although why would he?—and then he nodded and focused again on Sirius and Regulus. "Would you like to learn to focus your magic?" he asked.

Regulus looked up with bright, curious eyes, but didn't speak. Orion knew he understood far more than it seemed, but he was still lagging far behind where his brother had been at the same age, when Sirius was speaking full sentences. Orion was trying his best not to let it worry him.

"I want to learn magic," Sirius said, latching on to the one thing he probably understood out of the words Evanson was spouting.

Evanson gave him such an affectionate smile that Orion's breath caught. He almost wondered if Evanson was an ally that his family had tried to recruit before, but under another name and appearance.

It seemed that he wasn't the only one to notice Evanson's attention. Prince tugged on Evanson's hand and said authoritatively, "You have to cut up my toast for me. Grandmother said."

"You don't need it done that way," Evanson teased, but he began to cut it up.

"I want it done that way," Prince said, and leaned around Evanson to give Orion the definition of a skeptical glance. Orion wouldn't have expected a child so young to understand that much nuance in the situation. On the other hand, the Princes had been famed for the kind of magic they would use on young children. It was entirely possible that that had happened with Prince after he was rescued from the Muggles. Orion resolved to keep an eye on the situation.

"Sooner or later, Severus, you'll have to realize that we can't all get what we want," Evanson murmured, even as he placed the neatly-sliced toast back on the plate.

"Adults want things all the time," Prince protested as he began to eat in a finicky way that made Orion's lips twitch despite himself. "That man behind you wants you to come back and he wants you to stay here. Why?"

Orion narrowed his eyes. Yes, the boy was too smart for someone his age.

He realized a second later that he shouldn't have used such an approximation of a threatening glare against Prince, as Evanson immediately moved forwards and in between them. "Do that one more time and we're going to leave," he said under his breath to Orion, his eyes blazing. "I want to help your sons, but my commitment is to Severus first."

Orion wished he knew why, but he sensed that it was too early to ask, and Evanson was so protective of the boy he might even leave because of the question. Orion resorted, instead, to a tactic that he had already noticed flustered Evanson. "And I can't persuade you to think of me at all?"

Evanson blinked. "What?"

"You can't see your way clear to helping me? At all?"

"You got your divorce, it was all over the papers. And you want me as a tutor for your sons, not anything else. I'm a half-blood. What do I have to offer you personally?"

Orion knew many people who would have spoken that way with a kind of false modesty, wanting to be complimented and drawn out and reassured that of course they were priceless. But Evanson asked the question between bewilderment and curiosity, and Orion knew he meant it.

Orion leaned forwards, certain that he was holding Evanson's eyes, and answered as simply as he knew how. "A friendship with someone powerful."

"I'm sure that you have enough of those, too. What with being a Black and everything."

"Power, but not friendship," Orion said, and wondered wearily when Evanson would start to actually listen to him. "That is the difference. That is what I want, and what I hope you will eventually consent to provide me."

Evanson stood there, studying him, even though he also moved automatically to give Prince the bowl of porridge with brown sugar that he asked for. His eyes were narrow and shrewd, and Orion found that he didn't like the look in them much.

"I can't say whether I will or not," Evanson said abruptly. "But at least you admitted it. I was beginning to think that we would sit here through this whole pseudo-polite breakfast and you wouldn't say anything."

"What's pseudo mean?" Sirius piped up. Regulus had decided to eat, but he was mostly playing with his food, because he was spending so much time looking at Evanson. Orion sighed and moved around the table to cast a few charms on Regulus's hands. Most of the time, he gave his youngest son what were essentially invisible gloves to eat breakfast, but he'd forgotten in his battle of words with Evanson.

"It means not really," said Evanson, smiling at Sirius. Orion ignored the tightness in his chest as he saw the way Evanson smiled. Someday, he would have that genuine friendship, and becoming jealous of his son when said son was a child was unbecoming.

"You're not really polite?" Sirius sounded confused now, nibbling the edge of a scone as he watched Evanson.

"Oh, no. I'm rude a lot of the time." Evanson's mouth curved up, and he glanced down at Prince. "Severus can tell you about that."

"Mr. Evanson is rude a lot," Prince said, as if he had been waiting for years to tell someone that. He set down his spoon on the edge of his plate, and nodded. "Grandmother says that he's the rudest man she's ever met."

Evanson laughed. Orion supposed he thought differently about insults from children than from men and women. "Yes, she says that. But the times that she says it, it's because I just proved something wrong that she thought she knew." He shrugged. "She shouldn't make sweeping statements when she doesn't know if they're true."

"Is that what you think of me?" Orion finally asked, unable to help himself. "That I make sweeping statements that aren't true?"

"Oh, no," Evanson said, and gave him one moment of balance before he grinned wickedly. "The particular statements you make aren't true, either."

"A-tick¬-ular," Regulus said, charmed by the sound of a word the way he sometimes was. From the soft smile Evanson gave him, he was as bewitched as most members of Orion's family were.

"That's right," Evanson said, and the look he flung at Orion couldn't be called anything but challenging, even as he suspected that Evanson might be softening it for the sake of his children. "Your father is many things, but subtle and polite aren't any of them."

"You wrong me," Orion said, and made sure to keep his face polite and his voice mild. "I am telling the truth when I say that I enjoy your company."

Evanson snorted, and turned back to Prince. Orion resigned himself to watching, and to sometimes answering questions about his sons. Honestly, this would take longer than he'd thought.

"Why was he so strange and rude? Why did you want to go over to the house if Mr. Black is so rude?"

"For Mr. Black's children," Harry said, and ruffled Severus's hair. Severus was still leaning against him after they had Apparated back to Laocoon's shop, and showed no inclination to move away yet. "Children can't help who their parents are, but I might be able to help them."

"But I come first." Severus stared up at him with searching dark eyes.

Harry knelt to embrace him. "You do." He caught a glimpse of the lightning bolt scar on Severus's forehead as his hair moved, but he forced himself to ignore that and just smile at Severus. "You always will."

Severus relaxed enough to stick his thumb in his mouth, and Harry kept holding him, while he stared at the wall and replayed the breakfast at Grimmauld Place in his head. He ended up thinking the same things he had at the time: Sirius was cute, Regulus was adorable, he wanted to be around them, and Orion Black was an arse.

Ah, well. It was a small price to pay to be Sirius and Regulus's tutor.