Summer 1979

After Regulus Black had graduated, he immediately joined the Death Eaters. This gave Lord Voldemort access to Crouch, Jr which he hoped would provide him with leverage on Crouch, Sr.

Evan's sister Bronwyn, married Erwin's brother Edmund.

When Florence wasn't portkeying back and forth to Evan's sitting room in Britain, she hung out with Pandora Lovegood, a British witch who was doing research at the Experimental Medical Wizarding Hospital in Iowa City, her husband, Xeno, and her brother Solomon.

Severus was working with Damocles Belby on a lycanthropy management potion at St. Mungo's as part of his Healer Training. Normally, this kind of research work would come after a Healer had completed his training, but there had been an increase in werewolf attacks.

Their current experiment was testing the effect of the moon on the wolfsbane flowers they were using in a potion to reduce the savagery of the wolf form of a werewolf. Six cauldrons were lined up, each containing flowers gathered at a different phase of the moon. Severus went methodically from cauldron to cauldron, stirring each one, and noting the results on the scroll next to each one.

Belby showed up at the doorway, but remained quiet until Snape had finished with all six. "I wish I could get Lily over here, too. Any chance you could put in a good word for me?" Damocles had been delighted when Severus had turned up in the Healer program, but he had expected to get Lily too. He had been disappointed when she had gone to the Department of Mysteries instead.

"Don't give up," said Severus. "I can see her ending up back here. But she's a bit distracted with Rookwood at the moment." Actually, the distraction was not Rookwood. They were once more brewing Felix Felicis together.

The Hogs Head had a reputation as a Death Eater hang-out, but that wasn't completely true. Mainly, it was a hang-out for the kind of people who weren't welcome at the Three Broomsticks. There were quite a few Death Eaters that never darkened the door of the Hogs Head, such as Lucius Malfoy and Evan Rosier. They continued to manage their patronages with Hogwarts students from the Three Broomsticks, as usual, on Hogsmeade weekends.

Orion found out what his son, Regulus, had done when his great-grandfather, former Hogwarts headmaster Phineas Nigellus Black, visited the portrait he had at Grimmauld Place.

"How do you know?" Orion asked the portrait.

"Bartemious Crouch Jr was bragging about it. The Pretender may even be using a liege mark, if I heard what I thought I did. Let us hope that Junior was 'embellishing' the truth."

"Regulus! Come here."

"Yes, father." Regulus entered the room, and came face to face with his great-great-grandfather in the portrait. He dipped his head shallowly, and said "Sir," in greeting.

"Young man, are you a Death Eater?" asked the portrait point blank, without preamble.

"Yes, sir," Regulus answered, proudly. He knew his father would disapprove, but surely former Slytherin Headmaster of Hogwarts Phineas Nigellus Black would understand.

But Phineas did not look pleased. "Has he marked you, boy?"

Regulus lips tightened, and stood straight and tall. "I bear his liege mark, sir," he said stiffly, revealing his left forearm.

"Idiot boy! Why would you mark yourself for a half-blood?"

Orion remembered a Slug club meeting in the 1940's.

Orion Black, Abraxas Malfoy, and Ernest Macmillan were looking at the ring Tom Riddle had brought back to Hogwarts that year. Macmillan, a Hufflepuff, was in training to take care of the Macmillan clan's collection of artefacts. He examined the coat of arms carefully.

"It's the Peverell ring, all right," he confirmed. "And according to our records, it should be in the Gaunt family now."

"How do you know?" asked Abraxas. "It's not a Macmillan artefact."

"No, it isn't," answered Ernest. "Tom asked me to look it up because I know where all the records are kept."

"Sluggy recognized it," said Tom. "I'm from the House of Gaunt. I got this from my uncle over the summer."

"Gaunt is directly descended from Slytherin himself," said Abraxas. "According to 'Nature's Nobility', they're in line to be heirs of Slytherin himself."

"That's all very well," sneered Orion. "But why were you left at the Muggle orphanage, then? And why did your mother give your name as Riddle? Your father, at least, wasn't pureblood. Is that why you want to be called "Lord Voldemort?"

Riddle had graduated from Hogwarts, and Orion had heard nothing about him for over a decade. Then he had started to hear rumors about a Lord Voldemort again. He had piled on every security measure he could learn about on 12 Grimmauld Place.

Severus and Avery were sitting at a booth at the Hogs Head. Severus regularly did errands there for Rosier. But Evan didn't know about this one. He would never have allowed it.

"Do you have it?" asked Severus. Avery passed a small flask of golden liquid over to him.

Severus unstoppered it, smelled it, and then cast an analysis charm. "This is very low quality. I thought you said it was from Slughorn's stores." He was bluffing. The analysis spell could only identify the potion.

"It is. He claims to have made it himself." Avery didn't care about Snape's blood status, but losing him at the end of fifth year had smarted, not to mention costing him his alliance with Lucius Malfoy.

The two Slytherins glared at each other, distrust etched on both their faces.

"Very well," said Snape. "But it still isn't high enough quality for our original agreement." He put a pile of Gold Galleons on the table. "I'll pay for it, but I won't do the spell."

Avery stared at the small fortune on the table. He lusted for the money. But he wanted the spell work more. "Then I'll have to take this to Bellatrix," he said, grabbing the flask, which Snape did not release from his grasp.

"Choose, Avery. The money or the spell." Both wizards were holding the flask.

"The spell," he answered. After the little demonstration he had planned, he'd be making his own money. Not as much initially as Snape had laid on the table, but more consistently. It would add up.

Severus let go of the flask, and swept the money back into a pouch he put in this robes. He was not sure their supply of Felix would last the entire six months until the new batch was ready. Not to mention the very real possibility that something could go wrong during the brewing. The Dark Lord was a Legilimens, and Evan was just not that good at occluding. So far, the Luck potion was their only defense, such as it was.

For a moment, Severus thought Avery might reconsider. But then he grinned. "It'll be like old times."

"Indeed," answered Severus, "but you don't mind setting the terms with an Unbreakable Vow, do you?"

Avery laughed. He didn't blame Snape for not trusting him. "Who do you want to be the witness?"

"Your audience is in the Shrieking Shack, is it not? I'm sure any of them would do."

They apparated to the Shack, appearing in front of a small group of people who looked related.

"I shall set the terms," Severus told Avery. "You require a demonstration of Crucio on a witch or wizard, and I require this flask of Felix Felicius. Is this correct?"

Avery nodded.

A wizard who looked like the oldest one in the terrified group stepped forward. "I'll be your example, Mudblood," he spat at Snape.

"Fine with me," said Avery. "But first, you can witness the Unbreakable Vow."

The old Wizard looked at the two wizards, the inscrutable low-blood and the thuggish pureblood. "I'm ready."

Snape and Avery clasped hands around the flask of Felix Felicis.

"Will you provide me with this flask of Felix Felicis that we are both clasping?"

"Providing that I successfully perform the Crucio curse on any witch or wizard in this room?

"Within the next half hour?"

Avery smiled and answered, "I will" after each question.

After the light from the magical bonds had faded, Snape took the flask out of Avery's hand and put it in a pocket in his robe.

He took out his wand and faced the old wizard. "I'm not quite a Mudblood," he corrected him. "My mother was a witch."

Then he turned to Avery. "Crucio," he cast. He disapparated from the Shrieking Shack to the sound of Avery's screams.

Notes:

I'm not going to use the Deathly Hallows. JKR put them in way too late, and I'm not going to try to make them fit, especially since they don't help to make sense of any of the holes JKR left. In HBP, Marvolo Gaunt thinks it is engraved with the Peverell coat of arms, and I'm going with that.

In OotP, Sirius Black says, "My father put every security measure known to Wizard-kind on it when he lived here."