Part 8

"Professor Snape?" the beaming man on the doorstep was not at all what Severus was expecting when he opened the door. "Delighted, Hermione has told us all about you."

Severus felt a shiver of unease run down his spine at Mr Granger's words and he wondered just what his bushy-haired daughter had been saying about him. The daughter in question stepped around her father, at least Severus assumed it was Hermione, it was rather hard to tell who was behind the wobbling tower of books.

"We just wanted to make sure that she got here safe and sound," Mrs Granger said with a hesitant smile. He caught her discreet glance behind him and realised that she and her husband were expecting an invitation into his home as well.

Hermione's pile of books teetered towards him and he stepped forward to prevent them falling to the ground, thus clearing the way for her parents to move past him and into the house.

Five minutes later and Severus was seated in his living room opposite the Grangers. Hermione had swooped in on his own favourite seat, and he had been quick to direct her parents to the mousetrap free couch. Unfortunately that meant he was perched on the end of the chair that he normally relegated Wormtail to, with a mousetrap ready to be sprung if he moved even an inch further backwards.

"We can't tell you how excited Hermione was when she received your owl offering tutoring during the holidays," Mrs Granger gushed as her husband looked around the room with an assessing gaze.

"I wanted to ask you about a few points I wasn't sure of in my essay," Hermione said as she thumbed through one of her books.

"Your essay was perfectly acceptable," Severus stated in as neutral a tone as he could manage.

"You didn't think that perhaps I should have mentioned…"

"It didn't need anything else adding," Severus interrupted in a slightly harsher tone that raised the eyebrows of Mrs Granger who cast a worried look in the direction of her husband.

Hermione opened her mouth as if to say something, closed it again and then closed the book she had opened, although Severus was quick to spot that she had kept her finger between the pages and had a sneaking suspicion that he hadn't heard the last about her essay.

The sooner this lesson was over with, the more time he would have for rest and relaxation without the constant twitterings of unwanted visitors and houseguests.

"Perhaps if you could explain how these holiday lessons are going to work?" Mrs Granger asked as Hermione nodded eagerly.

Severus felt relief that he'd taken the extra time to think this through as he explained that the lessons would take the form of a short lecture followed by a practical potions lesson in his basement laboratory.

"What time should we call to collect Hermione?" Mrs Granger asked. "Three o'clock?"

"Eleven," Severus replied, knowing five hours in the company of Miss Granger was more than he could stomach.

"Will that be long enough to get started on the more complicated potions?" Hermione queried. Severus scowled as he realised that she was probably right and amended the time to noon. It would still give him plenty of time to relax before Wormtail returned.

Ten minutes later and the elder Grangers were on their way, though Severus sensed they still had some reservations about leaving their daughter to his care for even a couple of hours. What did they think he was going to do to her? Test his experimental potions on her? Tempting as the thought might be.

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Wormtail arrived at the Lestrange house, still no wiser about what his mission was than he'd been when he left Spinners End.

"About time," Bellatrix muttered as she swept into the parlour, where Wormtail had been told to wait by the house elf. "I take it you've already seen the news about the attacks?"

Wormtail looked blank.

"In York?" Bellatrix tried.

Still nothing was registering on Wormtail's face.

"It was on the front page of the Daily Prophet this morning!" Bellatrix exclaimed with exasperation. She pointed at a tray across the room where a copy of the newspaper rested alongside some biscuits and a pot of steaming tea.

Wormtail scurried across the room and helped himself to a biscuit.

"They're for the guests," Bellatrix hissed, rushing across the room and slapping his hand as he reached for a second one.

"Aren't I a guest?" Wormtail asked between bites.

"No!" Bellatrix picked up the newspaper and slapped it into Wormtail's hand. "You're here to work."

"Doing what?" Wormtail asked as he flicked through the paper for hints as to what it was he was meant to be working at.

"Try the front page," Bellatrix advised with a long-suffering sigh.

"Werewolves in York?" asked Wormtail, shrugging his shoulders, failing to see how it had anything to do with him.

"At last!" Bellatrix rolled her eyes. "They're running amok and as the Dark Lord's Werewolf Tamer it's your job to go and sort them out. They're risking exposing our world and are attacking at random instead of on the Dark Lord's orders."

"Werewolf Tamer?" Wormtail squeaked.

"This is the name of the place where they usually hang out," Bellatrix said as she passed him a piece of paper, pointedly ignoring his increasingly hysterical sounding mutterings. "I suggest you get there before moonrise."

Wormtail looked at the paper, muttered "werewolf tamer?" one more time and dropped to the floor in a dead faint.

"Damn," Bellatrix sighed and looked at the clock on the wall. "Couldn't he have stayed conscious for three more minutes?"

"Told you he didn't know anything about it," Rodolphus gloated as he came into the room.

"Snape must have put him up for it without telling him," Bellatrix snickered.

Rodolphus pulled out his pocket watch and made a show of looking at it. "According to my timing Goyle wins the pool for nearest guess on how long before he passed out."

"Just three more minutes and I'd have…" Bellatrix kicked Wormtail with the toe of her shoe.

"You should have let him have a second biscuit," Rodolphus advised with a deep laugh.