June 6th 1988

"I'm afraid that you shall find him quite changed," said Lucius conversationally as we sat in his study and drank tea. "He's grownup considerably since you left and not in a agreeable way either."

I frowned, it had only been just over three months. "But of course," I reminded him. "Draco's had a lot of changes forced upon him. Yes, I know I'm to blame as much as anybody," I put in quickly as Lucius started to look smug. "But you can't expect him not to be unsettled by all of this. He's had to deal with a new person coming into his life as well and that isn't easy for any child." I quickly took a deep breath, feeling myself getting worked up, and willed myself to stay under control. Finding tranquillity in the bottom of my wineglass for a moment, I turned my attention back to the man who had once been both my best friend and my employer, now he was neither.

"Please," I said. "Tell me about the new man. What's his name? Dr Southard, isn't it?"

"Oh, he's fantastic," Lucius assured me enthusiastically. "Really wonderful with Draco…" he paused for a second frowning. "Or at least he tries to be. He's worked with problematic children before, you see, so he knows how to deal with them."

"Draco is not problematic!" I stormed, my fists clenching into angry balls in my lap. "He would be perfectly fine if you would only leave him alone. If you stopped treating him like a dog and more like the vivacious, clever little boy he is, maybe you would start to see that."

Lucius' grey eyes narrowed into snake-like slits. "So you think wetting the bed at the age of eight is perfectly normal, do you?" he hissed. "You don't think there's anything wrong with that?"

My first instinct was to ask how on earth he knew that, but then it struck me; apart from a couple of perfectly understandable incidents, the only tie I could really recall Draco wetting the bed was when he was five…that particular evening sticks in my mind vividly to this very day.

"How long has this been going on?" I managed to ask, leaning forward in concern. "Not long, I'm sure. Do you have any idea why?"

But Lucius merely shrugged. "Merlin knows," he sighed unhelpfully. "It could be anything…"He shot me a complacent, smug look, "It's probably your fault. You did upset him terribly and has you said, he has had to deal with a lot of hard changes."

My cutting retort was, unfortunately, silenced by a loud and rather impatient rap on the door, followed quickly by the head of a man who bore an uncanny resemblance to the water rat out of 'Wind in the Willows'.

"I'm sorry to bother you, Mr. Malfoy," he said in a voice best described as 'nazely'. "But I'm afraid there's a bit of a problem…"

"Can't you sort it out yourself?" Lucius snapped angrily, fixing the man with a look that made him wither. "What do you think I'm paying you for?"

"I-I'm sorry Mr. Malfoy," the man stammered, fidgeting nervously. "But it's an emergency."

"An emergency!" scoffed Lucius, rising to his feet and heading towards the door. "What's he done now? Set fire to the curtains?"

We heard him muttering irritably all the way down the corridor, leaving myself and my…replacement' looking awkwardly at each other.

"So," I said, breaking the unbearably loud silence. "Dr Southard, isn't it?"

"Yes," the man and quickly stuck out his hand for me to shake, a rather excitable grin spread across his ratty face. "And you are Severus Snape?" I raised an eyebrow curiously, silently querying how he knew who I was.

Dr Southard was, apparently, not as incompetent as he looked, for he laughed at my incredulous expression. "Draco talks about you all the time," he explained, smartly bringing us both onto common ground. "It's always 'Sir says this' and 'Sir did that'," Dr Southard chatted on as though we had know each other longer, at least, than five minutes. " In the end, I had to ask Mr Malfoy who this 'Sir' was and he said-" he coughed, suddenly embarrassed.

To be honest, I didn't particularly want to know what things Lucius had been spreading about me, although I was interested in the fact that Draco was, or had been, talking about me. Maybe that meant he didn't hate me as much as I feared…

"So what do you think of Draco then?" I asked conversationally, secretly hoping that he would turn out to be an evil bastard. "I heard that you specialise in difficult children, do you find him difficult?"

Dr Southard looked mildly surprised that I had even questioned it. "You disagree then? You consider the boy perfectly normal?" He surveyed me from behind his spectacles in, what I found to be, a most unnerving fashion.

"Well," I considered my words carefully. "I admit he is not without his issues, but you can hardly blame Draco for-"

" I am not here to blame anyone," Dr Southard interrupted smoothly with an amused smile. "The reason why Draco is such a difficult child is of no importance to me, all I am trying to do is help. I specialise in little boys like Draco, Mr Snape, I know what I am doing."

I suppose I couldn't really argue with that and he did seem genuinely nice and I found myself warming to the man who now filled the place in Draco's life which had once (and in my opinion still should be) mine, despite previously convincing myself that nothing would persuade me to do so.

"Please excuse me if I am speaking out of line," Dr Southard said, his voice lowered to a conspiratorial whisper. "But, why exactly did you leave? I have heard a mixture of different stories and I am intrigued as to what really happened. Please indulge my curiosity if you will."

I considered him for a moment, then turned away. "A difference of opinion," I replied coolly. "Nothing more."

Dr Southard was obviously disappointed with my succinct answer, probably longing to here all the nasty little details. Not that I blamed him, of course, I would be exactly the same if our roles were reversed. Nothing more the mankind's insatiable curiosity for which we are renowned.

"Forgive me," I continued, in an effort to clear the air, so to speak. "But I would rather you didn't ask about that. It's a rather difficult topic for me to talk about."

He nodded, "I understand. I suppose that's why Mr Malfoy wanted a professional; somebody who wouldn't get emotionally involved with Draco."

At this, I bristled; why on earth couldn't anybody understand that that's exactly what Draco did need. I couldn't understand how anyone could fail to see that, especially this man who claimed to be a professional.

But I didn't blame him for not wanting to do anything that might jeopardise his position. He, unlike myself, had both a reputation and a career to uphold and bad reference from Lucius Malfoy could easily destroy both.

"Why did you take this job?" I asked, genuinely interested.

Dr Southard shrugged, "I needed the money, I didn't get on very well with the previous family I worked with and I thought this would be interesting." He sighed then laughed, "Well, it certainly is that and the money is excellent."

Of course, it was all for the money. After all, isn't that why people did unpleasant, unrewarding jobs? For the money? Why else would anyone do them?

It was only then, I think, that I full appreciated the saying 'money can't buy you verything'.

A/N: Firstly, my deepest most sincerest apologies for taking a millenium, although i have said many times not to expect frequent updates. Alot has been going on and on top of that Lucius and Sev have been behaving very badly. It seems that fame, at long last, has gone to their heads and they seem to think that they ought to be paid. I can even threaten to delete them because, as we all know, they belong to JK and not me. (alas!) But, they finally stopped calling each other 'Asses' and allowed me to write the chapter :-)

Lily xxx