Replay-HP and Co.-Starlight, Starbright: Recollections : The Mini-Malfoy Incident (2) [Episode 134799]

Yes, Potion-Brewer, I am not one of your insanely inane "helpers" I hear you screaming at day and night sometimes, and you do not have to belabor the obvious that much.

Really. Truly.

"Look at the color of the scales over there. And the curve of the serpent's neck. ...A bit sloppy, there."

Perhaps. Or perhaps somebody was getting...cute.

Oh, well, Tom Riddle thought, trying to get the kinks out of his neck. Not Grindelwalds, not the Scarlet Talon's, and not even close to any other Dark Mark he'd ever heard of, and when it came to those things, he really was an master, if he said so himself.

...Well, everybody needed an hobby, right?

.......More then one, if possible, of course.

So. It was a replica of his Mark, and a reasonably passible one, too.

Damn.

They'd been sitting out there on rooftops for more then 6 hours, and all they'd gotten was a look at an fading Mark in the distance. Which was still better then what they had started out with, he supposed...

But not much, frankly.

"We shall call it a day, Potion Brewer. ---Compose a report, later, and add any observations we needs must make there, all right?"

Severus Snape was useful at times, he had to admit---but dealing with him could be exasperating beyond words. How that boy could go on and on about matters both minimal and trival...Or not. It was just that trying to sort the wheat from the husks were almost impossible, with all the nattering going on...

He frankly wondered how---other people---coped with him at all, sometimes.

"---Severus?"

"...Ahh... Yessir?"

"---Yes, Severus. Back. Sleep first. All right?"

One day he would get the boy a potion lab with lots and lots of lab assistants, with standing orders to wash his hair at regular intervals. And cast whitening spells on his teeth.

It would be so worth it, just so he could leave the Snape-handling to other people....

Why couldn't the boy be more like his father? That man had at the very least had the sense to try to look presentable, at least sometimes.

Though he's been as stupid as an ox, in some fundemental way. Well, more like his grandfather, then?

"...Master?"

Ahh, what the hell.

"---Scorgify."

Not that Severus's hair would go anything reasonable as stay clean---or less greasy-looking, anyway. He knew for a fact that this particular Snape did wash his hair after every batch of heavy-duty Brewing---for any length of time, or anything. Of course not.

Anything to aggreviate, eh, Severus?

Not that that stopped him from conjuring a towel and wiping his spluttering Potion Master dry, of course.

Anything done, should be done right.

Just because it had been somethings the nuns had said upon occasion didn't make it wrong...

And now, home.

Such as it was.

Tom Riddle slowly and queitly trugged down the darkened street.. where Knockturn Alley petered out at long last, and West Hogsmeade Sixth Avenue began.

Just a little more, now.

The little Apothecary's light shimmered lightly over the snoozing auburn head of an young man...

"---Mr Bannerly. I do not pay you to sleep on duty."

Home.