Severus glared grumpily at the pile of newts. There must have been hundreds of them, and it would take hours to dissect them all properly. He pulled out a scalpel.

Brains in one jar, eyeballs in another.

Skin and heartstrings on a rack to dry.

This type of chore wasn’t unusual at the apothecary. Severus almost smiled at the thought of his classmates willingly doing this type of job; it was too similar to Professor Slughorn’s dreaded detentions. He carefully collected each bone and made a mental note to dry them before finishing tonight, lest he be caught ‘wasting ingredients’ again. He had no wish for a repeat of that beating.

Severus had been working at Boris Jenkins’s apothecary since he was six. Severus supposed this was unusual, but he had no real wish to quit. He couldn’t imagine it being easy for a twelve-year-old to find a new job, let alone one better than this. Boris may be strict and obnoxious, but things could be a lot worse; Severus knew that very well.

The job began with an inauspicious start. Eileen, Severus’ mother, had sent him to fetch her some ‘medicine’. Even at six, Severus knew very well that the grey potion was not medicinal, but an addictive and illegal hallucinogen called ‘Thestral’s Breath’. He did know that she ‘needed’ it though, because otherwise he would come home to find her dry retching on the mattress. She would be completely incapable of working, and their meager supply of sickles would dry up. He figured that he might be able to survive on however much food he could scavenge for or steal, but he had no idea how to find enough money to pay the landlord.

So the six-year-old Severus had crept into the apothecary while the owner, Boris Jenkins, was serving a customer. The potion was in the back room, away from the eyes of aurors. The moment his hand clasped around the vial, a deafening alarm sounded and Severus froze in terror.

“What the hell do you think you’re doing, boy! You think you can steal from me? Ha!”

The large man grabbed Severus’s wrist hard enough to bruise and slapped him. Severus cried out and struggled to escape.

"No! M'sorry! Lemme go! Please!"

"You've earned yourself a whipping, thief-boy!"

He unbuckled his belt with one hand, holding Severus's wrist firmly with the other. Severus's breath was coming in short, panicky gasps and tears were dripping down his cheeks. Boris pinned him against the worktable.

Crack!

Severus yelled in pain and frantically tried to escape. The beating continued until Boris's arm began to tire. Severus was sobbing too hard to run home now, especially since his mother was unlikely to be sympathetic if he returned without the potion. His backside felt like it was on fire, and moving seemed make it worse. He carefully eyed Boris to check whether any more violence would be forthcoming, but the man seemed to have calmed down (and had rebuckled his belt), and was now moving a dirty cauldron to the sink. Severus stood up gingerly and tried to control his breathing.

"Aren't you a little young for Thestral's Breath anyway?"

"My m-mother needs it, sir." said Severus warily. He inched towards the door.

Boris snorted, "Does she now? Well... If you really want a vial... I'd be willing to give you one if you could do some chores around here to pay it off."

Severus looked up warily. "I could have one? What would you need me to do?"

"It'll take you a week to pay it off. I have plenty of things I've been too busy to clean, the shelves need tidying and, if you aren't a total incompetent, you might be able to help me while I'm brewing."

Severus agreed. The chores didn't seem too hard, and it would be worth it if Mother could have her potion. But there was one very important question.

"You're not going to whip me again, are you?" he asked nervously.

Boris smirked, "Only if you deserve it. And trust me, any more stealing and you'll wish you'd never been born."

On the first two days, Severus worked on the cleaning. Boris must have approved of his work, because he could not come up with anything to criticize. Severus was terribly bored, and the detergent made his hands sting, but he made sure to get every last smudge out of all the equipment. The chore for the third day was to stick parchment labels onto the newly cleaned vials, jars and bottles. First Severus cut parchment into small rectangles with a scalpel, then he helped Boris make glue. The glue recipe was quite simple - Boris simply threw a number of ingredients into the cauldron, and instructed Severus to stir it until all the lumps were gone. It was a relief to finally stop stirring, even if the next task was the painstaking and repetitive one of sticking on the labels. They had to be perfectly horizontal and smooth, or Boris would rip them off. Severus looked longingly out the window. He really wanted to go play gobstones with his friends and to pinch an apple from the market. It was worth it though, if it made Mother happy. On the fourth day, Severus dusted the shelves while Boris brewed new potions.

"Boy! Fetch me some aconite!", Boris called while busily creating a potion.

"Umm... What does it look like?"

"The shelves are organised alphabetically - just read the label, for Merlin's sake!"

"Errr... Well... I don't know all the letters yet.."

"Well what use are you then, Idiot-Boy?" He sighed, and pulled out a quill. While still stirring with one hand, he neatly wrote out the name. "A-C-O-N-I-T-E. Just look for those letters on the label."

Despite not being able to read, Boris must have found Severus to be a useful assistant, because once the week was finished he offered Severus some more work, this time for pay. The offer was too good to refuse. If he had money, he could buy food, and potions for Mother when she needed them, and pay the rent too. To begin with, the job was two days per week, but as Severus grew older and more experienced, there were more tasks he could take over so he ended up working more and more. His old friends didn't approve; they felt that he had rejected them because he felt superior for having a job. Mother most definitely approved though. She was proud of her 'little boy' helping out with the finances. Severus soon found that he needed to hide the rent and grocery money where Mother couldn't find it, because it had a habit of going missing.

Severus frowned at the newt he was disemboweling. Mother was still terrible at looking after money. Severus wasn't quite sure how she'd managed to look after herself while he was at school last year, and he was anxious at the thought of leaving her alone for a whole term. She had lost weight since the previous holidays, and there were two warning letters from the landlord. It was her state of mind that worried Severus the most though. While Severus was at home, he had been careful not to let her near too much of his money, so she had only been able to purchase a limited supply of drugs. After she had taken a dose, Severus was accustomed to the hallucinations and illogical behaviour, and he did his best to keep her out of the way of any dangers. Left on her own, Eileen's addiction had multiplied and Severus wasn't sure when one dose ended and another one began. There was little of her personality left and Severus wasn't even sure she realized that he was there; she had been too caught up in her imaginary world. He had no idea how she was going to cope without him next term, but tried to convince himself that she would be fine. She was a adult, after all.