Draco glanced at Severus's imposing figure as he held the stirring rod over the potion.  "Why do I have to do it?"

"Because you're not shaking," Tevin pointed out. 

Draco saw Severus try to hold back a grin at his son's frustration.  Then, the blonde gathered himself and stirred in a figure eight pattern twice.  He held his breath as he completed the motion.  He did the rest of the step and then looked at Tevin.  They both leaned forward to look into the cauldron that they'd spent the last few hours hovering over as Severus watched them.  Tevin bit his lip as he stared into the liquid, and then looked at Draco again. 

"Do we have to stay here and watch it for fifteen minutes?" whispered Tevin.

"Do you have somewhere more important to be?" 

"Watching the Quidditch game," grumbled Draco.

"Will you be willing to walk out of your exams when you both are admitted to Hogwarts, or will you stay until you finish them?" Severus asked with a small smirk. 

"If we don't stay we fail," said Tevin in alarm.

"That's right."

Draco sighed.  "Father told me that he's thinking of sending me somewhere else for school."

Tevin looked at Draco in horror.  "What?" he shouted.  "Why would he do that?  He can't split us up."

"Yeah he can," said Draco, miserably.  "He doesn't trust Dumbledore."

"Headmaster Dumbledore, Draco," corrected Severus.  Draco glared at him before looking back at Tevin.

"He said that if someone that lets mudbloods-"

"Draco," growled Severus in a warning tone.

"-muggleborns," amended Draco with obvious reluctance, "to this place, then Father wants me to have no part in it."

Tevin looked back into the cauldron, then up at his father.  He saw the veiled sadness in his father's eyes, and he knew the reason for it.  There were times that Tevin didn't like Draco or his parents, and it was always when they insulted witches or wizards that were not purebloods.  "Well," Tevin began quietly.  "My mum's muggleborn."

"Yeah, but she's at least useful."

"What does useful have to do with anything?" shouted Tevin.  He faced Draco heatedly, his lips set in a thin line.  "Think of Crabbe and Goyle!  They can barely read, nevermind do this," he said, gesturing to their cauldron.  "I'm a half-blood and am keeping up just fine with you with these potions."  Draco stared at Tevin as though his best friend had just slapped him.  Tevin looked at the potion, remembering that Severus had told him many times that his real mother had been just as skilled in potion-making as he was.  Tevin was proud to have inherited some things from his mother.  "Just because you're a pureblood doesn't make you better than everyone else."  With that, Tevin hauled himself off the floor, taking the first year potions textbook with him, and he left the brewing lab and went into their home in the castle, not even botheringn to close the door behind him. 

Draco felt his eyes tear up as he stared into the potion again, refusing to move from his spot.  He knew that Tevin's father still stood at the other door, willing to wait out the time to test their potion.  The potion began to resemble an orange paste.  He knew why Severus had them brew this potion.  They both had been burned in their last attempt at making a potion.  This was the Burn-Healing Potion.  Draco had a small burn on his arm near his elbow.  He also knew that Tevin had burned the back of his hand trying to save the other ingredients.  Thinking about it made him feel worse for believing what his father had been drilling into his mind about purebloods.  Draco knew that Tevin may even be better at potions than him. 

Suddenly, Draco heard Severus's voice from right next to him.  "It's been fifteen minutes, Draco."  Draco refused to look at him.  He saw the Severus had placed a large jar next to him.  "Please put it in that.  I have to go and check on Tevin." 

Draco stared at the empty jar long after the lab had grown silent since Severus left it. 

Tevin strode angrily through his father's room and threw open the door into his own.  Before really entering, he shouted and threw the textbook.  He heard an animalistic sound of surprise and then a blur of white ran from his room.  "No, no," Tevin shouted, not realizing that he was scaring the kneazle more.  He followed it into the parlor.  "Minnie, wait, come back.  I'm sorry."  He began to approach the kneazle that was seeking shelter in the corner of the room. 

"Tevin?"

He swung his head towards the kitchen and saw Ophelia.  She was in the middle of cooking something it seemed.  Her hands were dusted in flour and her hair was slightly disheveled.  "How did the potion go?"

Tevin tried to stop his trembling lip by biting it.  He shrugged his shoulders as he looked down at the floor.  "Come here," she said.  He walked over to the counter where he discovered that she was making a pie.  "Tevin," she said, gently.  "Look at me."

Tevin raised his head and tried to keep himself under control.  Ophelia seemed to study him for a moment before returning to the task of making a lattice top on the pie.  "Did you and Draco finish the potion?"

"I think."

Ophelia looked out the side of her eyes at him.  "You think?" 

"I got mad and left before it was done."

Ophelia pretended that they were talking about his last flying lesson with Madam Hooch instead of the real topic of conversation as she continued with her pie.  "What happened that made you mad?"

"Well..."  Tevin shuffled his feet.  "I got mad at Draco."

Ophelia stopped for only a second before she kept working.  "Why?"

Tevin was quiet for longer than he should have been.  Finally, Ophelia looked at the seven-year-old.  "Why did you get mad at Draco, Tevin?"

"He said that he wasn't going to come to Hogwarts for school because his father says that he shouldn't have to go to school with muggleborns."

Ophelia was beginning to understand the problem.  It was a recurring one between their family and the Malfoys.  "Tevin, some people just have prejudices against others that they just have a very hard time ignoring."  She knew what that was like.  Even after years as Severus's wife, Lucius and Narcissa were still less than warm to her.  Thankfully, they liked Tevin well enough, but when it came to the muggleborn mother of Severus' son, it was something entirely different.  "Some people just refuse to change."

"But Draco's my best friend.  How can we be friends if he hates everyone who's not a pureblood?"

Ophelia stopped working on the pie and looked at Tevin fully.  "I'm sure he doesn't hate everyone that's not pureblood.  He likes you."

"But I'm half pureblood." 

"Tevin," Ophelia reached out and tilted Tevin's head back with her fingertips.  "Just because wizards like the Malfoys don't like muggles, or muggleborns, or even most half-bloods...that doesn't mean that you should not like them.  If you started to hate all of the purebloods in the world then you would be just as bad as they are."

"But they're not bad."

Ophelia smiled sadly.  "No, they're not really bad.  They're just...uninformed."  Tevin looked at her in confusion.  "Did you say anything to Draco?"

"I told him that I'm a half-blood and was doing just as good as him.  Then, I said that Crabbe and Goyle can barely read - and that they're purebloods."

"See?  You're already ahead of some pureblood twits, even though those two are certainly not the most intelligent examples of pureblood wizards."

Tevin smiled at her.  "Yeah, they're both pretty stupid."

Ophelia smiled at him, then she pulled one of the kitchen chairs to the counter.  "You want to help me finish this pie?"

Tevin nodded and then climbed up onto the chair so that he could see the top of the counter.  They slowly began to work on the pie quietly.  It was when they were putting the pie into the oven, which Severus insisted on having in their home, that Tevin spoke again.  "Fay, do you think Draco will ever change?"

Ophelia closed the oven and then brushed the flour on her hands all over her skirt, not caring that she made it dirty.  "If he's really your friend, and if being friends means that much to him, then he will change."

Tevin looked desperately hopeful.  "How do you know?"

Ophelia offered him a tender smile.  "Because a long time ago there was a wizard who was corrupted into thinking like that, and it almost cost him his best friend.  He realized that she was more important to him than any blood status, that she was better than so many other wizards and witches that were anything other than pureblood.  And so he changed for her."

"Did you know him?"

She nodded.  "Yes, I did."

"Who was he?"

There was a pause as Ophelia looked long at Tevin, at Severus's boy.  "He was your father."

Severus walked into his home just as Ophelia told his son about how he had changed his ways for Lily.  He was reluctant to interrupt. 

"Really?" 

Ophelia was still looking at Tevin, who was beaming up at her.  "Yes," she said.

"So, Draco might end up liking muggleborns?"

Ophelia laughed then.  "I wouldn't go that far, Tevin, but he may not hate them eventually."

When he heard Tevin laughing, Severus knew he could reveal his presence.  "Tevin, come here."  His son smiled at him as he obeyed.  "The potion you both made was correct." 

"Really?"

Severus nodded.  Tevin launched himself at his father and held onto him.  Severus returned the embrace slowly.  "Dad?" Tevin asked against him.  Then, he pulled away as he looked up at him.  "Is it true that you once hated everybody not a pureblood?"

"I didn't hate them, Tevin.  I..."  He was not enthused about broaching this topic with his son.  "I was...When I was in school, things were less than pleasant.  There was someone on the rise to power," he stopped abruptly.  He wondered if his son was ready to hear this.  He looked at Ophelia, who nodded at him.  "He was a very bad wizard, and he was against...he felt that anyone that was not of pure blood status was a threat to the Wizarding World, and he...thought they had no place in our world.  So, he wanted to..." He looked down at Tevin and saw that he was staring up at him with his brown eyes, listening to every syllable he said.  "He began to pick people to join his side."

"Like quidditch tryouts?"

Severus winced.  "Not exactly like quidditch tryouts.  He would use threats and sometimes he would send your friends to try to convince you to join their side.  This dark...lord...was very cruel to muggleborns and half-bloods.  He would hurt them very badly, and sometimes he would kill them."

"Did you get hurt?"

"Yes.  I was hurt very badly before I agreed to join him."

Tevin looked at him in horror.  "Why would you do that?"

"Because I was...trapped.  When he wanted something, he did not stop until he got it.  And he wanted me.  I was hunted for a very long time before I was caught and...brought to him."  Severus swallowed thickly.  "There were very few things you could refuse him, and even I gave in."  His son was still looking at him in horror. 

"But Fay said you changed for mum." 

Severus nodded.  "I did change.  But I changed long before I was brought to that bad wizard.  I was pressured by my housemates into believing things that no one should, that non-purebloods were inferior."

"But you aren't a pureblood."

"No, I'm not, but sometimes you have to pretend to be something you're not in order to have friends that will help you and to stay out of trouble."  Severus took a deep breath.  "Tevin, one day when you are a student in Hogwarts, you will understand better what I'm trying to tell you.  There will be students that are prejudiced against other students for no other reason than that they might be different from everyone else, or that they were born to muggle parents, or that they are completely devoted to their education rather than sports, but more than that there will always be students that will dislike others simply for being sorted into a different house.  Friendships have been strained and even ruined because of problems and issues between houses."

"That's stupid.  If...Draco or Crabbe or Goyle came here and we were in different houses I'd still be friends with them."

"Prejudice does odd things to people."  He hugged his son to him.  "One day you'll understand." 

Tevin shook his head.  "I don't want to."

Draco finished cleaning up the lab and decided that he should bring it to Severus in their home.  As he made his way through the bedrooms he heard the end of what seemed to be an important conversation.  He pretended to not be around and he lingered in the dark of the doorway to his friend's room, awkwardly holding the container of Burn Paste.

"-and we were in different houses I'd still be friends with them."

"Prejudice does odd things to people.  One day you'll understand."

"I don't want to."

Draco waited another few minutes to be sure that the conversation ended before wandering out into the parlor.  He looked up and met the eyes of Ophelia and realized that she knew that he'd heard the last bit of that conversation.  Then he looked at Tevin and his father.  He felt a twinge of jealousy that his father never hugged him like Tevin's did.  Whenever he sought some sort of comfort from his parents he always had to go to his mother.  He watched Tevin and Severus separate, before he shifted on his feet. 

"Draco," Severus acknowledged as he turned away from his son, running his hand through Tevin's black hair.  "Have you finished?"

Draco held up the container with a nod. 

Severus gestured for Draco to come forward.  When both of the boys stood in front of him, Severus took the Burn Paste from Draco and looked at them.  "This is a very acceptable brew."  Both of them looked at him with barely concealed excitement.  "If you can answer the three questions I ask the first year students in their first class, you both will be allowed to brew on your own."

"What are the questions?" asked Tevin.

Severus smiled softly at the two of them.  "Not yet, boys.  I think there's something else you both wanted to do today, unless I'm mistaken?"

The two boys remembered at the same time.  They looked at each other happily.  "Quidditch!" they both shouted. 

"Yes, quidditch," said Severus.  "Go on, put on the colors of the house you want to cheer for."

Tevin and Draco ran back into Tevin's room and headed right to his standing wardrobe to get a house scarf of their choice.  Draco always brought his mother's old green and silver scarf so that he could cheer for Slytherin, even if they weren't playing that day.  Tevin had one scarf for each House.  He knew people who played in each House and would fairly switch which team he would support.  Today he chose a different House than Slytherin. 

"Another ten points for Gryffindor!" 

Tevin clapped from his place between Professor McGonagall and Draco, who was practically snuggled against Severus's side to get as far away from the Gryffindor head of house as possible.  Slytherin was not playing in this match, but Draco was not about to refuse seeing a quidditch game, particularly if Tevin was going to watch it.  His father encouraged him to attend as many games as possible before he would allow Draco to attend the World Cup so that he could understand the rules in better detail and get accustomed to watching the fast-pace of the sport.  As he said, ‘Simply playing with the snitch doesn't make you understand the game.'

Suddenly, everyone in the stands were the victims of a strong breeze as a flurry of all six chasers flew past them, their red and blue robes blurs of color.  From the other direction, one lone red blur flew past their seats.  It was the Gryffindor seeker, Charlie Weasley.  "The golden snitch has been spotted, and the battle of the seekers has begun!" announced the student commentator, Sarah Sirran of Slytherin. 

Only moments behind the Gryffindor seeker flew the blue-robed seeker from Ravenclaw.  From that point on, Draco cold care less that Slytherin was not playing the game today.  This was his favorite part of quidditch games - the climactic grab for the snitch.  His eyes were riveted to the two seekers.  Tevin was also watching, cheering on Charlie Weasley next to McGonagall. 

The seekers swerved dangerously throughout the stadium at a fierce and frightening pace, dodging instantly and changing direction as though instinctually.  They were even with each other and closing in on the golden snitch, both of the players reaching out their arms to grab the fast, winged ball. 

"Weasley!  Starr!" shouted another player on the pitch. 

Even before the other player had finished shouting the names of the seekers in warning, a bludger struck the head of the Gryffindor.  The Ravenclaw girl, Danica Starr, now free of competition, grabbed for and captured the snitch.  "Ravenclaw wins," Sarah commented quietly, her attention more focused on the fact that a fellow student had been knocked from his broom.

However, no one except Sarah noticed Danica's victory.  Everyone watched with horror as Charlie Weasley began to plummet to the grass and sand of the quidditch pitch.  With expert speed and accuracy, Madam Hooch swooped down like an owl to capture a mouse and she plucked the unconscious Charlie from the air.  She touched down on the ground, blowing her whistle as she landed.  All of the other players hovered above their flying professor and the injured Gryffindor, watching as Hooch set him on the grass gently. 

Madam Hooch drew her wand and said something that only the students and spectators nearest her could hear.  Draco and Tevin certainly could not being so high from the ground.  But from the professor's wand sprung a silver-white corporeal shape.  It was an owl.  Madam Hooch seemed to speak to it for a moment before the magic owl flapped its wings and flew towards the castle.  Then, she ran her wand down the length of Charlie's body, hovering several inches above him.  Tevin recognized this action as a medical check.  She was making sure he was not fatally or even very dangerously wounded. 

Suddenly, there was a collection of shapes that were running across the grass towards the flying instructor and the unconscious boy.  There were three people, all students.  Two of them were clearly of a relation to Charlie, if their flame-red hair was anything to go by.  The third, however, was not a Gryffindor, but Tevin recognized her at once by the way she tripped over her own feet in her haste to reach the prone boy.  It was Nymphadora Tonks.  The three students gathered around Hooch and Charlie. 

As everyone watched the commotion for an unknown length of time, it seemed that Madam Pomfrey arrived at the scene all the way from the hospital in record time.  She had even arrived on her own broom!  Tevin rarely saw this occur.  Although it was rare for Madam Pomfrey to attend a match since there was always someone needing attention in the infirmary, which prevented her from coming to the rescue of one of the injured players.  They were usually flown to her, not the other way around. 

There was a brief conference down on the grass of the pitch before the biggest of the Weasley brothers, whom Tevin knew to be William - or Bill as he preferred - picked up his brother and took hold on Charlie's fallen broomstick.  He mounted the broom as Tonks held it steady.  Then, Bill followed Madam Pomfrey back towards the castle.  Tonks found herself unexpectedly hugging the youngest of the three Weasley brothers, Percy, to her body after he threw himself at her.  She was the nearest thing for comfort it seemed. 

Madam Hooch blew her whistle again and then signaled to Sarah Sirran, who would announce once again the outcome of the match.  "Ravenclaw wins by a score of one ninety to Gryffindor's seventy!"  The Ravenclaw students exploded in cheers. 

Severus leaned down to the two boys as the cheering continued.  "I think it's time we put your new skills to the test, don't you?"

Tevin and Draco swung their heads to look at him.  "How?" asked the blonde.

Severus stood and guided them out of their seats and towards the long stairs to take them back to the ground.  "There are quite a number of potions and salves that Madam Pomfrey needs restocked.  Would you like to help her?" 

"Yeah!" said both boys excitedly. 

Severus smiled as he led them down the stairs.  "Then, let's get started.  First we have to go to the infirmary and see what she needs.  After that, you boys will start brewing."

Tevin realized why his father had proposed this to them.  "We can see if Charlie's okay too!"

Severus nodded.  "I thought we could achieve two things at once while we visited the infirmary."  Draco realized that sort of thinking from his own father.  It was a trait he could appreciate. 

Once again, Tevin and Draco found themselves in Severus's private brewing lab, but this time he wasn't hovering over them as they nervously completed a potion as though they were taking a nerve-wracking examination.  They were enthusiastically working independently now.  Tevin and Draco both decided to split the long list that Madam Pomfrey had given them to help her restock the medicinal potions.  Tevin got to work on the potions that required ingesting - like the tricky Skele-grow Potion, while Draco worked on the topical potions - such as Bruise Healing Salve.  They figured out that Tevin excelled at the more watery potions, while Draco was more skilled in the more viscous potions.  It was a system they both liked. 

Tevin had just finished bottling the Skele-grow Potion.  Draco was just adding the last step to his concoction, so Tevin took the opportunity to read through the needed ingredients for his next assignment.  He left his station and headed towards his father's private store of ingredients for potion-making.  He was looking for Ground Dragon Scales.  His potion required three large scales to be freshly ground in a mortar and pestel in order to complete his next potion.  He climbed the ladder in the small and cramped room, peering all the way to the backs of the shelves looking for his rogue item.  Finally he found it.  However, he only found one scale...not three. 

Tevin climbed back down the ladder, and then headed back into the lab.  He put the scale on the table on which he was working, and did not even stop at it.  "Tevin, I'm almost done with-"  But Tevin did not stay to hear what Draco had to say.  He went straight into the door connecting the lab to his father's bedroom.  Then he walked through his own room and into the parlor. 

"Fay?" he called.  There was no answer.  "Fay?" he tried again.  He turned around and then found himself on the floor after screaming out in surprise. 

"Tevin!" she exclaimed as she helped him stand again from where he'd fallen over onto the floor.  "Are you alright?"

"I'm fine," he mumbled grumpily.

"How is the brewing going?"

"Fine," he said, letting his voice trail off.

Ophelia tilted her head, recognizing when he wanted to ask something but held off until he got either her or Severus to ask.  "But?"

When he responded, it all came out in a rush.  "But I need dragon scales for the next potion I have to make and we only have one.  Can we go get some more?"

Ophelia looked at Tevin for a long moment, trying to stretch out Tevin's nerves as long as possible.  Then, she smiled teasingly.  "We have to bring Draco."

"I know.  He'd be mad if he didn't get to come anyway."

Ophelia said, "Go get him, then," as she conjured a small piece of parchment and a quill with her wand, as Tevin ran back the way he came.  She brought the items to the kitchen table and wrote a quick note to let Severus know that she was taking the boys to Diagon Alley for some needed potions supplies.  By the time she'd finished the note and put a tea cup on the corner to hold it down, Draco and Tevin were in the parlor.  They both held lists of what they needed from the Apothecary.  "Come prepared, boys?"

They nodded.  "Did you check to be sure we don't have what you need?"  Again, they nodded.  Ophelia accepted the response and then activated the floo. 

Just before sending Tevin through first, she heard him ask quietly, "Can we get some ice cream at Fortescue's?"  She chuckled softly and pushed him through without an answer. 

"Please?" asked Draco, as he stepped up to the fire.  He received the same treatment as Tevin. 

After she sent the boys through one by one she followed them to Diagon Alley, her mind already made up about Fortescue's.