Apprenticed by JAWorley

On the street Snape apparated them back to the storefront of the Apothecary, still agitated that he had been told he could not leave his too-young apprentice at the hospital until he was himself again.

Harry remained silent as Master Snape walked off into the store room, and stayed where he was, unsure of whether or not he was supposed to follow. After a minute, Snape poked his head back into the shop front. “Move!” he ordered him. Harry just couldn’t seem to do anything right, he thought to himself. He had somehow managed to make Master Snape just as angry as he always made Uncle Vernon and Aunt Petunia.

He jumped to attention at the command and followed Master Snape into the store room, and into the now smoke free lab. On the other side of the lab Master Snape opened up a door to the right of a bathroom (Harry could see a toilet through the cracked door), and up some stairs. At the top of the stairs there was another door which Master Snape unlocked and pushed open. Inside was the cleanest, nicest flat Harry had ever seen. It was very sleek and modern looking with marble counter tops in the kitchen, a black leather couch in the living room, a glass coffee table, and tall skinny windows. Harry liked this place very much.

“You have a nice house Master,” Harry said in awe. Even though it was spotless, Harry somehow thought that Aunt Petunia would not like this place at all… she was fond of big floral patterns and special china in a glass case.

“I do not live here,” Master Snape said. “This is where my apprentice stays.”

“Me?” Harry said, surprised.

Surprised, Snape looked down at Harry, wondering that he remembered that he was an apprentice. “You remember that you are my apprentice?”

Harry shook his head. “The princess in the hospital told me.”

Snape rolled his eyes at the description of some nurse. “No, you do not live here. This is where my previous apprentice stayed, and the apprentice before that. Lattimer transformed this into the modern flat you see now. It took him a great deal of time and money.”

“Oh,” Harry wondered if Lattimer was his former apprentice. Master Snape seemed to think highly of him or her judging by his tone when he spoke about the former apprentice.

Harry stood quietly, wondering if he would be allowed to stay here instead of returning to Privet Drive. He’d do anything, he thought, to keep from going back there.

Snape motioned to the couch, suddenly agitated again. “You will sleep on the couch. Touch nothing else!” He moved off for a door which Harry assumed was to a bedroom, and slammed it closed once he was inside.

Suddenly very tired, and hungry, Harry sat apprehensively on the couch, afraid to mess anything up in the nice flat. He tried to ignore his stomach as he sat on the edge of the leather couch, and also tried to ignore the urge to go to sleep… it was so early in the day still. But the soft black couch seemed to call out to him, and before he knew what he was doing he was lying down on it being enveloped by the large fluffy cushions. He closed his eyes and let himself dream about being a knight in shining armor rescuing the princess from whatever evil tried to harm her.

* * *
Snape lay on top of the covers on his back staring at the ceiling. Why this? Why him? What had he done to deserve this cruel fate? First he had been sentenced to spend an entire apprenticeship with Harry bloody Potter, and now he was quite literally being forced to baby sit him! How outrageous! Didn’t people think he had better things to do with his time? Of course not… apothecary’s don’t have important potions to brew… Potion’s Masters don’t have important lessons to plan out… ugh… just thinking about it all drained him until his core reserves had all but given out.

What nerve the boy had… how embarrassing to have to slap his hand away in Mungos… and of course he had been made to look like the bad guy in doing it. But the boy was really 17 and he wasn’t going to coddle him, especially when it had been his own fault causing such trouble in the lab. He had half the mind to rush Potter through the apprenticeship just to be rid of him… but he knew he would be pushing the boundaries of the magic that bound them together if he released the boy without properly approving of his skills.

He groaned and rolled over, feeling ill, not sure if it was a side effect of the noxious gas he had breathed, the medicine the healer had given him, or if it was from the whole sickening situation that had been forced upon him. Somewhere somebody was laughing at him, and he realized inwardly that if not God, than himself inside for always ending up in such situations where he constantly hated his life.

* * *

Groggy, Snape found Harry sitting obediently on the couch, wide awake the next morning. Somehow the boy managed to look uncertain, but excited to see him.

“What are you staring at boy?” He sneered as he walked to the kitchen and conjured a cup of coffee.

Harry put his head down and looked at the floor. “Sorry sir.”

“I did not ask for an apology, I asked you a question Potter.”

“I’m sorry.” There it was again… was he so menacing that he frightened the child into apologies every few seconds he wondered? Or maybe the boy just did it to annoy him. Damn but he was such a brat.

Harry kept his eyes glued to the floor as he heard his Master growl faintly… he could tell he’d annoyed him already, and it wasn’t even 6:30 am yet. Harry had already disobeyed by looking through the cupboards for something to fix for breakfast, just as he did every morning for his family, but had found nothing. Maybe his master knew he had disobeyed by not staying on the couch…

Snape stared at the boy looking at the floor as he stood at the kitchen island and drank his coffee. He supposed he’d need to feed the brat too. “Are you hungry?”

Harry’s ears perked. Was Master talking to him? Surely not… nobody ever cared if Harry was hungry or not.

“I asked you a question boy!” Yes, Harry had definitely angered him. What was he supposed to do? Was he trying to trick him? Would he get spanked if he said that he was hungry?

“Yes sir.” Harry said it quietly as he nodded, eyes still glued to the hardwood floor.

“Look at me when I speak to you.”

Harry’s eyes snapped up and he squirmed as he stared the man in the eye. He had been taught not to look into the eyes of an authority figure.

“Brat,” Snape mumbled as he conjured two plates. How agitating dealing with the insolent boy. Had he been taught no manners at all? He conjured bacon, eggs, and toast, and searched the drawers for silverware until he found forks in a long skinny drawer.

“Eat,” he ordered as he pulled a stool out from the bar side of the island in the center of the kitchen floor.

Uncertain, Harry stood but didn’t move from the living room. Was all that food really for him?

Snape growled again and pointed to the stool he had pulled out. “Now.” It was a deadly tone with which he spoke and Harry thought that even Uncle Vernon could not sound so menacing. He sprang into action and speed walked over to the tall stool. He scrambled to get onto it because he was so short, and sat quietly in front of the wonderful smelling plate of food. He hoped dearly that Master Snape would eat his breakfast quickly so that he could dig into his own.

“What are you waiting for, not good enough for you?” Snape growled. Harry went to shake his head but the food was vanished before he could do it. “If you don’t like my cooking than you can go hungry.”

Harry bowed his head. His stomach grumbled uncomfortably and he so badly wanted to eat what had been offered to him. Everything here was so different than at home… he had only been there two days and already Master Snape had taken him to the doctor when he was sick, given him a soft place to sleep, cooked breakfast for him, and invited him to sit with him and eat. Nobody had ever treated him so kindly before except the neighbor lady who had once given Harry a drink of water when Uncle Vernon had locked Harry out of the house all day in the heat of summer.

Snape shook his head as he finished off his bacon. The boy sat there looking unhappy. Well what on earth did he expect being so disobedient? It was no wonder that he constantly broke the rules at Hogwarts. Suddenly he wasn’t sure what he wanted more… for Potter to stay young just a little longer so he could teach him some manners and obedience, or for him to age quickly to himself again so he wouldn’t have to play the role of baby sitter. He had work to do and he couldn’t just sit around all day with the boy. And he certainly didn’t trust him to stay in the apartment by himself.

Stomach grumbling, Harry wished it would be quiet else he be in trouble all day long for making such a racket. He fidgeted with his hands, wishing he had something to do instead of sitting at the counter smelling the food his master was eating. Anything, even cleaning would be better than that… Harry couldn’t even remember the last time he’d eaten… come to think of it he couldn’t remember how he’d even gotten to be with Master Snape. It was just a big blank spot in his memory… as if one day he had been scrubbing the floor while Dudley poked him with a stick from the garden, and the next he was throwing up on his master’s floor.

“I cannot leave you here alone.” Snape was talking, although it sounded distant to Harry as he tried to make his way out of his reverie and back to the present. “The shop is scheduled to open today. You will do everything I say or else you will be punished. Is that understood?”

The threat of punishment was enough to bring Harry out of his mind and back to the kitchen in the beautiful flat. “Yes master.” Even in his own ears he thought he sounded like a slave.

“Yes sir is fine Potter.”

“Yes sir.”

Snape sighed and vanished the remaining dishes. “Go to the bathroom and wash up. Do not come out looking scraggly.” Harry nodded and hurried to jump down off the stool and head for the bathroom. There were only four doors leading off the living room… he knew one was a bedroom and one lead downstairs, so he assumed one of the other two was a bathroom door. He guessed right and was glad to be allowed to use the toilet. Afterwards he scrubbed his face and arms and tried to run his fingers through his hair before trying to make it lay flat… it was no use however as it stayed just as wild as ever.

Back in the living room Harry found Snape waiting by the door that lead downstairs. “Follow.” At least his master’s instructions were short and to the point, Harry thought to himself. Aunt Petunia and Uncle Vernon always followed instructions with threats of bodily harm… and sometimes got straight to the point by punishing him beforehand before he made any mistakes at all.

Downstairs Harry and Snape passed through the dungeon-like lab where Harry had woken the day before. It was smoke free now, although there were spilled potions on the workbenches and floor. The next room was the room where Harry had thrown up, but the mess had been cleaned by now. Finally Snape lead Harry back to the front of the store. Here he pointed to a tall wooden stool in the corner and said, “You are to sit there until you are told to get down. Am I understood?”

Harry nodded. “Yes sir.”

Snape glared at him in warning and Harry looked at the stone floor, wishing he’d been allowed to stay in the wonderful flat that was full of light and life. The shop seemed dark and ancient compared to the flat upstairs.

After unlocking the front door, Snape disappeared into the back and didn’t reappear until the bell above the front door announced a visitor half an hour later.

“Yes?” Snape asked the elderly woman. Harry thought she looked very funny wearing a green cape and walking around with a red polka dotted handbag, but tried not to laugh or stare.

“I need 24 ounces of frog eyes, seven feathers of Graymare wolf, and four stoppered bottles about this big,” here she held up her fingers to show the size of a bottle about 4 inches long.

Snape nodded. “That will be 12 Galleons. I will return shortly with the ingredients.”

As the woman dug through her strange hand bag Snape went to the back room. After a few moments the woman had dropped 12 golden coins on the counter and then spied Harry sitting on the tall stool quietly. “And who are you?” she asked suspiciously.

Harry was about to answer when Snape returned with a small paper sack of clinking jars. “My apprentice. There was a lab accident and he was temporarily regressed in age.”

“Pity,” she said. “I liked Helen when she was here. Any chance of getting her back?”

Snape shook his head. “I have released her from her apprenticeship and she has decided to move to Germany to be with family and start her own apothecary.”

The woman gave the coins to Snape and thanked him for the ingredients before giving Harry one last stare, and then leaving.

“Do not talk to customers,” Snape told Harry as he disappeared into the back.

“Yes sir,” Harry said quietly to himself.

Harry’s back was stiff from sitting still for so long before the next customer came in, this time a young man about 20. Again Snape appeared from the back. The man dropped a sack full of coins on the counter and Snape reached beneath the counter and withdrew a small jar of green cream.

“Use it sparingly,” Snape instructed him. The younger man nodded, looking uncomfortable before he left quickly, stuffing the small jar inside his jacket pocket.

“Some customers order ahead of time,” Snape informed Harry at the boy’s quizzical look. Harry listened intently, hoping for more information, or just hoping to be talked to, but no more was forthcoming, and Snape once again disappeared into the back room. Several more customers came and went before lunch time, and occasionally one of them asked who Harry was. Harry spied the time on the last customers watch before they left, and wondered if Snape had already eaten because it was one o’clock. Perhaps he too thought that Harry didn’t need to eat more than one meal a day… Harry hoped this wasn’t so because if it was then he had already missed his chance at his one meal when breakfast had been taken away from him.

Near three o’clock a woman and her young daughter came into the shop. Immediately the girl spied Harry. She looked a little older than he was, but he couldn’t be sure… most kids his age were bigger than he was.

While Snape was in the back finding the ordered supplies the girl walked over to Harry and began poking him in the side. When Harry tried to brush her hand away, she began poking him harder. He hoped her mother would make her stop, but she was digging around in her purse instead, ignoring her daughter.

Finally when the girl had grown bored of poking Harry and had moved on to punching him in the side instead, giggling quietly because he didn’t tell her to stop, Snape walked in and set the ingredients on the counter in two large paper bags. He took the money from the woman and spied her daughter hitting Harry hard in the leg while Harry tried to shoo her away. He cleared his throat and the girl stopped immediately, shrinking at the glare Snape gave her. Harry was very thankful when the woman and her daughter left.

Harry held his side where it had been hit several times, but didn’t complain, afraid that he would be in trouble.

By day’s end, Harry was extremely hungry and was feeling faint. Usually by now he would have snuck something from the fridge when Aunt Petunia wasn’t looking, but he couldn’t get upstairs without having to pass Snape, and he knew that even if he managed that, the fridge was
empty.

Snape locked the door at five and told Harry he could get off the stool. Harry followed him back up the stairs and into the flat. His mouth began to water when he smelled the apartment. It still smelled like bacon and eggs from that morning.

“Sit at the counter,” Snape instructed him, seeming quiet and less menacing than he had at the start of the day.

Harry did as he was told, but swayed as he sat on the stool and watched his Master conjure plates from thin air and begin conjuring various vegetables. Harry felt dizzy as Snape set to work chopping carrots and tomatoes with skilled precision, and before Harry knew it he was lying sprawled on the hard tile kitchen floor, dazed and wondering what he was doing down there looking up at the ceiling.

Severus heard a thud and looked over to see Harry gone. He hurried around the counter and found him looking confused laying on the floor.

“Potter?”

“’m sorry sir,” he said, trying to sit up but finding it a difficult task. Severus wiped his hands on his pants and then lifted Harry from under the arms into a standing position. Harry swayed a little but held onto the counter for support.

“What’s wrong with you?” It came out harsher than he meant, and to Harry it sounded as if he were in trouble, rather than being a question of concern.

“’m really sorry,” his words were slurred and his mind blurry. He was so hungry he could barely stand it. He could remember feeling like this laying in his cupboard under the stairs when he angered his aunt or uncle so much that they withheld food for days sometimes… he would just lay there in the dark weak and tired, mind fuzzy, not being able to understand anything.

“Stop apologizing. Here,” Snape lead him to a lower chair next to the kitchen table and sat him down. “Why did you collapse?”

Harry’s stomach grumbled and answered for him, which drew a frown from his Master. “Why did you not eat when you had the chance this morning?” There was definite anger in his voice, partly because he had forgotten that the boy needed to eat lunch, and partly because it was the boy’s own fault not eating breakfast.

When Harry didn’t answer, Snape shook him by the shoulders slightly. “Answer me!”

Unable to help it, Harry’s eyes teared up slightly. “You took it away before I could eat it sir. I’m really sorry. I didn’t mean to faint. Please don’t send me to bed without any dinner. I won’t do it again, I promise.”

Severus let go of Harry’s shoulders, taken aback. “I took it away because you stuck your nose up at it.”

Harry shook his head. “I really wanted it. I’m not used to getting breakfast.” Usually he snuck something from the pan as he cooked, but if too much was missing when he served his family, then he was given extra chores for the day.

Eying him carefully, Severus tried to assess if there was any truth to that. He decided that there wasn’t. What family wouldn’t feed their children breakfast? Of course he himself had forgotten to give the boy lunch, but he wasn’t accustomed to eating lunch himself, and he wasn’t accustomed to having to care for small children and their every need… even at Hogwarts the students took care of themselves for the most part.

“You will go to bed early for lying to me.” Harry turned away to hide his tears. He didn’t want to go to bed feeling this way again with an empty stomach and a clouded mind. “After dinner,” Snape clarified, seeing how upset the punishment had made Harry.

Harry relaxed a little and waited quietly while Snape finished preparing salad. Harry generally didn’t like salad but was so hungry that he couldn’t help but scarf his whole plate down, drawing glares from Severus for being so rude by eating so quickly.

When he was done, Snape pointed at the couch. “Go sit down. I ought to make you do the dishes the Muggle way too for lying to me but I don’t want you passing out again and dropping them on the floor.” Harry moved for the couch, glad that his stomach was full. He’d never been given so much food in his life, and he hoped he wouldn’t sick it back up later on.

Drowsy, Harry sat on the couch and tried not to fall asleep, but he couldn’t help it. Aside from the night before, he had never had such a soft place to sleep, and the leather couch cushions invited his aching body and every aching muscle to relax.

Snape watched as Harry struggled to stay awake, but eventually drifted off to sleep. Some punishment going to bed early was if the boy wasn’t going to be upset by it. He finished his own meal and vanished the dirty dishes and left-over food before going to his own temporary bedroom to read. For the second night in a row he fell into an uneasy sleep, thinking about the day’s events… why hadn’t Potter asked for lunch if he was so hungry?

* * *

“Ahhh!” Severus sat straight up in the dark, knowing that something had woken him, although he didn’t know what. He waited silently, ears perked for any sound of danger.

“Arrrg nooo!” There it was again…. Potter!

Severus sprang from the bed, still dressed from the day before and tore out into the dark living room where the cries originated from. He didn’t see anybody but Harry thrashing around violently on the couch, fighting nobody but thin air. Thank God he was only having a nightmare Severus thought… from the racket he was making he thought the boy was being murdered.

He shook Harry’s shoulder but instead of waking up Harry only tried to push him away. “No, don’t… I won’t be bad I promise! Please!”

Severus shook him harder and Harry opened his eyes, but he still struggled with him in the darkness, not fully awake. Mistakenly thinking that he could reach Harry’s mind and pull him from the dream, Severus looked into the boy’s eyes and searched for him in the nightmare, only to find himself unable to back out of the dream when he had second thoughts upon seeing it.

He could tell that Harry’s mind was foggy, perhaps from lack of food, and being there in such a dream made Severus feel foggy and sick himself.

Severus watched as a beefy man pulled Harry from a tiny cupboard and threw him down to the floor. Harry looked sickly and had bags under his eyes. “Get up boy!” he growled. Harry tried, but was too weak.

“You’ve been lying around for three days! This house is a mess because you’re such a lazy little wretch! Get to work!”

“Please,” Harry begged, trying to get up off the floor, but the man pushed him over with his foot and threatened to beat him if he didn’t start cleaning.

A moment later and Severus was watching Harry scrub the kitchen floor on his hands and knees, looking sicker than ever while a bigger boy teased him and told him that if he got anybody else sick he was going to be made to sleep in the shed. Harry looked up at the boy and Severus saw the sweat on Harry’s face… he was clearly burning up. Harry swayed a little bit and his face paled, and before he could get his hand all the way up to his mouth, he threw up all over the kitchen floor that he had just been scrubbing.

“Eeewwwww! Muuuuuummmmm!” the pudgy boy was screaming, running from the room covering his mouth. Harry hurried trying to clean up the mess he’d made but before he could get very much of it up a woman Severus recognized as Lily’s sister was standing in the kitchen screaming for her husband. And then the beefy man was back and holding Harry up by the shirt collar. “Look at what you’ve done! You’ll pay for this boy!”

“No, no,” Harry pleaded, “I’m sorry! I’ll be a good boy, please! I’ll clean it all up!” But the beefy man wasn’t listening, he was already throwing Harry to the floor into the throw up and kicking him hard in the side while Petunia and her pudgy son just looked on…

Sickened, Severus forced his way back out of the dream and into the present as Harry continued to struggle, trying to block his uncle’s kicks and punches. He shook Harry hard and said his name repeatedly until he finally woke from his dream, sweaty and looking almost as sick as he had in his nightmare.

Harry looked around the dark flat wildly and breathed in the deep fresh air, trying to calm himself. “What… what’s going on? Did I wake you sir? I’m really sorry, it won’t happen again.”

Suddenly Severus understood what the apologies were all about… suddenly he understood why Harry had a habit of looking at the floor instead of at him when he was being spoken to, and why he would rather stay with Snape, not knowing who he was or why he was there than return to his own family. Severus also now had no doubt that Harry had not lied when he had said he didn’t often get to eat breakfast, and he felt sickened that he had not let him eat it, and then had not given him lunch.

“Do not be sorry,” Severus said quietly, sickened with himself with the revelation that Harry Potter, most famous light wizard of the century had grown up being abused, starved, and neglected. And here he was making his apprentice clean day after day, just as his family had done to him, without food, and without letting up. He was no better than Harry’s relatives.

“Sir?” he had been quiet for a few moments now, and Harry wondered if he was in trouble for screaming out into the night. If he screamed loud enough to wake anybody in the house, he usually received a good thrashing before being sent back to bed.

“Do you feel better now?” A silly question, how could he after reliving such a memory? And how often did he relive such nightmares?

Harry nodded. “Yes sir.”

“Good, go back to sleep.” He forced calm over his voice and left Harry there to sort through things as he went back to his room to think on things himself. If only he had known… if only somebody had known the way he was being treated… he could have lived at Hogwarts until he was old enough to attend… anywhere would have been better than where he had been.

* * *

Harry was woken by the smell of bacon and eggs. A plate was waiting for him on the coffee table in front of the couch. He sat up, eyes wide at the double portion that had been given to him.

“That is for the breakfast you were denied yesterday,” Severus told him from the kitchen, where he washed up dishes by hand in the sink. For some reason he felt he needed to do things the Muggle way when he thought he needed to gain perspective on things. It had been for this reason that Harry had spent a week cleaning the apothecary by himself over and over again. He had planned on making the boy do it for as long as it took, but now he had realized that it was not Harry, but he himself that needed to gain perspective on what had happened.

“It’s all for me sir?” Harry asked.

Severus nodded. “Yes. Do not eat too fast or you will be sick.”

Harry thought his eyes might just pop out of his head as he dug into the wonderful meal. He had never had such food before, especially not prepared for him by somebody else!

After he had eaten as much as he could, Harry asked if there was a way to save the food for later. He hated to waste food when he knew it was all for him, and knowing that he wasn’t sure if he’d be allowed lunch today.

“Stick it in the fridge if you truly wish, but I will make you whatever food you desire when you are hungry if you ask.”

“Really?”

“Yes. Now go wash up.”

Harry hurried into the bathroom, and when he was done he was lead downstairs and to the front of the shop as he had been the day before. He moved for the stool, thinking he would have to sit there all day again, but Severus stopped him.

“You will help me serve customers today.” Harry’s eyes brightened. “Really?”

“Yes. You will wait here, and when a customer comes in, you will ask what they want.” He pulled out a pad of paper and an ordinary Muggle pen. “Do you know how to write?” Harry nodded eagerly. Aunt Petunia had made him learn so that he could write down long lists of chores he needed to do.

“Then you will write down what the customers want and bring it to me in the store room. Then you will take the customer’s money and put it in this box.” Here he showed Harry a lockbox under the counter. Harry nodded again and Severus left him there to go start a potion in the lab.

It wasn’t but a few minutes until a middle-aged man with short blond hair came into the shop and asked for 4 ounces of lacewig flies, and a boarhound tooth. Harry wrote down the order eagerly, asked the man to please wait, and ran into the store room where he found Severus labeling a bottle containing bright red liquid. He handed him the paper and Severus began pulling things down from the shelves and putting them into a paper bag.

“A Knut is a small bronze coin, a Sickle is a medium silver coin, and a Galleon is a large gold coin. Tell the man that it costs four Sickles, and put the money where I told you to.”

Harry nodded and ran back out to the front of the shop where the man waited patiently. “This costs four Sickles please.”

The man smiled and dropped four silver coins on the counter and Harry put them away.

“Thank you, come again!” Harry said as the man left the shop. He had heard people on TV say this sometimes when people left stores.

Severus kept an eye on Harry’s progress throughout the day, always listening and occasionally watching from the storeroom door whenever Harry dealt with customers, and overall was pleased with his progress. He let Harry tend the shop the next day as well, and Harry did well again. On the third day Severus noticed that Harry had grown tall enough to see over the counter and knew that the potion was finally wearing off. By Thursday morning, Harry was 17 again. Severus walked out into the living room to find Harry sitting at the counter eating a scrambled egg and bacon sandwich.

“You appear to be yourself again.”

Harry nodded, wondering if himself meant that he should have a headache the size of Ireland. “I feel like I have a hangover and I’m starved.”

“Growing is serious business.” Harry didn’t respond so Severus conjured himself a cup of coffee and asked, “What do you remember about the last week?” He was anxious to know if Harry had forgotten everything… including the nightmare and Severus taking away his breakfast.

Scratching the back of his head, Harry lied, “Not much. It’s kind of a blur.” Somehow he felt better thinking that if Snape didn’t know what he remembered they’d both be better off. Harry was wary of Snape knowing too much about his past… there was too much there that Snape could hold over him and hurt him with if he really wanted to, and Harry didn’t like the idea of that at all. Although, he had to hand it to the man for taking care of him for that long in the state he was in. He had been nicer to him as a small child than he ever had been to him at Hogwarts.

“What do you remember?” There was a nagging curiosity in the back of his mind that kept trying to slip out.

“Tending shop… seeing Tonks and Jennifer in Mungo’s… that’s about it.” There, that seemed believable enough.

“Hm…” Snape seemed to think on it. “You may continue to tend the shop if you please, provided you familiarize yourself with the inventory of stocked potions.”

Harry nodded…anything was better than cleaning.