It was the first meeting of the Order of the Phoenix since Sirius had been brought back to life. Not even Sirius was a hundred percent sure how, all they knew was that Severus had used a potion to bring him back. The meeting had started off with Dumbledore declaring he had some news, not good news, not bad news, just news. People had frowned, because they had never heard Dumbledore say he had just plain news, he normally said straight up if he thought it was good or bad. As the members glanced around them seemed to notice that the snarky potions Professor was alarmingly subdued, silently staring at his own clenched fists. Finally Dumbledore said, "I'm afraid that bringing Sirius back, has had it's drawbacks, and it is because of these drawbacks that Severus has taken an apprentice."

There was a very long silence, that was finally broken when Mrs. Weasley asked Severus, "Are you alright dear?"

Severus had blinked in surprise at the concern in the woman's voice, then gave a faint nod and went back to staring at his hands. Mrs. Weasley had opened her mouth to question him further but Dumbledore had given her a look and she fell silent, dropping the matter for the moment. The silence was once again broken when one of the twins asked, "what do you mean by an apprentice?"

Dumbledore smiled and said, "It appears that the before mentioned drawbacks have made it impossible for Severus to brew any more potions for the time being."

This time the silence was rather short before Sirius barked out, "What about the Wolfsbane?"

Dumbledore smiled and asked, "Lupin the last two batches of Wolfsbane, how did they work?"

Remus Lupin frowned, this was definitely an odd sort of questioning, "They worked remarkably well, Severus had improved the formula quite nicely."

Snape looked up and said, "I didn't brew them."

Sirius barked out, "What? If you didn't then who did? Why did you take credit for it?"

Snape flinched a bit and Dumbledore said, "As I said, Severus has taken on an apprentice, and his apprentice was, for good reason worried other would doubt his ability as a potions maker, especially after the fine example Severus has set. We agreed to give him an unbiased trial run, and since Severus was suffering the effects of the potion that brought Sirius back to life, we decided not to worry anyone. The first month Severus oversaw all the potions that were made but has since assured me it is not necessary because his apprentice is quite competent."

Mr. Weasley asked, "So essentially we have a new potions master?"

Snape said in a quiet voice, "Not yet."

Mr. Weasley, who had not quite caught the quite murmur, asked, "Pardon?"

Snape said calmly, "He's not a Potion's Master yet, he's merely an apprentice."

Ron, who had finally just been allowed to attend meetings, asked, "I thought only a Potion's Master could brew Wolfsbane?"

Dumbledore smiled and said, "Yes, but to be an official Potion's Master you have to have graduated, Severus's apprentice is still a student."

Hermione leaned forward, suddenly taking an interest, and asked, "Who is it?

Dumbledore smiled and said, "Why the only person to have gotten a higher score in Potions than you, Ms. Granger."

Hermione frowned then suddenly her face went pale, Ron was the next to catch on and suddenly he shouted, "You let Draco Malfoy brew all of our potions? I drank one of those new healing drafts just last week, how do you know he didn't poison the lot of them?"

Snape asked, "How do you know I wouldn't poison the lot of them?"

Harry frowned and asked, "So exactly how long has Malfoy been brewing all of the castles potions?"

Dumbledore smiled and said cheerily, "Four months!"

Sirius asked, "You've been letting that kid brew the entire castle's potions for four months?"

Severus snapped, with for once his usual venom, "That kid is the reason you're here you ungrateful mutt! He's the one who came up with the design for the potion to bring you back!"

Sirius seemed a bit surprised by this for a moment before he got his feet back under him and yelled, "And it's got side effects, Dumbledore even said the potions got drawbacks that are making it impossible for you to brew a potion!"

Severus snapped, "It's how the potion was designed, I knew that before I brew it, it's why Draco didn't just brew it himself!"

Sirius opened his mouth and then froze in shock, finally Lupin asked, "You knew that the potion would make you unable to brew and you still made it? Why?"

Severus snapped, "You all may think I'm a heartless bastard but I'm not, I wasn't just going to sit back and let Black actually die for real."

Harry asked, "Wait? What do you mean?"

Severus looked like he was actually uncomfortable with the scrutiny, Hermione finally took pity on him and said, "The Veil is like a living organism, it swallows everything up, living things can survive in it for a time inside it but eventually everything gets digested. If Sirius had stayed in their much longer he would have eventually been 'digested', the magic of the Veil would have broken him into his most basic parts and recycled him to power it's prolonged existence, and once it did that there would be no going back. Sirius would have no longer been any more distinguishable than the rest of the Veil."

Sirius said, "So I would have actually have been dead, dead, not just halfway dead."

Hermione nodded and said, "I forgotten till just now that I had a similar conversation with Draco six months ago.'

Ron gasped out, "Why were you talking to the Ferret?"

Hermione said, "Honestly Ron, you can be such a child sometimes. There is a book in the library that mentions the Veil and when I went to check it out, it was already gone, the clerk told me Draco had checked it out the week before, so I tracked him down and asked if he was still reading it. He had actually apologized for having had it for so long, and after that we had one of the most intellectual conversations I've ever had, in fact there were a few concepts I couldn't quite grasp."

Ron frowned and said, "Are you saying Draco's smarter than you?"

Hermione 'humph'ed and said, "Hardly, no he simply had more practice with them."

Ron shook his head and said, "But he knew something you didn't?"

Hermione frowned and said, "Yes, but there are plenty of things I know that he doesn't."