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Severus Snape was on his way to getting one hundred percent in his third year potions exam when his father died.

Naturally the Ministry were suspicious. Who wouldn't be when a man as strong and bull-like as Mercator Snape suddenly collapsed and died in his prime, especially when he was also well known for being an absolute terror to those who had to live with him.

The investigator the Ministry had sent was puzzled. Mrs. Snape has been absolutely inconsolable at the news, and didn't seem to have enough about her to have committed a murder, especially one that wasn't obviously murder. The son though, there was something not quite right about him. It must have been the way the son reacted, while the investigator knew that everyone reacted differently to death, but the way this lad had acted - it wasn't shock, he'd seen enough of that blankness to know it when he saw it, and it wasn't sadness, it wasn't even I-must-be-strong-for-my-mother, it was just an acceptance.

And that was the fishiest thing about the whole affair.

Of course all the best minds at the Ministry had analysed every fibre of the dead man's body and couldn't find a trace of foul play, which if there had been any would most probably have been poison, given what the son excelled in.

But not finding a poison didn't mean it wasn't there. About a quarter of the most commonly used poisons couldn't be found in the body after use which is why they were used most frequently. There were of course other ways of catching the culprit, tracing his movements to see if he had bought any ingredients that could be used in these untraceable poisons.

Most of them had rare ingredients and if it could be shown that he had purchased such an item then they would be allowed to use Veritasium on Snape junior. But that was only if they could find evidence of him buying one of these ingredients, which they couldn't.

There was one last chance though, Hogwarts could have had those items on its premises, hidden under those wards who knew what they had, it was dangerous if you asked him, but no one did. So he was going there to talk to the Potions Master and see if he did have any of those ingredients there, if any had gone missing recently (and if so why hadn't he reported them) and whether he thought his star pupil capable of this crime.

Once he had settled and the pleasantries had been got out of the way, the investigator showed the Potions Master his list of ingredients and were there any of these at the school?

The Potions Master read down the list, verbally checking them off as he went. Only one of them could be found anywhere in the school and if he could have five minutes he would check that all of it was present, or accounted for.

When the Potions Master came back he said it was all there, except two grains that the Sister of the hospital wing had used in a painkiller. And yes, he had checked that she had taken it out when she said she had.

"Is there anywhere else that it could be obtained from?"

"Only a very select shop on Knockturn Alley. That is where even this school has to purchase its supplies of it from. Luckily we use a maximum of two grams a year so we only have to buy it once a decade, if that. And I don't think that even Severus could have gone there and come out alive." The man from the Ministry gave the schoolteacher a look of disbelief and then displeasure. He hadn’t wanted to mention the boy’s name. "I am not quite as stupid as you seem to think I am. One of my brighter boy's father dies suddenly, and then you quiz me about ingredients that obviously go into poisons. I presume that the death was so unexpected that you jumped to the conclusion that Mercator Snape must have been murdered and if he was, that Severus must have done it. Now I do not doubt that the boy makes a bad first impression, indeed while he is brilliant he is also capable of being extremely unpleasant. However, it is unheard of for a boy of his age to know enough to distil such a potent poison, if he had tried it, it is highly unlikely that it would have been efficacious, and even less likely that it would have been undetectable. He was good before he came here, and I pride myself on being a good teacher, but I don't think even the combination of the two things would enable Severus to have brewed the hellish concoction you seem to think him capable of."

"If you are certain…"

"Indeed I am. The children are not even taught how to brew potions like this until after they graduate, and books on the subject are rarer than hen's teeth. Especially books on the subject that are easily accessible to fourteen year olds. Personally I think that even if he had somehow managed it he ought to be praised for his efforts, but then again I knew Mercator personally so I would think that."

"And you are certain you didn't help the boy out with some extra-curricular potions work?"

"I am certain. Severus is a good boy, no matter how he appears."

That night, once the investigator from the Ministry had gone, Professor Hieronymus went to see Severus. He had no idea what to say but found his words easily once he saw Severus. Snape was one of his Slytherin boys and Slytherins could deal with the world head on.

"Severus, a man from the Ministry came. He wanted to know if you killed your father. I told him you hadn't the ingredients. He'll not be the only person who thinks you did it. It will be a hard few years for you and your mother, financially and emotionally. But remember you're a Slytherin, we stand up for each other."

"Thank you, sir. I'll remember that."

They said their goodnights. After Professor Hieronymus had gone Severus wondered why he hadn't shown his head of House his left arm, shown him that all the stupid parrot-fashioned words about loyalty actually meant something, that one Slytherin old boy had actually helped, gave him the last ingredient he needed to send his father off to a well deserved eternal rest. And what had Voldemort wanted for that, only a sign of the loyalty Severus was all too willing to give.

But Severus hadn't shown him, some inner sense had stopped him. Maybe there were some things your head of House was not meant to know.