"Harry, I need to speak with you. It is rather important."
Potter looked up at him from where he was sprawled on his bed, a quill in his mouth and parchments scattered around him.
"Okay," he said hesitantly. "But just so you know- it was Mavis."
Severus was temporarily distracted from his current goal by the inadvertent admission of wrongdoing.
"What was Mavis?" he asked, his eyes narrowed in suspicion.
"Oh," Potter flicked his eyes around his still undecorated room. "Nothing. Sorry. What's wrong?"
Severus gave him another suspicious look before reminding himself that a murderer after his ward was more important than whatever teenage mischief Potter had managed to get in to.
"How would you like to spend the remainder of the summer in Italy with Blaise and his mother?" Severus mentally crossed his fingers that Potter, for once in his entire life, would agree without argument.
"No thanks," Potter muttered, turning back to his parchments.
Severus sighed, of course Potter would not agree easily. He tried a different tactic.
"The Contessa has wrote to me that she wants to take you to the Italian Counsel and introduce you to powerful Wixen. I believe she even mentioned that there were Fae on the Counsel who may have new magic that they would be willing to teach you."
Potter glanced up and was now giving Severus his own suspicious look.
"Are you trying to kick me out?" he asked. "If you need time alone, or want to have a friend over-" Potter grinned and waggled his brows in a suggestive manner, "I can make myself scarce. I could even stay the night with Draco, but I don't want to leave for the whole summer."
"What? Harry, no, Merlin," Severus sputtered at the implication as Potter turned his attention back down to his parchments. "I just believe that sitting in this dreary house all summer is no proper vacation for you. Italy would have much more entertainment to offer a teenage boy."
Potter finally set down his quill and looked up at Severus, giving him his complete attention.
"Why are you trying to get rid of me?"
Severus sighed, Potter was much too cunning to attempt this without being blunt.
"I am not trying to get rid of you," he assured him. "And I am certainly not trying to kick you out of your own home."
He hesitated before deciding to just explain himself, praying that Potter did not explode and destroy the entire house. "The Minister called me. He informed me that Sirius Black escaped Azkaban last night and he has sufficient reason to believe that Black is now looking for you."
Potter blinked at him a few times before saying, "So?"
"So Black is dangerous," Severus said tersely. "It would be safer if you were out of the country while they commence a manhunt for him."
Potter quirked his lips up to the side, entirely unconcerned with this news.
"Maybe Black's after you," he said, widening his eyes in an attempt to look innocent. "Maybe you should go to Italy for the rest of the summer."
"This is not a game Potter!" Severus snapped, irritated at Potter's blasé affect. "Black was mad before he went to Azkaban, twelve years of being exposed to the effects of the dementors will have done him no favors. He will try and find you and he will try and kill you."
Potter gave him an amused smile, "He can try. Mister Malfoy told me about what he did, sold my parents out to Voldemort, didn't he? I hope he finds me. I'd like to talk with him about that."
"I will go to Italy with you," Severus countered with, ignoring Potter's thinly veiled death threat towards a dangerous killer. "We could go together and come back when Black is caught."
"You think Sirius Black could beat you in a duel?" he asked. "I thought you said you were the best, or was that just boasting?"
Severus scoffed, unwillingly stepping directly in to Potter's trap. "Sirius Black couldn't kill me when I was sixteen and he had a transformed werewolf on his side, he certainly couldn't do it now."
Potter gave him a bright smile and picked his quill back up.
"Brill, sounds like we're staying then."