Q smiles back. "Slytherin's don't have a monopoly on it you know." He nods. "Of course. You have to make your own way. Most discoveries started out by people going where no one had gone before."
"Power of a sort," Q muses. "He let you know he relied on you." He frowns. "Hypocrisy and patriotism seem to go hand in hand. Horrible things have been done because people thought they were doing the right thing." He shrugs. "Hindsight is always 20/20."
"I've never had a pet," he explains further. "I wanted something fairly low maintenance that I couldn't kill too easily." He hesitates. "You said melodramatic. I don't mean to make light of his death Severus, but you make him sound like a character in a low-budget film." Either way, it's far too horrible to contemplate. "Merlin only knows what they'd have called him," he mutters. "Thank you Severus." Q blinks. Distracted again. He sighs at his foible. "Er, well, I'm done." He waves his hand at the two neat piles. "I await your judgment Master."