3 Chapter 3

"Professor, it was Severus who first attacked and insulted Lily! I was just defending myself!" As soon as Slughorn removed the spell from James, he immediately blurted it out, looking at Snape with anger.

"Professor Slughorn," the former Archmage began in a calm and even voice, "I only asked Miss Evans to return my textbook, once borrowed from me, but James grabbed my jacket and began to demand something indistinctly, threatening me , so I used a non-verbal Silencio on him. And, apparently, he did not like it too much, so he decided to attack me from behind."

"It is not true!" Sirius exclaimed in defence of his friend, he had rather pleasant features and a slight aristocratic pallor.

"He attacked James first, and it certainly wasn't Silencio, and he even called Lily a Mudblood!"

"I just named her that because that's how it is."

"What you said?!"

"She's a Mudblood witch whose parents are Muggles, I didn't offend her in any way."

"I understand" the Head of Slytherin stopped them in a calm voice, looking at Severus with mild surprise.

Severus was one of Slughorn's favourites, though. Therefore, he knew him well, and this change slightly alarmed the professor.

Severus, whom he remembered, would never call Lily that, because she was his only friend and dearest person.

Slughorn considered Severus a very talented magician, who will be able to achieve a lot in the future, and that's the only reason Slughorn invited the boy to the Slugs club, which the slytherin head himself founded several decades ago and it was the place where he gathered those who could achieve a lot in the future.

Horace himself was very fond of comfort. And he also liked to gather talented people around him, helping them, revealing their talents and introducing them to each other. And although he was the head of Slytherin, Slughorn never discriminated against students of other houses and treated everyone equally.

"Minus five points from Slytherin," the professor shook his head in displeasure. "Mr. Snape, 'mudblood' is an insult, and please don't refer to Ms. Evans in that way again."

"I apologise, but I don't find that word offensive," Snape shook his head. "There was even an article in the Daily Prophet about that this word is not an insult, but an unofficial name for wizards who were born from Muggles."

"Is that so, then can you tell me the number of the newspaper?"

"Of course, number 6910."

"Mr. Potter, for trying to hurt Mr. Snape, I'm also giving you a month's detention with Mr. Filch."

"But he was the one who started it! Lily, why are you silent? Tell him, you saw everything!"

Lily herself was looking at Severus all this time ... She simply could not recognize him, she had never seen him acting so cold and that indifference in his eyes when he was strangling James frightened her very much.

The girl could not understand how he could change so much in a few days! And when the wizard heard Potter's voice, she shuddered and looked at him with incomprehension. "…what?"

"It was Severus who attacked first!"

"Yes…" Lily nodded sluggishly, looking back at Severus and meeting her eyes, she flinched again, seeing only indifference in him.

"It was self-defense, Ms. Evans, and it was just a simple Silencio—a spell of silence—it couldn't possibly be life-threatening."

At that moment, three more students approached the group, whose robes had a silver snake on a green background on the chest area, the same as Snape's chest.

"I beg your pardon, Professor, but we are ready to confirm what Mr. Snape said," the boy with aristocratic features and blond hair styled back said in a confident voice.

"We saw how he approached this company and politely asked for his textbook, but Mr. Potter grabbed him by the jacket and began to demand something vehemently, Mr. Snape politely asked to let him go, but he did not listen and a spell was used to silence him, and as soon as the textbook was returned, Mr. Snape removed the spell and turned around and began to leave, but in a fit of rage, Mr. Potter aimed his wand at his back, and just as we were about to intervene, you appeared."

"Very well, I will consider your words," the professor nodded contentedly. Still, he was pleased that many in his house helped each other, although most often it was for personal gain, "But, Mr. Snape, you will also be punished, I hope I do not need to explain why?"

"No, I understand everything."

"Okay, three days of work with Mr. Filch, but from tomorrow, and today I'm waiting for you at my place, I need to talk to you about something," the professor said with a smile.

"You five, follow me to the exam, and you, Mr. Macmillan, you can be free."

"Yes," looking at the four Gryffindors with a contemptuous grin and nodding to Snape, he went about his business along with the two henchmen who followed him.

Snape responded with the same smile and followed Slughorn, ignoring the four hate-filled looks.

"Professor."

"Yes, Mr. Snape?"

"After the exam, can you give me a pass to the restricted section?"

"Why do you need this?"

"I want to study the science of potion making in more detail,And also learn more about this world, and especially about magic and spells…"

"If you have any questions about Potions, then I am always ready to answer, you know where to find me."

"Thank you, professor."

They made it to the potions class pretty quickly, located in the Hogwarts dungeon. The room was a spacious, gloomy and rather cool room, completely furnished with various ingredients for making potions. "I see everyone is here," the Dean of Slytherin said after looking around the class.

"Then let's start the exam," several dozen sheets flew off the table and landed in front of each student, "The exam will be held in two stages, the first is written, and the second is practical. For each stage you are given forty-five minutes, are there any questions?" After waiting ten seconds, he continued.

"Okay, you can start." A slight smile played on Snape's lips as he lowered his eyes to the leaf.

Just by looking at the first question, he didn't need to think about how the answer popped up in his head.

If he hadn't killed himself, he would have become a great Potions master, he thought regretfully, "And why do such geniuses always die young?" Sighing heavily, Snape proceeded to the test.

Five minutes was enough for him to finish, and the sheet immediately disappeared, appearing in the hand of Slughorn, who, after going through the answers, smiled contentedly, nodded and put it on the table.

As soon as the first part of the exam was over, everyone stood up from their seats. And at the same moment, the moment the chairs with the tables disappeared, and boilers appeared in their place.

" In the second part, you will have to prepare the Calming Balm, you all have the ingredients, so you can proceed."

As soon as they were allowed to start the task, Snape approached the ingredients and, having taken the necessary ones, returned back to the workplace and started brewing the potion. While he was preparing it, his hands worked like a machine, throwing the right ingredients in the exact proportion and time.

"I would not say that potion brewing is such a difficult subject, the main thing here is to follow exactly the recipe. Although, looking at how the hands move, it is clear that the guy really tried to excel in this discipline… But still, seals and runes are closer to me." Thirty minutes later, a thick gray paste formed in Snape's cauldron, which had a light and pleasant aroma, from the inhalation of which the brain, like the whole body, slowly relaxed.

"Good," Slughorn nodded contentedly after looking into the cauldron. "Mr. Snape is excellent as always, the potion is perfect."

"Thank you, professor."

Ten minutes later, the time was up and the Archmage left the office. His next destination was the library. And she(library) met him with deathly silence.

The room itself was quite large and had a lot of tall bookshelves. We can say that it did not differ in any way from the usual library, only with material on rather specific topics.

Approaching the table, at which sat a middle-aged woman, who, of course, could hardly be called beautiful, but still quite pretty for her age, he put in front of her the sheet that Slughorn had given him.

"Madam Pince, you look great as always," when she heard his words, she was not very surprised, but still, as a woman, she was pleased, so her mood improved slightly and she did not look at poor Snape with the eyes of a bulldog ready to tear apart, if he only tries to spoil at least some book.

Madam Pince was very fond of books and considered them almost her children, and she protected them as best she could. And God forbid at least one person soils or even slightly tears the book, he will become her personal enemy, and he will have to face her wrath.

There is even a legend around Hogwarts that somehow the headmaster decided to read a book about The Theory of Transubstantial Transfiguration and, deep in thought, began to draw something in the margins, and the book immediately slapped him on the forehead.

As they say, it was she who bewitched the book, and even the director, who was the strongest magician in the country, could not defend himself from her wrath.

Therefore, many were afraid of her, because she was not afraid to answer the director, then what will happen to them, ordinary students?

"Snape…" thoughtfully examining the paper, she nodded and turned back. "You can go, but just try at least one book…"

"I know, Madam Pince," smiling politely, he nodded and walked towards the grate with a lock, behind which was a dark room, which was several times smaller than the main library. "Well, let's get down to learning, it's still interesting what this world could achieve, a world with so little magic…"