5 Chapter 5

After leaving the office, Snape immediately headed towards the Slytherin common room.

As soon as he reached his room and slammed the door behind him, a smile appeared on his previously saddened face.

"I still haven't forgotten my acting skills yet, damn it! Even I myself almost believed my words," Snape touched his temple with his wand, the young man's face twisted for a moment and he thought 'I didn't think that your memories would have so much use for me.'

Still, two hours before the meeting, he was able to detect a particle of Severus's personality that was hidden quite deep in his subconscious, and as soon as he began to move the wand away from his head, a gray firefly followed it. "And what should I do with you…?" He looked at the personality with a smile. "Destroy or hold back for now?"

[A/N: This is the same as how Dumbledore took out a piece of his memory for the pensive.]

Yet it was only thanks to this piece that Snape was able to play this role so well, because he used his(Snape's)emotions, that's why Slughorn so easily believed the Archmage.

"Okay, still, without you, I would be lost, so live for now, and I think you will still be useful to me," pointing his hand at the piece of personality, he closed his eyes and began to whisper something indistinct, and in the next moment around the firefly a thin green barrier appeared, and after the Wizard plunged it back into his head, and with a deep sigh, the young man fell on the bed, "It's really much easier…"

After lying down with his eyes closed for a while, Snape got up and decided to get down to business. As soon as he wanted to know about Salazar, a huge amount of information about him immediately surfaced in his head, which could not but please the Wizard.

"Hmm… 'Greatest Dark Wizard' is an arrogant nickname, I would look at this Salazar when he had to face a real dark Wizard… Parseltongue… hmm… everyone is completely crazy, since they consider this as a sign of a dark Wizard, damn it! How stupid it is, but it's not for me to judge all these idiots."

Taking a deep breath, he shook his head and again delved into his memories, but Snape didn't even have to think much before the information about the magic in this world surfaced in his head, from which the man could not help smiling, "Apparently, I was not the only one who thought to study it ... and he(snape) collected a lot of information, well, now it will be much easier ..." and the Wizard again began to study information about the founder of Hogwarts.

Over the next hour, he went through all the information regarding Salazar, and also completely internalized it. But he didn't find anything important, which slightly upset him, but the young man was not very surprised by this, considering it quite normal, because who would store such information, and even in a place where students can easily get to.

"I'll have to talk to Slughorn about this, I think he should know more about him, but now it's worth taking a nap, I think after class it will be possible to take a little walk around Hogwarts and get to know him better ..." yawning tiredly, he quickly took off his clothes and jumped into bed. "But the beds here are still great!

~~~~~~~~

The next day he started with the Transfiguration exam, which he passed with "excellent" without much difficulty, yet the transformation magic was just the basics of magic in his world and came from Eternal Transformation, a much more complex science that requires strength and Archmage-level knowledge. And, of course, Snape owned this magic, but his weak core did not yet allow even the simplest such manipulations to be done. But still, he had to give credit to this world, because simple transformation was a level higher than his, and the number of spells on this topic was terribly huge, which allowed even third-rate Wizards with terrible control and fantasy to use it.

Of course, during the exam, Snape did not show too much, but only used the knowledge gained from Snape's memory.

Finally, leaving the office of Minerva McGonagall under her slightly thoughtful look, the Wizard first decided to wander around the first floor, but not just like that, but in search of any hidden rooms, yet the castle had a very long history, and that there should be many "interesting" places, the young man had no doubt.

There wasn't much else on this floor other than classrooms for subjects such as Defense Against the Dark Arts, Muggle Studies and Transfiguration, as well as a couple of teachers' offices, the Head of Gryffindor and the restrooms.

Of course, Snape knew this, but he still decided to walk around while using a perception-enhancing spell.

--- In the next hour, the Wizard studied each classroom, and also got to know all the teachers closer, yet he still had two more years to study in this place. But Snape tried to act as natural as possible, holding a potions book in his hand and "almost oblivious to his surroundings".

After all, one of Severus's favorite pastimes was precisely reading such literature, and there were even such precedents when he read too much of a book and just wandered aimlessly around the castle, although basically he liked silence, hide in some office and calmly read , while hoping not to run into Potter and company, and one of these places was the closed ladies' room on the first floor *, which was inhabited by the ghost of the girl Myrtle, who had once died in that very place. And, as soon as the young man stood in front of the door with the sign "Toilet not working" and was about to open it, he heard a cry that did not surprise him much.

Opening the door, Snape went inside with a calm step and began to examine a rather interesting "style" with slight interest. in which shells were placed around a huge pillar, which aroused a bit of suspicion among the Wizard, but he still decided not to dwell on it for now, but turned his gaze to the toilets, from where a ghost in the form of a Hogwarts student flew out. "You again…" Raising her glasses and wiping her tears, she looked at the young man with a lot of pity, "Are they getting you again?"

"Something like that."

"If you could bring them to me, I would show them, and they would never turn up again!"

"Some other time, better tell me about yourself, have you seen anything strange here? "

"Strange?" Stroking her chin, she shook her head.

"Rarely does anyone come here except you," she replied as she circled around Snape.

"I see… but how did you die, after all, this is Hogwarts, and here the rules are pretty strict?" Myrtle looked at "Snape" with mild surprise, after all, he never spoke to her on this subject, and he was very silent, and when he came, he only closed himself in the toilet and read, as if trying to distance himself from reality, just like she once did.

"I… I've never been asked about this before, and I myself don't remember much…," she lowered her eyes sadly, she continued, "When the holiday was over, I was offended… I quarreled with one girl and ran away here, and then I heard something-- then a hiss and a pair of large eyes looked at me, and that's all ... "

"Big eyes, you say ... and what kind of pupils did they have?" pointing his finger forward, he created a small eye in the air with a vertical pupil and yellow sclera, while the Wizard did not take his eyes off the ghost, whose face was twisted, it struggled between fear and horror.

" I see, Salazar, you're a fucking psycho… keeping your pet in this place… but I have to thank you… skin, teeth, saliva and even eyes, such a generous gift and…" the young man couldn't hold back the corners of his lips, which began to rise up by themselves, " … basilisk blood and a heart… maybe even before the end of Hogwarts I'll get one interesting potion…"

"Th-it's them… I… I…"

"I understood, thanks for answering my question," Snape had a good opinion, nevertheless, it was she who could be called the second friend after Lily, who always tried to support him in the most difficult moments for Snape.

"DO YOU THINK YOU CAN HIDE HERE, SNIVELLUS?!" With a loud bang, the door to the women's bathroom slammed into the wall.

"Stupefy!" three voices sounded at the same time, and three white beams burst into the toilet and hit Snape right in the back, who was thrown slightly forward, but he still resisted, and a dangerous gleam flashed in his eyes.

" Snape! You dishonest bastards!" One of three assailants shouted angrily, and at this moment the girl in the bathroom yelled angrily and the next moment, water began to pour out of toilets, sinks and levers.

"Disappear, you damn crybaby, we only have questions for him," James ignored the water and looked at Snape's back with an anticipatory grin, "Well, what does it feel like when they attack surreptitiously?! You embarrassed me in front of Lily! Today you definitely...!"

"So what?" Hearing this indifferent voice, the three guys froze in surprise, bulging eyes at Snape slowly turning towards them.

" Silencio!" Another bright beam shot out from behind Potter, hitting the Archmage's chest.

"Sirius, great, now... Expelliarmus!" The wand lying in Snape's sleeve flew right under the feet of the trio of Wizards, "Now what do you say?"

"Not bad, well done," Snape nodded with a slight smile, causing the unfortunate students to wrinkle their faces.

"What's next?"

"We'll hang you naked in the main hall…"

"But before we beat you up, what are you going to do without a wand?"

"I won't allow it! If you don't stop, I'll call Professor McGonagall here and she'll punish you!" standing in front of the marauders, Myrtle exclaimed angrily.

Once upon a time, she herself went through bullying, and to look at how someone is trying to do the same with the only person whom she considered a friend, the girl simply could not.

"It's not worth it, I can handle it myself, you've already helped enough," pointing his palm at the trio of the Wizards, he whispered, "Aguamenti."

In the next moment, water jets burst out of the water from the toilets, sinks and taps, hitting the hands of the marauders and knocking out sticks from them, and after a few more streams as thick as the arm of a large man hit them in the stomachs, throwing the Wizards into the walls.

"Myrtle, tell the professor everything that happened here, except for the questions I asked you."

"AND?" The girl, not even having time to recover from the incident, saw Snape's sharply pale face, which fell right on the wet floor. "AND WELL STOP!"

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Stupefy* - the spell is designed to stun the enemy or moving objects and knock them down.

Silencio ** (Silencio, from lat. silens - "quiet") - a spell of silence.

Expelliarmus*** is a disarming spell that causes an object held by the opponent to fly off to the side.