.
"I sensed it too. May I begin my studentship?"
Damon remembered the experience. He had defended himself well against Snape's prying and even counterattacked. Snape's emotions were controlled, but he couldn't hide his current state.
The other man's eyes seemed to harbor a dark snake, scary to shift everything. He had clearly been deceived and even somewhat influenced by the false fury Damon had purposely conjured.
This also meant that after only two hours of study in the last week, Considering Damon's available free time this week. He had already made significant progress in Occlumency, a powerful form of magic.
Not only Snape, but even Damon himself was surprised—he had a vague idea of the answer. A Patronus. It must have sensed the invasion of his mind, and its anger, it had combined with his will to counterattack through Occlumency.
"You..."
Snape paused, hopelessly searching for an excuse.
After a moment's thought, he said, "We'll have to observe further. We can't be sure yet whether this counteraction is a fluke. Also, you've transformed happiness into anger, which is good. But can you transform more emotions?"
Snape's thoughts became
clearer.
"Something seems to have happened to you that I'm not aware of?"
"Oh, I just learned the Patronus Charm last week. The change just now must be an influence."
"The Patronus Charm."
Snape opened his mouth silently.
He learned not only Occlumency but also the Patronus Charm so quickly?
According to the protocol, Damon will soon use Legilimency on him. He purposely exposed what he had shown him the last time. This time, he'll have to give it his all.
Tell Snape to inform Damon, 'I'm afraid you'll read my memories, so I've decided to end this practice. That would be worse than killing him.
He couldn't accept and bowing down before a twelve-year-old.
Snape mastered basic spells before school and invented countless others at Hogwarts—truly a genius.
Damon nodded, raising his wand at Snape—this time, the Dragon Patronus didn't intervene.
"Legilimens."
This time, Damon didn't see much.
He only saw a few fragments of Snape studying alone, fragments of a Potions genius's development, and Snape quickly interrupted them. They both opened their eyes again, and a hint of fatigue was evident.
Mental confrontation was extremely exhausting, let alone two spells masters proficient in Occlumency using Legilimency against each other—only Snape, a former Death Eater, would have suggested such a reckless move.
If it were Dumbledore, perhaps he would have used the Pensieve, a gentler method, to help Damon.
But that was only theoretical—the old bee wouldn't teach him.
"Alright, when you come next week, we'll see if you can disguise happiness as something other than anger. After that, we'll change it up a little bit, not just happiness, but sadness, anger, grief. In short, you still have a lot to learn."
Snape said this with a little bit of hesitation. He had just come up with this idea, and his teaching of Damon had sparked a lot of inspiration. He suddenly realized that if Voldemort returned at this time and he wanted to continue his spying, relying solely on emotional deception might not be enough.
He could hide his thoughts and provide some guidance, but he hadn't made any extreme changes. A single emotion would inevitably arouse Voldemort's doubt.
Not only Damon, but perhaps he would need to put more effort into this.
"Okay, Professor, here's the reward,"
Damon's response interrupted Snape's thoughts, snapping him back to his senses.
He pulled out a photo and handed it to Snape. This time, 'Lily' was wearing a British uniform, a bachelor's hat, and a warm smile, looking quite modern.
The overwhelming impact nearly stupefied Snape. He froze for two seconds before hastily putting the photo away. When he looked up, Damon was already at the door, ready to leave.
"Goodbye, Professor."
"Goodbye, Damon."
It was as if things had become so peaceful between the two of them.
After leaving Snape's office, Damon suddenly remembered something he hadn't done.
It wasn't that he had forgotten, but he hadn't felt the need to do it. Now that he remembered it, he decided to grab it.
Unable to locate it, Damon searched every available classroom at Hogwarts until he finally found the book, Advanced Potion-Making, in a corner locker.
He flipped open the book. It was unsigned, with only a single line of text on the title page:
[This book belongs to the Half-blood Prince.]
Snape's mother was a witch, his father a Muggle, and half-blood represented his origins.
Prince was Snape's mother's surname, literally meaning "prince.
"Snape was somewhat like a typical middle school kid when he was young." young."
Damon smiled, putting the book away and returning to the Room of Requirement to read.
"Advanced Magic Making? You've already taught yourself all the way to sixth-year potions?"
Hermione noticed the book Damon was reading—Charming and Transfiguration. Alarmed, she thought she couldn't allow herself to fall behind in her studies! So fast. I'm not that passionate about potion-making."
"So what's this?"
"A book I trip upon. It must have been a textbook left behind by a senior. It contains a lot of novel ideas."
Damon casually handed it to Hermione. She took it and looked at it, seeing a multitude of corrections and various alterations to the original textbook.
"It's completely unusual!"
She shook her head and quickly handed the textbook back to Damon—the content was too "stimulating" for her. She couldn't accept it, and she didn't want to be influenced by such unusual ideas.
Damon took it with a smile, but did not respond to Hermione. Instead, he reminded Harry and the others who were still concentrating on practicing spells - these people seemed to be competing with each other.
Last week, whenever he returned to the Room of Requirement, they would come over to chat with him during breaks. More and more focused, Harry was trying his best to balance Quidditch training and spell progress. Neither of them wanted to fall behind, and they were doing a bit better.
Neville had no other choice but to obey.
The two of them practiced hard, so he followed suit and was able to barely keep up with their pace.
Damon did not join them for the time being, but closed his eyes and meditated.
A Peeking into Snape's memory is not just about practicing Occlumency and Legilimency; it offers valuable insights into magic from Snape's perspective.
It can help him fill in the gaps.
Author here,
I'm trying to improve my translation. I hope you never lose your hope.
Read 20+ chapters ahead at
p@treon.com/Horizons685
(End of this chapter)