The first week of September faded into routine at Hogwarts.
For most, it was lessons, homework, and late-night chatter in common rooms.
For Cassius, it was reports.
Delivered through enchanted parchments and whispered into two-way mirrors, the first trickle of intelligence reached his studyground before the new term's dust had even settled.
The network was working.
His seeds—synthetic muggleborns among them—had not disappointed.
They took to the castle like spiders, crawling through hidden corridors and forgotten classrooms, feeding Cassius their web of knowledge, beyond what he already knew from the movies and novels.
~
The Professors
The first set of reports was dry, lists of names, routines, and observations.
But Cassius read every word with hungry eyes.
McGonagall: As strict as the books suggested, her Transfiguration class ran like a clockwork machine.
"Cold, but fair," one spy wrote. "She favors discipline above all else, and has little time for any nonesense."
Snape: "Terrifying," another scribbled, the ink blotched by nervous hands.
The man's bias toward Slytherins was so blatant it practically dripped off the page.
Yet behind the cruelty, there was obvious pain that made him lighter if only just to those muggle-born girls espeically when Slythering students tried to use the word Mudblood towards them.
Flitwick: Kind, encouraging, but already buried under the flood of extra students. "He squeaks like a bird when flustered." And excited to see so many taking interest in the new Arcana published charms spellbook.
And the new Defense Against the Dark Arts professor—a nobody, not one known as a named character from the media taught practically as if the class was self-study only reading straight from the book with little to no practical lessons happening.
The man seemed to be at hogwarts for a reason beyond teaching.
Cassius smirked.
Voldemort's curse on that post seemed alive and well.
And the standard was set, the first years had revealed their collective opinion on ever single professor who taught them.
Most were competent, only three were excellant, while most were... incompetent.
Potions, Trasfiguration, and Charms scored high marks in Cassius's mind.
Herbology got a passing grade, but as for flying lessons, and history of magic... they fail to meet the bare standard.
A flying class with a near 100% chance of at least one student being sent to the hospital wing with injuries, a history class taught by a ghost whose so boring even the bookworms fall asleep in the class.
When it came time for Cassius to participate Hogwarts would be receivnig a shakedown to fix the falling standards at hogwarts.
~
By October, the children had gone exploring.
Having gotten used to their course load and getting bored with the endless repetitive studying and limited forms of entertainment.
Letter after letter, report after report, announcing that the castle is alive.
Doors that kept you from entering, or that opened to hallways other than the ones you wanted, staircases that would move away from your desired path, or would form a slide causing you to go tumbing down without grace.
And then there was the lake.
"A boy dared us to throw stones in. A tentacle rose and waved at us. We ran screaming. honestly who keeps a friggin Kracken in a school lake!"
Cassius chuckled aloud.
Yes, Hogwarts was a treasure chest, waiting to be pried open.
And soon, its contents would be his to discover for himself
~.
But with true hogwartz fashion the year was not peaceful.
November brought the first calamity.
An explosion rocked the library, sending debris across several aisles and filling the chamber with smoke.
The culprit?
Officially "unknown."
Unofficially, the Defense professor himself.
Having been absent from the Halloween feast with the explosion happening that night and cleanup lasting into the following days.
"He was bleeding from the arm, coughing dust, claiming it was sabotage," one report read. "But everyone says he botched a warding charm. Madam Pince nearly had a fit."
Cassius tapped the parchment thoughtfully.
A teacher who sabotaged himself was a liability.
A liability meant opportunity.
Each teachers failing could be used against Dumbledore as signs of his own mismanagement of the school, or failure to locate proper teachers when replacing aging, retiring staff members.
The network noted the aftermath: half the upper years mocked the man behind his back; the other half pitied him.
Either way, his authority was gone, while the mystery behind what he was doing in the library began to form a conspiracy theory among the student body.
Cassius smiled faintly.
Weakness in leadership was fertile soil for him to implant his own pieces to the machine.
~
The last of the reported collections was to do with a new dawn of a prank era at hogwarts.
Two redheaded boys, first-years, had declared war on order itself.
The Weasley twins.
"They slipped a firework into Snape's cauldron," one report crowed. "It turned his hair green for three days."
Another: "They charmed Filch's mop to chase him through the halls."
Another still: "They've begun testing sweets that make people's tongues stick to the roof of their mouths."
Cassius closed his eyes, imagining them—chaotic, inventive, fearless.
They reminded him of the Marauders he had read about, but cruder, unsharpened, just starting out with their craft, far from the evetual joke shop tycoons they would become after another couple of years tutleage.
Cassius figured he might pit his own wits against them to spur them on, getting the Aranum to focus some of their collective brain power to generate some children focused goods or charms that would cause fits of laughter or general goodtimes.
Yet another source of income, but compared to the battle spells, defensive works and the like some openly accepted assignment to these lighter projects for a change of pace on their own daily grind.
~
The year itself carried on into the new year, with not all to much noteworthy happening.
Sytherin despite its limited numbers still ruled the housecup standings even as the year approached the end, their Quidditch team likewise seemingly destined to bring about their 5th straight win.
Hufflepuff tried to fight to good fight but even with the mass of numbers was unable to fight against the overpowering might of Snapes favoritism, while Griffindor lost their chances thanks to the weasley's repeated pranks causing their points to dimishis just as fast as they earned them.
In his mentors training ground, Cassius breathed out a sigh of relief, the school year was about to end, and the DADA professor had already left, having been heavily injured once more in the library though not managing to blow it up again, much to the thanks of Madam Pince.
As for Cassius his own training reached a whole new level.
He'd had his system now for just about six years and thanks to that his growth was considerable compared to where he started, he still did not know the upper limits of the system, but it was clear he was reaching the first bottle neck at least until his mana lines and core stabilized and true natural growth could begin to massively expand his magical reservers and opening up the pathways for Cassius to idle farm more experience points to rank up his skills and spells further.
Name: Cassius Snape
Magic: 1533
Skills:
Charms Lv. 2 (2,536/1,000,000 EXP)
└ Lumos Lv. 2 (1/10,000 EXP)
└ Wingardium Leviosa Lv. 2 (1/10,000 EXP)
└ Alohomora Lv. 2 (1,337/10,000 EXP)
Magical Control Lv. 3 (194,836/10,000,000 EXP)
Thinking Lv. 3 (392/10,000,000 EXP)
Available Idle Slots (15)