Leaving the office, Alan headed straight back to the Slytherin common room. The moment he reached his bedroom and slammed the door, a smile replaced the sadness on his face.
"I haven't completely lost my acting skills yet, damn it. Even I almost believed my own words." He pressed his wand to his temple, and his face twisted for a moment. "I didn't think you'd still be useful." Two hours before the meeting, he had found a fragment of Severus's personality buried deep in the subconscious. And when Alan started to pull the wand away, a gray firefly followed it. "And what am I supposed to do with you...?" He looked at it with a smile. "Destroy you, or keep you for now?" It was only thanks to that fragment that he had played the role so well; he had borrowed its emotions, and that was why Slughorn had believed the Archmage so easily. "Fine. Without you I'd be lost anyway, so live for now. I think you'll come in handy again." He lifted a hand toward the fragment, closed his eyes, and began whispering something indistinct. The next moment, a thin green barrier formed around the firefly. Then Alan pushed it back into his head. Taking a deep breath, he dropped onto the bed. "This really does make things much easier..."
After lying there for a while with his eyes closed, Alan got up and decided to get to work. The moment he tried to recall Salazar, a flood of information surfaced at once, and that could not help but please him.
"Hm... 'The Greatest Dark Wizard' is an arrogant nickname. I'd love to see Salazar when he had to face a real dark mage... Parselmouth... meh... they've gone completely mad if they think that alone is a sign of a dark mage. Damn. How stupid that is, but it's not for me to judge these idiots." He took a deep breath, shook his head, and dove into the memories again. "Legilimency... not bad, and quite rare. Even in my world there weren't many mind mages. I should look into it later..." Alan did not even finish the thought before information about that branch of magic surfaced too, and he could not hold back a smile. "Apparently I wasn't the only one planning to study it... He gathered quite a lot. Well, now it will be much easier..." And Alan continued digging through what Severus knew about the founder of Hogwarts.
Over the next hour, he went through everything related to Salazar and absorbed it fully. He did not find anything especially important, which disappointed him a little, but he was not surprised. Who would keep that kind of information somewhere students could access it?
"I'll have to talk to Slughorn about this. He should know more. For now, I should take a nap. After classes, I can take a little walk around Hogwarts and get to know it better..." Yawning, Alan quickly stripped and threw himself into bed. "But the beds here are excellent!"
The next day began with a Transfiguration exam, which he passed with an Outstanding without much difficulty. Transformation magic was only the basics in his world, a branch stemming from Eternal Transformation, a far more complex science that required Archmage-level power and knowledge. Of course, Alan had mastered it, but his weak core did not yet allow him to perform even the simplest similar manipulation.
Still, he had to give this world its due. Basic Transfiguration here was a level above what he had known, and the number of spells on the subject was horrifying. It let even third-rate mages with terrible control and imagination use it.
Of course, during the exam Alan did not show anything extra, and only used the knowledge taken from Snape's memory.
Leaving Minerva McGonagall's classroom under her slightly thoughtful gaze, Alan decided to wander the first floor first. Not just for a stroll, though; he was searching for hidden rooms. The castle had a very long history, and he had no doubt there were plenty of "interesting" places here.
There was nothing particularly special on this floor besides the classrooms for Defense Against the Dark Arts, Muggle Studies, and Transfiguration, along with a couple of teachers' offices, the Gryffindor Head of House's office, and the toilets. Alan knew that, of course, but he still walked around while using a spell to enhance his perception.
Over the next hour, he examined every classroom and got to know the teachers better. He still had two years to study here. Alan tried to behave as naturally as possible, holding a Potions book and "barely paying attention to his surroundings." Reading that kind of literature had been one of Severus's favorite habits. There had even been times when Severus got so absorbed that he wandered the castle aimlessly. Mostly, though, he loved silence, hiding in an empty classroom and reading in peace while hoping not to run into Potter and company. One such place was the out-of-order girls' toilet on the first floor*, where the ghost of a girl named Myrtle lived; she had died there long ago.
And when Alan stopped in front of the door marked "Out of Order" and was about to open it, he heard crying. That did not surprise him.
He pushed the door open, stepped inside calmly, and studied the rather curious "design" with mild interest: sinks arranged around a huge pillar that made him a little suspicious. For now, he chose not to fixate on it. He shifted his gaze to the stalls, and a ghost in the form of a Hogwarts student flew out.
"You again..." Myrtle lifted her glasses and wiped at her tears, looking at him with a touch of pity. "Are they bullying you again?"
"Something like that."
"You could bring them to me. I'd show them, and they'd never come near again!"
"Maybe another time. Better tell me about yourself. Have you seen anything strange here?"
"Strange?" Myrtle rubbed her chin and shook her head. "Hardly anyone comes here except you," she said, circling Alan.
"I see... And how did you die? This is Hogwarts, and the rules are pretty strict here."
Myrtle looked at him with mild surprise, because he had never asked her that before. He had always been quiet. When he came, he simply locked himself in a stall and read, as if trying to escape reality, just like she once had.
"I... no one has ever asked me that before, and I don't remember much myself..." Myrtle lowered her eyes sadly. "There was a party, and I got upset... I argued with a girl and ran here. Then I heard some hissing, and a pair of big eyes looked at me, and that was it..."
"'Big eyes,' you say... And what were the pupils like?" Alan pointed a finger and formed a small eye in the air, with a vertical pupil and a yellow sclera, without taking his gaze off Myrtle. Her face twisted as she fought between fear and horror. "I see." "Salazar, you damn psycho... keeping your pet in a place like this... But I should thank you. Skin, teeth, saliva, even eyes, such a generous gift, and..." Alan could not stop the corners of his mouth from creeping up. "...basilisk blood and heart... I might even manage to brew one interesting potion before I leave Hogwarts..."
"Th-that's them... I... I..."
"I understand. Thank you for answering." Alan had always had a decent opinion of Myrtle; after all, she could be called Severus's second friend after Lily, always trying to support him in his hardest moments.
"THINK YOU CAN HIDE HERE, EH, SNIVELLUS?!"
With a loud bang, the girls' toilet door slammed into the wall.
"Stupefy!" three voices shouted at once, and three white beams streaked into the toilet, hitting Alan squarely in the back. He lurched forward, but he still stayed on his feet, and a dangerous gleam flashed in his eyes.
"Snape! You dishonorable bastards! Not only did you strike from behind, but it's three against one!" Myrtle cried angrily, and the next moment water began pouring from the toilets, sinks, and faucets.
"Get lost, you damned crybaby. We just have questions for him." James ignored the water and stared at Alan's back with an eager grin. "Well, how does it feel to be attacked from behind?! You humiliated me in front of Lily! Today you'll definitely...!"
"And?" That indifferent voice made all three freeze. Their eyes bulged as Snape turned slowly.
"Silencio!" Another bright beam flew from behind James and struck Alan in the chest.
"Sirius, perfect! Now... Expelliarmus!" The wand hidden in Alan's sleeve shot out and landed right under the trio's feet. "So, what do you have to say now?"
"Not bad. Quick work." Snape nodded with a slight smile, and the trio grimaced. "And then?"
"We'll hang you naked in the Great Hall..."
"Oh... not bad, not bad. And then?"
"But first we'll beat you. What will you do without a wand?"
"I won't allow that! If you don't stop, I'll call Professor McGonagall, and she'll punish you!" Myrtle stepped in front of the Marauders and shouted.
Once, Myrtle herself had been bullied. Watching someone try to do the same to the only person she considered a friend was something she simply could not bear.
"No need. I can handle it myself. You've helped enough." Alan raised his palm toward the three boys and whispered, "Aguamenti."
The next moment, jets of water burst from the toilet bowls, sinks, and faucets, striking their hands and knocking their wands away. Then several more streams, as thick as a grown man's arm, slammed into their stomachs and threw them into the walls.
"Myrtle, tell everything that happened here, except for the questions I asked you."
"Huh?" Myrtle had not yet recovered when Alan's face suddenly went terribly pale and he collapsed straight onto the wet floor.
"STOP THIS RIGHT NOW...!"
Stupefy*: a spell intended to stun an opponent or moving objects and knock them off their feet. Silencio (from Latin silens: "quiet"): the silencing spell. Expelliarmus*: a defensive spell that makes the object held by an opponent fly away.
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