Hogwarts.
As the start of the term approached, many professors had chosen to return to school early to prepare for their new semester's courses. Snape was no exception.
However, he hadn't been back long, and the potion he had just started hadn't even come to a boil, when a knock sounded at his office door.
The visitor was Victor Wick.
Snape looked at Victor, half-tempted to slam the door in his face again.
But after a brief moment of hesitation, he ultimately abandoned that choice.
Snape didn't speak; he merely stepped aside silently, allowing Victor to enter.
Victor was equally silent. Even the smile that usually graced his face had long since vanished.
He simply walked inside through the space Snape had provided.
Today, Victor was so solemn that Snape found him almost unrecognizable, yet strangely familiar...
"Did you use up the Invigoration Draught I gave you so quickly?" Snape asked coldly as he shut the door.
Victor turned his head. "I didn't come to see you for more Invigoration Draught."
"Then what did you come for?" Snape asked.
"I hope you can help me brew a few additional potions... here are the recipes. Also, I'd like to buy a bottle of Felix Felicis." Victor handed over several sheets of parchment and a bag of Galleons.
The ink on the parchment was still wet, clearly having just been written.
Snape didn't take the parchment or the Galleons. He merely frowned at Victor. "You seem to be making yourself a bit too much at home. What makes you so certain I will agree?"
Victor stared into Snape's eyes, expressionless.
In that instant, Snape finally understood where that sense of familiarity came from.
At this moment, it was as if he were looking at that cold-eyed young man who used to follow the Dark Lord in silence all those years ago.
"Because we are on the same side now, Severus," Victor said.
"Even so, I have no obligation—"
"No, you do! From the moment you decided to seek revenge for Lily and chose to betray the Dark Lord to stand with us, you no longer had any other choice!" Victor said calmly.
Snape's face suddenly contorted.
He looked as if he wanted to explode with rage, yet he somehow suppressed his fury. At the same time, a flicker of heart-wrenching sorrow flashed through his eyes.
Snape's breathing grew ragged. It was nearly half a minute before he slowly reached out to take the parchment and the Galleons from Victor's hand, then pulled a small vial from a nearby cabinet and handed it to him.
As Victor pocketed the Felix Felicis, the sound of rustling paper filled the room.
A moment later, Snape's brow furrowed slightly. "These all seem to be new recipes. I've never seen them before... and the required materials are not cheap."
Victor silently pulled another bulging pouch from his pocket and placed it on the table with a heavy thud.
"Do you think I'm asking you for money?" Snape looked at Victor with displeasure.
"That's not for money; it's for the materials. I know these are new recipes, the ingredients are expensive, and there is a high probability of failure. Therefore, I have prepared ten sets of materials for every recipe. If they all fail, I hope you can help me improve them. You don't need to worry about the materials," Victor said.
Snape glared at Victor. "All fail? You're insulting me. I think you should get a better understanding of what it truly means to be a Potions Master."
Snape had his own pride; the recipes Victor had given him were actually very well-refined, and the success rate wouldn't be anywhere near as low as he suggested.
Under such circumstances, Victor had still prepared ten sets of materials for each potion...
It meant he believed Snape might fail ten times for every single one! To a man as arrogant as Snape regarding his mastery of Potions, this was an unacceptable slight!
"I certainly believe in your abilities, but... I hope to obtain the best possible results," Victor said calmly, ignoring Snape's anger. "After all, I've only just drafted these recipes; they haven't been verified yet."
"You wrote these recipes?" Snape looked at the parchment again. "I never knew you possessed such talent."
"Potions, in essence, are products that use medicinal ingredients as catalysts to produce specific magical reactions within the consumer, working in tandem to achieve a therapeutic result. The final effect is still a magical reaction occurring within the human body. Therefore, to write a new recipe, I only need to determine my envisioned 'therapeutic result,' compile the runic sequences likely to occur when that effect is produced, and then use logic to reverse-engineer it. It isn't as difficult as you imagine," Victor replied.
Snape snapped, "Potions is not nearly as simple as you think!"
"Which is why I came to you, isn't it?" Victor said. "This is your specialty. These recipes have never been practiced; they were born from my reasoning. If there are any flaws, you're the only one who could spot them."
Though Snape was still indignant, he picked up the parchment again to examine it.
This time, he looked exceptionally closely. He was determined to find faults in the recipes so he could ruthlessly mock this amateur's approach to Potions.
However, his sallow face soon turned grim.
"Did you really write these?" Snape asked in disbelief.
"I did."
Hearing Victor's calm reply, Snape felt his head buzzing.
Even with his critical eye, he saw very little room for improvement in these new recipes.
In other words, Victor's earlier statement—which was practically a desecration of the art of Potions—was actually true?
Admittedly, when Potion Masters invent new recipes, they also reverse-engineer from the desired effect. However, because there is no practice during the conceptual stage, redundant steps and excessive ingredients inevitably appear.
Only after repeated trials and experimentation can the unnecessary steps and materials be stripped away to yield the final recipe...
But Victor, without any formal study of Potions... had used his bizarre theory to skip the tedious experimental phases and streamline the recipes to this extent!
At first glance, these didn't look like the musings of a layman; they looked like the research results of a Master who had refined them through a thousand trials!
It was clear that Victor's strange theory, which Snape had previously scoffed at, was actually functional.
And if such a theory could be applied to Potions, what if it were used in other fields?
For a moment, a chill ran down Snape's spine.
He suddenly understood why both Dumbledore and the Dark Lord considered Victor a highly capable assistant...
But why had such a man almost never been seen taking action ten years ago?
"The recipes... have no issues. At least, they appear fine on paper. Success will still require practice." Snape put the parchment down, somewhat begrudgingly.
Snape knew his standards were demanding enough, yet he could only reach this conclusion. It gave him a profound sense of frustration...
"It seems your grasp of Potions isn't as pathetic as I thought... so why do you come to me every time to brew them?" Snape said coldly. "Are you doing this just to mock me?"
"I haven't studied Potions systematically... I've only researched the properties of the ingredients. Potions of this caliber still require your hand," Victor explained.
Thanks to the completion of his database, Victor didn't need to memorize the properties of all those materials; he only needed to input them into the database to access the information!
Otherwise, even with his ability to reverse-engineer, he wouldn't be able to derive a recipe without knowing the properties of the materials.
Snape gripped the parchment tightly, his eyes fixed on Victor.
To write recipes comparable to a Master's lifetime of work without formal study? Snape's heart was a whirlpool of complex emotions.
After a long pause, Snape spoke weakly. "Come back in three days."
Victor didn't say another word. He turned and walked out.
"Wait!" Snape suddenly called out.
Victor stopped and turned back to face him.
"I noticed you seem... different today," Snape said deeply.
"The holidays are over, Severus. You've seen how I am when I'm working. Have you forgotten?"
Victor left, and the wooden door closed.
Yet Snape continued to stare at the door, his eyes filled with pain and remorse.
Of course he remembered Victor like this... back when the Dark Lord was at his peak, Victor was his most capable right hand.
Though he had never once raised his hand in public, his ruthless and sinister methods had left every Death Eater trembling in fear.
It was precisely because of this side of Victor that Snape had always believed him to be more loyal to the Dark Lord than anyone else! He had fully believed that Victor only approached Dumbledore on the Dark Lord's orders...
That was why he had made a critical misjudgment... leading to a catastrophic mistake!
Snape felt he could never forgive Victor, but in truth, he knew that was just an excuse.
In reality, the person he could truly never forgive was himself.