A Friendly Negotiation with Snape

Returning along the original path, Harry was still struggling with those small wooden sticks, but he had made progress since the beginning; he was already able to make the sticks pointed, and with a bit more effort, turning them into needles was just a matter of time.

After all, his father was a little genius who had mastered the Animagus Transfiguration on his own, and his mother was also exceptionally gifted; Harry had inherited at least some of those fine genes from his parents.

However, Ezio did not let Harry follow him to Snape's office.

By the time he reached the vicinity of Snape's office, the first class of the afternoon had ended, and a moment later, Snape emerged from the darkness with a cold expression, looking just like a bat ready to devour someone.

He ignored Ezio and pushed the door open to walk into his office.

"Did I invite you in?" Snape turned his head to look at Ezio, who had followed him inside.

"Don't be so narrow-minded, Professor Snape, show the child a little more tolerance." Ezio waved his hand dismissively. "I just spoke with Professor Dumbledore, and he quite supports my idea; after all, I am doing this for you, for Slytherin, and even for the sake of all the students at Hogwarts."

"You must be just as annoyed by those clumsy fools who only know how to brew potions into a pot of fecal polymer, right?"

"This is your office, so I won't invite you to sit down."

Ezio pulled up a chair and sat down casually, his demeanor relaxed.

"Do you think that just because you obtained the Headmaster's permission, you can speak to me like this?"

The malice in Snape's eyes was almost overflowing; he stared fixedly at Ezio, as if he might throw him out at any second.

"Perhaps we should first uphold the traditions of Slytherin, my respected Head of House."

Ezio flipped his wrist, and a foot-long Broken Spear appeared in his hand.

"Wizards cannot Apparate within Hogwarts, but I can. We are less than two meters apart right now; is your non-verbal spell faster, or is my speed at cutting through spell protection faster?"

"Actually, we are not enemies; there is no need to harbor such hostility toward each other." As he spoke, Ezio turned his palm and pinned the Broken Spear into the armrest of the chair. He stood up and looked at Snape without fear. "I was the one who brought Harry to Slytherin; that makes you happy, doesn't it?"

"His eyes look exactly like his mother's. Does that remind you of something?"

In an instant, the veins on Snape's forehead bulged, as if a forbidden zone had been touched, and he gripped his wand.

"I have no interest in the grievances of your older generation. Just a moment ago, I helped Harry understand what you were trying to convey to him. He was surprised to learn that you were once his mother's good friend, and I am relaying his gratitude to you on his behalf."

Snape narrowed his eyes slightly, his expression remaining as cold and grim as before, and his gaze toward Ezio showed not a ripple of emotion.

"Thanks to a certain unnamed Gryffindor senior, I have learned a bit about what happened at Hogwarts back then." Watching the anger in Snape's eyes burn ever more fiercely, Ezio spoke calmly and softly: "Loving a smart, beautiful, and kind girl is not a mistake..."

"Shut your mouth!" Snape snarled through gritted teeth.

"But the mistake was not cherishing her when you had the chance."

Snape's wand tip pointed at Ezio, who was two steps away. Sparks flickered at the tip; the master's rage and fury had been transmitted to the wand, and it was already ignited.

"I even know that you were very close to that group of people back then, such as Lucius Malfoy and those other Slytherin scumbags who later became Death Eaters."

"My dear Head of House, you wouldn't want Harry to know about these things, would you? Don't tell me you don't care about him; you have shown too many flaws when it comes to him. The way you look at him is as if you are looking at a son you haven't seen in over a decade; your indulgence is almost overflowing."

Snape's expression stiffened slightly, but fortunately, he already wore a death-mask of a face, so he barely revealed any cracks.

"You have seen it too; Harry inherited his mother's talent and is a smart and excellent child. Do you want him to spend the next few years hanging around with those idiots and fools? And then turn into a hopeless moron?"

"You know better than I do what Slytherin is like now; it takes a lifetime to learn to be good, but only an instant to go bad."

"If I wash my hands of Harry and let those fools hang around with him, do you think he will turn into the person you hate the most?"

"If you think you can use this kind of thing as a threat against me?" A sneer squeezed out from the corner of Snape's mouth.

"You love his mother, isn't that enough?"

The rest of Snape's sentence was choked off in his throat. At this moment, he deeply suspected whether Dumbledore had told this little bastard something; otherwise, how could he be so certain, and keep using it as a threat against him? A sense of powerlessness suddenly emerged from the depths of Snape's heart, and his hatred for Ezio grew even more intense.

"I have no malice toward Harry; Professor Dumbledore can vouch for me on that point. I have expectations of Harry, which is why I hope more than anyone that he can become better."

"Voldemort is not dead, is he? Sooner or later, Harry will face that Dark Lord who has returned from the dead. This is something he must face; perhaps this is his destiny. The blood feud of his parents needs to be settled by his own hands. He now has this realization, and as it happens, I can help him grow faster. Professor Dumbledore has tacitly approved of this."

"It seems Dumbledore has reached the point of senility." Snape spoke sinisterly, but the wand he had raised slowly lowered.

"It wasn't him who told me; I discovered it myself. I found some things that didn't add up, made a deduction, and later confirmed it."

"Voldemort created a Horcrux; he will return sooner or later. Isn't his greatest dream immortality? This is no secret."

"Harry has come to Hogwarts, so the gears of fate are beginning to turn. Voldemort has been silent for ten years; ten years is long enough. We cannot be sure exactly when he will return, but I don't think it will make us wait too long."

"Do you want Harry at that time to be a mediocre wizard who wasted his talent and is unremarkable in every way?"

"You can hate me, but you cannot deny that I am the most excellent one in Slytherin. Looking across Hogwarts, no one has a more urgent desire to become stronger than I do. I have enough talent, and I am willing to put in more effort than others. I will inevitably become the most dazzling person at Hogwarts. Being able to follow by my side and receive my help is an honor."

"We are all Slytherins; we all know that nothing is more important than gaining benefits. Cast aside those meaningless negative emotions, Professor. Compared to what we will gain in the future, some personal likes and dislikes are insignificant. To give up on cooperation just because you dislike me—what a foolish choice. That is not Slytherin at all."

"Do you think the relationship between Slytherin and Gryffindor is really that good? But since it isn't, why did they stand together to build Hogwarts? Even this castle was once provided by Slytherin."

"Because of benefits, because of glory, because they, who founded Hogwarts, became the great wizards who are still praised and remembered a thousand years later. Even if Slytherin is criticized by later generations as an evil wizard who pursued Dark Magic, no one dares to pin the bad name of 'Dark Wizard' on him, because he is a founder of Hogwarts. This allowed his name to live on for generations; he made an unquestionable contribution to the wizarding world!"

"Slytherin has always walked the path of pursuing glory, and so do we. There is no need to care about the process; as long as the result is what we want to see, then that is enough."

"Cunning sophistry." Snape said coldly.

"That is because I firmly believe that you, too, can become the first great wizard to change the outdated customs of Potions and be remembered by people in the future."

"I want to obtain the power that will allow me to complete my revenge!"

"And what you can obtain is the respect and admiration of the people, as well as the future of raising Harry into an outstanding wizard."

"Don't you want to attend Harry's wedding one day, as his mother's best friend, and personally offer him your blessings?"

Ezio revealed a smile. "Our interests are aligned, so what misunderstanding could there possibly be that cannot be resolved?"