The Fattened Snape

His conversation with Professor McGonagall went very smoothly—such ease made Li Wei feel quite comfortable.

"Well then, let's leave it at that for today."

"Thank you for your help."

Li Wei bade Professor McGonagall farewell and left the deputy headmistress's office with his two assistants and Barton.

Unexpectedly, someone had been waiting here for quite some time.

As the warmth and scent of tea from the office were shut away, a damp, chilling gust suddenly swept over them, carrying Hogwarts Castle's distinctive blend of ancient stone walls and potion ingredients.

"I thought you'd died in some corner somewhere long ago."

Li Wei stopped and calmly turned toward the voice.

Severus Snape leaned against the stone wall, watching Li Wei with cold eyes.

The contours of his face were no longer distinct, making him appear somewhat bloated and slack. Greasy black hair clung to both sides of his cheeks, and several gray strands could be glimpsed at his temples—certainly not caused by potion dust.

"Snape? You've aged quite a lot."

Li Wei looked at the once peerless Half-Blood Prince, now reduced to an oily middle-aged man one could find anywhere by the roadside, and faintly frowned—one of the few things he cared about was whether he might one day become like this.

"Ah, what keen observation, Li Wei.

It seems your life of hiding and running has cultivated quite the leisurely interest in judging others?"

Taking advantage of the opening, Snape looked Li Wei up and down with a mocking expression. He spoke extremely quickly, his words firing out like cannonballs, as though he had held some of them in for far too long and had finally found an outlet.

"What, didn't you once proclaim from on high that you would devote all your energy to magic and had no time for our childish disputes?

Why are you suddenly so interested in appearances now?

Or is it that, having failed to achieve anything further in magic, you can only reluctantly turn your attention elsewhere? For instance, becoming a delicate pretty boy?"

"A good appearance can bring invisible strength. How many times have I told you that? It's because you're so unkempt that Lily would never like you."

"Shut up! How dare you mention that name!"

Snape's roar suddenly echoed through the corridor.

The next moment, he realized his loss of composure. His expression changed abruptly, and he immediately turned sideways, intending to leave.

Yet before leaving, he could not help turning back to give Li Wei a long, deep look. If you and I had joined forces back then, how could Potter possibly have remained so smug? How could Lily possibly have looked twice at him?

But in the end, he did not say it aloud.

From the moment they met, he had understood—Li Wei was still the same Li Wei as before, always looking upon everything with an expressionless face, caring for no one, with only his own goals in his eyes.

Perhaps, in the other man's eyes, the only thing about himself worth remembering was his once exceptional appearance.

And yet, that was the thing Snape cared about least.

". Hmph!"

Snape unhappily swept his wizard's robes aside and strode away.

"After all these years, he's still as troublesome as ever. Don't tell me he's blaming me for failing to win Lily over?"

Li Wei watched Snape, who had appeared so suddenly and then hurried away like a giant bat, and calmly rolled his eyes.

Clearly, he had helped Snape avoid that most humiliating public embarrassment back then. Why was his personality still so twisted?

This was practically Li Wei's only involvement in the plot over all these years, and the facts proved that even so, Snape had still failed to win Lily's affection.

"Professor, was that someone you used to know?"

As an observer, Qiao Weili vaguely sensed that the professor named Snape seemed to have quite a history with his teacher.

Jiamer frowned in the direction Snape had left, saying nothing.

"Yes, he was once my classmate. I wouldn't say we were that close. We never spoke much. Forget it, don't mind him. He isn't important."

Li Wei's foremost goal at present was to find a way to free himself from his heavy coursework as soon as possible.

Li Wei led the three of them to an unused classroom on the first floor.

No one knew how long it had been abandoned. When Li Wei opened the door, a little dust drifted down from the top of the door, and a thick layer of dust covered the floor.

At the back of the classroom, desks and chairs lay scattered in disarray, while tattered books from some unknown era rested in several corners.

"Teacher, leave this to us."

"It's fine. I'll be faster."

Li Wei extended his wand and slowly stirred it through the air ahead. A vortex formed in the center of the classroom, and after only three rotations, it became a small tornado reaching the ceiling.

Dust, books, desks, chairs, clutter—everything was swallowed up according to size.

Whoosh!

After devouring every object, the tornado abruptly dispersed, vanishing along with all the clutter it had consumed.

Only ten seconds had passed, yet the entire classroom was spotless as new. It did look a little plain, though.

"You can each prepare your own rooms."

Li Wei waved his wand again and directly used the Undetectable Extension Charm to expand the entire classroom tenfold. The formerly enclosed classroom windows rapidly fused together, gradually turning into enormous floor-to-ceiling windows.

Qiao Weili cast a spell at the right moment, adding reflective magic to the windows. This way, only they could see the view outside, while those outside could not see in.

Jiamer cast a spell at the same time, repainting the somewhat mottled white walls a pristine white.

The black dragonhide suitcase opened again and suddenly caved inward—large amounts of mahogany furniture, along with the two assistants' luggage, were directly "spat" out, then moved into their ideal positions under magical control.

Before long, the classroom no longer resembled a classroom at all. Instead, it looked like the library of some great scholar.

Qiao Weili and Jiamer each chose a room near Li Wei, while Barton the house-elf selected a spot in the corner of the classroom as his residence.

"I'll leave the introductions to you, Barton."

"Please leave it to me."

Carrying candy and pastries that had been purchased in advance, Barton disappeared with a sharp crack like a firecracker exploding.

After dealing with everything, Li Wei turned around and found his two assistants standing together, silently looking out at the scenery through the floor-to-ceiling windows.

The place where they stood faced the Black Lake. Sunlight fell upon its surface, reflecting golden light, while an absurdly huge giant squid lay lazily on the shore basking in the sun.

Li Wei had originally intended to immediately study Fiendfyre, but upon seeing this scene, something stirred within him. He slowly walked behind the two of them.

"Come to think of it, neither of you has ever attended school. Even your general education was completed through private tutors—do you want to go out and have a look around?"

"We're merely interested in the place where you studied, Professor."

Jiamer spoke flatly, seemingly unwilling to admit she was curious about the new environment.

"Professor, you seem to be in a good mood?"

Qiao Weili was somewhat surprised—the professor had not immediately begun studying magic? This place truly seemed to hold special significance for him.

With that, he too became somewhat curious about Hogwarts.

"Yes—I'm feeling something strange right now—but I can't quite put it into words."

". Perhaps, somewhere deep in my heart, I had actually longed to return here."

Li Wei softly exhaled as memories of the past continuously surged into his mind.

The surprise of receiving an owl-delivered letter on his eleventh birthday, magic that had once existed only in fairy tales appearing before his eyes, flying high in the sky for the first time—

Although his journey had mostly consisted of lonely, tedious, repetitive scenes, looking back now, he did not find them bitter. Instead, they brought him comfort.

After all, it was those past experiences of hard work that had made him who he was today.

Otherwise, during the war, any high-ranking Death Eater could likely have killed him.

Having frankly acknowledged his innermost thoughts, Li Wei's gaze passed over his two assistants and reached the vast outdoors.

Sensing something unusual about their teacher, the two assistants quietly remained silent and did not disturb him.

The three of them stood motionless like that, silently watching the view outside for a long while.

Suddenly, Li Wei felt a long-forgotten, budding tremor rise from the depths of his heart.

He suddenly felt a calling.

This return was very likely to become some kind of opportunity.

Li Wei came back to himself thoughtfully and led his two assistants out of the classroom.

Hogwarts.

I'm back.