Spinner's End

Spinner's End.

Located in the Muggle industrial town of Cokeworth, a dilapidated neighborhood surrounded by factory chimneys and gray streets.

The old houses on both sides of the road are closely packed together, with peeling paint, thick dust on the windows, and some even boarded up.

The air was filled with a smell of coal smoke and rust, and the whole street felt dark and oppressive.

Snape's house is here, its exterior a dusty gray that blends almost seamlessly with the surrounding buildings.

Before he became an adult, he lived with his parents in Spinner's End.

Her father, Tobias Snape, was Muggle worker, and her mother, Erin Prince, was a witch from Pure-blood families.

However, when the two were together, the mother, who possessed magical powers, was the weaker party—the father, after drinking, was rude and irritable, and the mother could only tolerate him.

As a child, Snape did not understand the relationship between his parents.

After entering Hogwarts and experiencing the magical world, he couldn't understand why his mother would give up magic and her Pure-blood surname to be with a rude Muggle.

Snape's childhood, like the sky over this neighborhood, was perpetually gray.

The only warm color here is that this was also where Lily Evans and her family used to live; the two were childhood neighbors.

"Tap tap--"

The knocking echoed in the small room.

Snape, who was brewing a potion, frowned slightly, put down his wand, glanced at the color of the potion in the cauldron, and after confirming that it could stabilize on its own for a while, turned and walked towards the door.

The door opened a crack, Snape saw the unexpected visitor. "Lucien? What do you need?"

Lucien stood at the door and greeted him politely, "Professor, I have something I'd like to ask for your help with. I wonder if I could take a moment of your time?"

Hearing Lucien politely address him as "Professor" outside the school, Snape nodded slightly and stepped aside to make way for him. "Come in and talk."

Lucien entered the room and quickly glanced around. The furnishings were simple but orderly. A row of bookshelves against the wall was piled with magical books, and a cabinet on the other side held various potion ingredients.

On the table in the center of the room, a small crucible rested on a steady flame, bubbling and releasing a slightly bitter herbal aroma.

Snape walked back to the table, glanced at the cauldron, and then turned to face Lucien: "If it's a problem with potion making, you can write to me directly. I'll reply whenever I have time."

Lucien cut to the chase. "It's not about potion making. Professor, do you know Damocles Belby? Could you introduce me?"

Snape's gaze lingered on Lucien's face for a moment.

Damocles Belby, the inventor of the Wolfsbane Potion, is a name that carries considerable weight in the world of potions.

Snape didn't answer immediately. Instead, he turned and sat down in a chair, casually adjusting the flame at the bottom of the cauldron with his wand before speaking slowly and deliberately, "What do you want with him?"

Lucien briefly explained his plan to publicly sell the improved version of the Wolfsbane Potion.

Although Damocles has made the formula for the Wolfsbane Potion public, permission from the original inventor should still be obtained before it can be sold commercially.

The problem was that Lucien searched for a long time but couldn't find Damocles ' public contact information—no address, no workplace, no owl address.

He reasoned that since they were both Potions Master, Snape probably knew Damocles and should at least have a way to contact him.

After listening, Snape did not immediately respond. His gaze lingered on the still bubbling cauldron, and after a few seconds, he said:

"That's quite troublesome."