[Chapter Size: 1900 Words.]
Third Person POV
Hogwarts.
...
...
Snape continued his path through the corridors of Hogwarts. It was quite early, still mid-afternoon, so he had some free time before dusk. Snape kept wandering around the school until he reached one of the exits and ended up on the east side, by the bridge, which had several wooden supports. It seemed to be an iconic part of the school that had never been changed; after all, they could have built another bridge there, but they left it, despite having magic to support the structure.
He began walking toward it and passed over, his goal being the aviary located outside the school, behind the Quidditch pitch. The tower was quite large with some owls flying around.
His gaze returned to the Quidditch field, and he saw in the distance a group playing, apparently a team practice, and by the yellow uniforms, it must have been Hufflepuff using the field at that time. Taking his eyes off the Quidditch field, he headed straight to the aviary tower, since he didn't own an owl and would have to borrow one from the school.
'Another thing I need to buy as soon as I can...' He thought, but he would have to start making some money next week.
He took a letter from his pocket, already familiar from the old Snape's memories with how the system worked; this letter was addressed to Diagon Alley, but he wanted something from the public library in London. It was a letter requesting a specific type of service that students could perform, as there were some people who did all kinds of things in Diagon Alley; he would pay for someone to buy some books he wanted from the Muggle world, while he couldn't leave the school.
Of course, he had to pay for it, so there were coins in the letter, though they were not gold galleons, because what he sought was not difficult, nor were the books expensive.
There was a man tending to the owls, this place not only housed Hogwarts' own owls, but some students kept theirs here so they didn't have to worry about caring for them every day.
The man seemed like a type of caretaker, not like Hagrid or Argus Filch, but someone who worked outside the castle caring only for the aviary and was almost never seen by students outside of here. The man noticed Snape's approach as he placed feed in the palm of his hand and let one of the owls peck at the food.
"What do you want, boy?" the man asked, and Snape remembered that his name was Bing, as he used to use the school's owls when he needed to.
Snape simply took the letter from his pocket and handed it to him. "I need an owl to send this letter," he said, and the man nodded, recognizing that this was his service.
He usually served poor wizards, mostly Muggle-borns, so seeing a Slytherin student asking for a public owl was something unusual, although there was one who always requested his services, though he hadn't seen him in these first two weeks of school.
Snape had no idea that the man was thinking about his former self, and just nodded satisfied as the man stored the letter on a shelf to be sent later.
Snape began to leave the place shortly thereafter. He saw that he still had some time and thought about planning a few things for the next week, so he wanted a quiet place to think.
He walked not back towards the school but thought of approaching the Black Lake, having some things to reflect on. Approaching a tree nearby and at a certain height with a view of the entire Black Lake.
He was alone as he sat facing the lake, leaning his back against the tree. He took a piece of paper from his pocket and began jotting down his activities for the next week, starting with the last day of this week, which would be tomorrow.
"We have Potions class and Herbology class," he noted both during the morning, which was good for him; after all, without a midday break separating the classes, he would have more time to do his things in the afternoon.
He had a problem too; the Defense Against the Dark Arts class had not yet started this year, with the headmaster still looking for a suitable teacher for it. The classes for this subject would be held on Wednesday, along with the extra class, which was the Divination class, a class he no longer intended to attend after hearing all that nonsense about waging a war in this world.
The class was not official, but an extracurricular one he had signed up for, mainly motivated because the girl Evans also attended it. As Snape was, in a way, obsessed with the girl, he had enrolled before the holidays, which meant the current him had to attend... Snape couldn't help but be irritated by that.
However, he might try to switch. 'I'll talk to the headmaster later,' he thought. There were other extracurricular classes, and he remembered some classes like the Fantastic Beasts class, where they studied magical animals, the flying class for those who wanted to improve in the air, used mainly by students who already played Quidditch.
Snape couldn't help but think about it, not about Quidditch itself, but about the issue of flying. He was never good at flying, but he knew the basics of staying on a broom. However, it seemed like a useful skill, and he kept thinking about whether or not he would take that class. There was also the healing class with Professor Penelope, but that was also out of the question. Another in his memory was the magical runes class, which seemed the most interesting of all in his opinion. So, he was a bit uncertain about which would be the best subject for him.
He sighed and looked at the Lake as the Sun reflected on the water, sinking ever more to the west. Suddenly, he felt some footfalls coming from behind him and a huge dog, a bulldog with dark fur, and the animal was massive, Snape felt it walking slowly up to him.
He looked at it for a moment, but didn't mind as he noticed the dog sit down next to him and lie down although they were strangers as far as he knew, the animal with its head down, made a strange sound while looking at him expecting something.
"You want a pet, don't you?" Snape couldn't help but ask as he moved his hand to the animal and touched its head, the dog closed its eyes in pleasure at Snape's touch. Snape had to admit that sitting by the lake nearly at the end of the afternoon with a dog by his side for company, was not a bad feeling.
"Canine!" Snape heard a voice, and a large man appeared. Snape was not too far from Hagrid's house, and he had been looking for his dog which had disappeared after he let it out a bit to walk and stretch its legs. The man was surprised to see him next to a student in a green robe, which indicated Slytherin. But his eyes widened when he realized it was Snape himself, the student who lived by the Lake somehow, able to fight against little Dumbo.
Hagrid swallowed hard; he seemed to be afraid of Snape, as this boy had started to be a mystery and there were already some rumors circulating about what he was doing in the last few days, a student who wasn't even afraid of the Headmaster and broke the school rules without caring about anything.
"Come here," he said as the dog seemed to hesitate and began to get up. Snape didn't care about Hagrid, he just slapped Canine on the head and the dog went to his owner. Hagrid sighed as his dog returned to him.
The man also couldn't help but murmur some things softly. "You shouldn't be here, you shouldn't be here," Snape heard, but the large man didn't have the courage to say that to the boy, and began to walk away.
"It's amazing how you manage to scare everyone," a voice emerged. Snape looked to the side, already sensing the approach, but now seeing it was a woman with blonde hair and green eyes looking at him as she walked up to him.
"You are Clarissa Greengrass..." Snape murmured, remembering that girl in his class with whom he had almost never interacted before. He knew very well that they had never exchanged a word since the first year. So Snape couldn't help but raise an eyebrow at the girl.
"Don't look at me like that. I was just taking a walk and found you here," she said calmly, with a tight smile.
"You shouldn't be here. I think the school forbids students from leaving," Snape spoke, knowing she had followed him and was just lying.
The girl seemed to mock him. "Says the student who is here as well."
"I have permission to be here," Snape calmly retorted.
"I don't know how you managed that. Even Hagrid didn't try to lecture you," she said.
"What do you want?" Snape asked. After all, this woman had barely spoken to him in recent years. Why was she here starting a conversation?
She sighed and crossed her arms. "I wanted to talk to you. Then I saw from a distance that you were heading to the aviary and then saw you coming down here, so I followed you," she said.
"You still haven't answered the question," Snape spoke, while keeping his gaze on the lake.
"You're rude," she complained, but sighed and decided to speak. "I've seen some comments about you. They say you're not bowing down to any of the big families, that you're claiming to be neutral in this war," she said. Being a Greengrass, of course, her family was being pressured to choose a side in the war.
"A foolish game. I'm not interested in participating," Snape said, giving his view on the war.
"You're quite brave to say something like that," she couldn't help but comment, despite being aware she was talking to a teenager, who seemed as insignificant as an ant for the upcoming war.
"You might say I'm sensible," he said calmly, keeping his eyes on the waters.
"Interesting," she smiled. Eventually, Snape took his eyes off the lake to look at her, with an eyebrow raised, wanting to know what all this was about, even though he knew he could make a difference in the war, other people should scoff at the idea.
"Anyway, I'm heading back to school. You've answered everything I wanted to know. Maybe we'll talk later, Severus Snape. I'll be watching how you handle all the pressure from the other families, after all, you've practically painted a target on your back these last few days..." she said, maintaining a small smile and beginning to walk away.
She didn't act like Lucinda, who seemed to flirt with him. She just seemed like someone searching for something he didn't quite understand yet, but she appeared satisfied with the response and his opinion on the war between Voldemort and Dumbledore in the magical world of England.
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