Hogwarts Castle, Snape's office.

This was a dim room, with hundreds of glass bottles on shelves along the walls, containing viscous specimens of flora and fauna floating in colorful potions. Compared to Professor Slughorn's room, this place seemed significantly colder.

After lunch, Severus Snape returned to his office to prepare for the afternoon's classes.

The impact of Hogwarts' educational reforms wasn't limited to the classroom.

Compared to the past, professors now had significantly more preparation work to do outside of class. For instance, Snape had to inspect the essays of the lower-year students—if there were any instability risks, he could make a rough assessment of it before giving them out to the upper-year students for further processing in the afternoon.

Tap, tap, tap.

Just then, a knock came from the door.

"Enter."

Snape put down the potion bottle in his hand and raised an eyebrow.

This was a rare occurrence for Snape. Unless there was an emergency, few people came to his office, especially at this time after lunch.

"What is it that you don't understand again, Harry... Potter?"

Snape looked up from the shadows, glanced at the heads appearing behind Harry, and added naturally.

"And close the door, Miss Kaslana."

Aileen obediently complied, her heart harboring a little imp with a wagging tail.

She turned around, and Snape had already stood up from his desk and walked into the light.

Snape frowned, his cold black eyes thoughtfully examining the group of young wizards.

"So, what brings you here?"

"Oh, well, it's like this..."

Harry quickly took out the old textbook from his bag and handed it out, saying earnestly.

"Sorry, Professor Snape, I lied to you in class before... Those ingenious operations weren't my own ideas; I was operating according to the notes in this old textbook—I decided to return the book, because..."

"You came here just for this? To return a book?"

Snape didn't reach out. His eyes narrowed dangerously.

"Then, please tell me, does the graffiti in this book obscure the contents, or does it contain some dark magic that makes you uneasy or afraid, or perhaps you simply find it too old?"

"N-no... sir."

Harry answered cautiously, glancing at the cabinet behind Snape.

The storage cabinet behind the desk was open, with a stack of old textbooks lying on the top shelf.

"Actually, I was just planning to exchange it for a different one, so it would be a little fairer... because I operated according to it before..."

"Fair? What on earth goes through that almond-shaped head of yours?!"

Bang.

Snape waved his hand, and the cabinet door slammed shut.

"Listen! Mr. Harry Potter, you are learning knowledge, you are in class... This is neither a Quidditch match nor a Potions exam—completing the potion according to the lesson objectives, that is your task in class, understand?!"

"B-but..."

Harry looked directly into Snape's increasingly impatient black eyes and said honestly.

"Sir, there are many exquisite Potions notes on here. With my current knowledge, I can't tell if they're correct. If it stays here with me, I'm afraid I won't be able to resist the temptation, so I plan to..."

"I understand, let me take a quick look."

Before Harry could finish speaking, Snape snatched the textbook from his hand and flipped through it somewhat irritably.

Half a minute later, Snape threw the *Advanced Potion-Making* back to Harry.

"I took a look, this student's notes... well, the fundamentals are solid, passable, barely acceptable as additional reference material for classes, as for whether it can be used specifically, that's up to you to consider."

"So, I can keep this book and use it as an extra reference book for Potions?"

Harry asked softly and carefully. He felt that Professor Snape seemed to be in a bad mood today.

Snape glared at him for a moment and waved his hand irritably.

"That's right, that's it! If there's nothing else, then you all should hurry and—"

"I have one last question, sir!"

Harry said, quickly flipping to the back cover and pointing to the small line of text.

"I don't know if you've ever heard the name 'The Half-Blood Prince' before, he seems to be the author of this book."

"Don't recognize it, I never pay attention to the ridiculous, childish nicknames students come up with."

Snape said coldly and stiffly.

The Potions professor's impatience had become extremely obvious, and every line on his face was etched with frightening anger, as if he was about to throw them out of his office any moment.

Standing behind Harry, Hermione and Draco swallowed nervously, gently tugging at the boy's robes.

It had to be admitted that Snape looked rather frightening when his face turned grim.

"It's okay, Harry..."

Just then, Aileen suddenly said softly.

"Anyway, let's not bother Professor Snape any longer. If you really want to know who the Half-Blood Prince is, why not ask Professor Slughorn? Even if he doesn't remember the name, at worst, we can ask the professor for the assignments of past students to see if we can identify who the 'Half-Blood Prince' is through handwriting analysis."

Huh?

Handwriting analysis?!

Snape tensed up.

"Is that really reliable? This isn't a police investigation."

Hermione Granger frowned and questioned softly with some uncertainty.

"Not to mention that Professor Slughorn may not have saved the assignments of past students, there are too many people, right?"

"Don't worry, judging from the data, it's not complicated—"

Aileen shook her finger triumphantly, answering clearly.

"Each year at Hogwarts only has about a hundred students. Even if we go back fifty years, that's only 2500 people..."

"As for Professor Slughorn, as far as I know, he always has a habit of saving the assignments of past students—if we can't find it among those students, then it means that the 'Half-Blood Prince' didn't enroll during Professor Slughorn's tenure."

As the famous "student collector" of Hogwarts, Slughorn was reliable in this regard.

After all, even he couldn't be 100% sure if his students would achieve something in the future.

Therefore, the safest approach was to archive all assignments, and as long as one of them became famous, then their former assignments would be a gift to awaken the bond between teachers and students—whether it was excellent or terrible, it was all a memory of Hogwarts.

"If it's really too much work, we can mobilize everyone to help."

Aileen thought for a moment and said softly with childlike innocence.

"For the second year, we should be able to find a lot of volunteers. We can photocopy a sample of handwriting for everyone, and everyone can identify the handwriting of those past students together. At most... uh... it can be done in two weekends."

Snape stared at the silver-haired witch in shock, seemingly unable to believe his ears.

Merlin above, how could there be such a vicious little imp in this world?!

"Of course," the silver-haired devil said sweetly, adding, "We can even publish a missing person notice in the newspaper."

She suggested earnestly while opening the door, preparing to lead Harry and the others away.

Now, the devil's scythe was raised, waiting for the "Half-Blood Prince" to react.

Aileen placed her hand on the doorknob, counting silently in her heart.

One.

Two.

Three—

"Wait! You, stop right there!"

Snape's cold voice rang out behind them.

"Are you usually so idle?! Will figuring out the author of this book give you extra credit in Potions?! If you think you have nothing to do, then from now on, go help Filch clean the castle every weekend!"

"No, sir..."

Aileen answered politely, a hint of appropriate embarrassment on her face.

"The most important thing is, uh... this is for... Harry..."

"Harry?" Snape raised an eyebrow, turning his gaze to Harry. "What's going on? Speak!"

"I..."

"Don't try to lie! I can tell!"

Harry Potter swallowed and said cautiously.

"I was thinking... could this Half-Blood Prince possibly be my dad or mom? The handwriting in the book also looks easy to recognize, and Professor Slughorn said my mom was also good at Potions..."

"James Potter?! Humph, absolutely impossible!"

Before Harry could finish speaking, Snape snorted and said contemptuously.

"He didn't understand the subtleties of Potions at all, and didn't even get into the Advanced Potions class."

"As for... your mother, Lily, Lily Evans."

Snape paused for a moment, looked away from Harry's eyes, took a deep breath, and said softly.

"You're right, she was always the best witch in Potions class when she was at school—now that you mention it, I remember, Evans liked to take notes in her Potions textbooks when she was at Hogwarts..."

"Wait, are you saying, Professor—"

Harry was slightly stunned, and then his eyes widened in disbelief.

At the same time, a certain fluffy white ball standing behind Harry also had a shocked expression.

She suddenly realized something: the person standing in front of her now was: the most powerful double agent in the current wizarding world, the most outstanding Head of Slytherin House, and Severus Snape, who had deceived countless HP fans.

Compared to other blockhead wizards, Snape was a professional acting master.

"Alright! Let me repeat, I don't care who this old textbook belonged to before."

Snape waved his hand impatiently and said fiercely.

"If you continue to dwell on this question, then just give it back to me, and write a letter to Flourish and Blotts to buy a brand-new copy of *Advanced Potion-Making*. By the way, if I find out from Professor Slughorn that, uh, you are still wasting your precious time on boring things—"

"But that doesn't make sense, why would the owner of this book leave a book filled with their notes lying around?"

Hermione frowned and said softly thoughtfully.

"Don't interrupt me, Miss Granger!"

Snape glanced at Hermione standing next to Aileen, narrowed his eyes unhappily, and spoke slowly.

"Speaking of which, your performance in Potions class has been slacking off a lot recently. It's obvious that you smugly think that you can get good grades even without trying? What's worse is that when you find out that your classmate has surpassed you, you first choose to deny and question others in a despicable way, instead of reflecting on your own problems..."

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"Sir, we didn't mean that!" Hermione's face flushed red.

"I think I said, don't interrupt me, Miss Granger!"

Snape coldly raised his voice and looked fiercely at the little ones standing behind Harry.

The original plan could be said to be perfect, if it weren't for these meddlesome students instigating him, Harry wouldn't have rushed to the office recklessly—unsurprisingly, these two little witches were definitely the culprits.

Jealousy, Snape had seen too much of this over the years.

"Listen carefully, in the long history of Hogwarts, your talents are at most above average..."

Snape said coldly, his eyes like two slits, wandering over the two little witches.

"And the fact now proves that an old textbook from a student who graduated I don’t know how many years ago can help Harry surpass you. What else do you have to be proud of—jealousy? Don't think I can't see it. Instead of putting your minds on these things all day, you should think about how to study hard, understand?"

"I didn't..."

Facing Professor Snape's storm of scolding, tears began to well up in Hermione's eyes.

"Whether you did or not, you know best in your own hearts."

Snape said coldly and indifferently, pointing to the door.

"Now, you can leave."

…………

Professor Snape's answer solved some of Harry's confusion.

For example, the contents of this old textbook were not dangerous, so he could use it with peace of mind.

And for another, the "Half-Blood Prince" was unlikely to be his father, James Potter.

But along with it came another more tangled guess—who exactly was this mysterious Half-Blood Prince?

"Maybe it really is your mom?"

At the dinner table that night, Ginny analyzed very seriously when she heard Harry mention this.

"It's very likely to be a girl, at least I don't think this handwriting looks like a boy's, more like a girl's."

"He's called 'The Half-Blood Prince', Ginny."

Ron curled his lips. "How many girls would call themselves a prince? Besides, Professor Snape also said at the end that it's not certain, right..."

"Oh? Then take out your notes and let's see?" Ginny glanced dismissively at her youngest brother. "Anyway, I don't think there are many boys who would patiently and neatly take notes..."

"Ginny, that's too absolute."

Percy Weasley, sitting opposite her, frowned, looking somewhat hurt.

"I have an idea, Harry."

Percy pondered for a few seconds and tilted his head towards the staff table.

"Why don't you just ask your godfather, Professor Black? I remember he was a classmate of your mom's, he should know something too."

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Yay! Long chapter!