At the same time, on the other side.

"Okay, okay, don't be sad, Hermione."

Eileen held up a grilled sausage in front of the little beaver, trying to attract her attention.

"That big bat is just talking nonsense. He can't drive a wedge between our friendship. The innocent are innocent. We're not as dirty as he says—see, Harry didn't listen to the provocation either, don't mind it..."

Since they came out of Snape's office, Hermione had been much quieter in Charms class that afternoon.

Clearly, Hermione Granger was still quite concerned about Snape's last words.

"But, I do have a bit of that kind of thought..."

Hermione's eyes were a little red around the edges, and she fiddled absently with the beef on her plate, saying softly.

"The last few times I saw Harry and Draco beat us in potions class, I was indeed... indeed a little jealous, so I..."

"It's okay, just beat them next time!"

Eileen confidently patted her chest.

"Times are progressing, and it's impossible to surpass the forefront of potion development with just past knowledge—this weekend, you and I will go outside the school for some further study, and when we come back, we can definitely return to first place!"

As for the "Half-Blood Prince," well... "Lady"?

After finally coaxing Hermione, Eileen meaningfully glanced at the faculty table.

Now, she finally understood Professor Snape's previous plan.

Since there were no wizards of her age who could beat her, he simply put on a disguise, pretended to be a genius of the past, and used adversity education to tell them the principle of "there is always someone better than you"?

"Is this... a silent contest? Interesting."

Eileen raised her eyebrows, a look of excitement flashing in her eyes, humming a song.

"This vain pride, this purpose is so funny, I actually know it all, you just want to show off... how strong does this first place have to be, no need to ask, someone will definitely challenge you..."

Due to time constraints, she hadn't been able to carefully study the book "Advanced Potion Making" yet, but she had roughly flipped through it from beginning to end, and found that the "Half-Blood Prince" had added notes on almost every page.

Those notes were all related to potion making and potion handling, without any extra spells or words.

Undoubtedly, this was a carefully compiled teaching aid.

And judging from the information Snape revealed, he was obviously planning to graft the pen name "Half-Blood Prince" onto Lily Potter, and even deliberately guiding them to guess in that direction.

However, there were still a few small loopholes in this plan for the time being.

"You like acting, right? I'll help you perfect it..."

Eileen thoughtfully looked at the faculty table. Very rarely, Snape was quietly talking with Slughorn. Unsurprisingly, he was trying to solve the hidden danger of handwriting identification.

"Professor Lupin, Professor Black... Well, it seems there's no need to worry about Slughorn."

In fact, the method she mentioned in the office was just to trick Snape.

Not to mention that there were many differences between homework and classroom notes, it would be difficult to accurately lock down the suspect in thousands of papers unless they were a professional handwriting expert—more importantly, Snape used magical writing when forging the handwriting, and he would inevitably avoid his own handwriting on the blackboard in class.

This was not surprising, otherwise Harry would have seen through everything with just one glance at the blackboard in potions class.

On the other hand, given Horace Slughorn's personality, it was unlikely that he would generously take out his treasured student homework to help with the identification—unless the other party could give a reason or price that he couldn't refuse.

Faced with the threat of social death, Snape would definitely find a way.

"By the way, Hermione, when is our next Defense Against the Dark Arts class?"

Eileen turned her gaze away from the faculty table and suddenly asked curiously in a low voice.

Since being bound to Miss "Calculating Machine" this semester, she had long since lost the habit of carrying a timetable. Anyway, she couldn't find her way, and the lovely Hermione Granger would arrange everything for her.

"Next Defense Against the Dark Arts? The first two periods tomorrow afternoon."

Hermione replied casually while concentrating on cutting her steak.

"Let's make it clear first, I don't have time to play chess with you recently... Luna, Cho, and the others' courses are too complicated. I have to find a way to finish my homework in class first, and then I'll have time to help them with their homework."

"Help with homework? You probably won't have a chance in that class tomorrow..."

Eileen shrugged and casually glanced at the pink toad whose face was turning green with anger in the distance.

As one of the drafters of Hogwarts' new curriculum standards, she naturally knew about the upcoming teaching changes in the Defense Against the Dark Arts course. Professor Lupin would be taking over their last two classes each week.

And according to Professor Lupin's purchase request, the upcoming courses were quite interesting.

…………

At the same time, the Hogwarts faculty table.

"Professor Snape, your request..."

Slughorn held his wine glass, looking at the black-haired wizard beside him, and weighed his words with some difficulty.

"Indeed, I do keep some of your student homework, but most of it is for me to recall Hogwarts' past. If you just want your own, that's fine, but..."

"My private storage cabinet, three ingredients, you can choose freely."

Snape said softly, looking at the old walrus without any expression.

"Oh, it's not a matter of ingredients, Severus."

Slughorn shook his finger, explaining in a serious manner.

"Just like I answered at the beginning, if you just want your own, I can naturally keep it all for you... But if it's Lily Evans, well, you know... She was my favorite student over the years, and she was once one of my best potion assistants."

"Oh? I thought you only admired celebrities—"

"No, no, no, what I mean is... I need a potion assistant, Professor Snape."

Slughorn pondered for a moment, then smiled and said softly.

"As an old fellow who's getting on in years, I don't lack ingredients, wealth, or connections. What I want more now is to return to the field of potions and leave some traces of my own in this world—for example, something like the Wolfsbane Potion that can be passed down in textbooks."

The chubby potions master meaningfully looked Snape up and down.

"You're young, Severus. Do you think that if you 'help' me wholeheartedly, I might have a chance to develop an amazing, unpublished new potion this year?"

"...An unpublished new potion."

Snape repeated softly, his gaze lingering on the wrinkles on the old man's face for a moment.

In the potion research community, there were many rumors about Slughorn.

As the longest-serving potions professor at Hogwarts, the most embarrassing thing for this old man was probably that, apart from his teaching ability, he had never had any decent potion research achievements.

There were many speculations about the reason, the most reliable of which was the story of the "Felix Felicis" sequelae.

"I understand, I will help you complete your research results."

Snape nodded calmly and said softly.

"But before that, I want to see those assignments first. This is the basis of cooperation—"

"No problem, happy cooperation!"

A bright smile bloomed on Slughorn's chubby face.

Just paying some old assignments that had no practical use other than collection value in exchange for the naming rights of a new potion could be said to be the most cost-effective exchange of his life.

…………

As the crumbs of sweet pudding disappeared on the plate, dinner ended.

The upperclassmen could not return to the dormitory to rest for the time being. They still had a major class on their schedule. As the new curriculum standards of Hogwarts began to be implemented, each student's schedule was packed to the brim.

The students and professors stood up and began to pour out of the Great Hall.

At the Gryffindor table, a group of gossip-loving little lions excitedly looked at Harry.

"Go quickly, Harry, the professor is leaving soon," Ron said softly.

"Wait for Professor Snape to leave," Harry said, "Alright..."

Harry quickly walked forward and stopped Sirius and Lupin before they disappeared into the porch.

"What's wrong, Harry? Uh... Did Snape make things difficult for you in potions class?"

Before he could speak, Sirius stopped and frowned when he saw the old textbook in Harry's hand. "Didn't I buy you a whole new set of textbooks? How did it become like this..."

"Uh—Sirius, I mean, uh, Professor Black..."

Harry glanced at Professor Lupin standing next to Sirius, and said a little restrainedly.

"It's okay, Remus isn't an outsider. If it wasn't because... well, I'm a little more handsome, he might be your godfather now. Besides Lily, he was the only one who could control James back then."

Sirius Black hooked his arm around Lupin's shoulder and said with a smile.

Lupin rolled his eyes at Sirius helplessly, turned his head, and said gently.

"What's the problem, Harry?"

"Some time ago, when I was taking remedial lessons with Professor Snape, I accidentally damaged my textbook, so Professor Snape asked me to take an old book from the cabinet—no, no, I wasn't bullied by Professor Snape. Although the professor looks cold, we all know that he is a good person."

A good person?

Could such an adjective be applied to Snape?

Sirius and Lupin exchanged a strange look.

Although they didn't know why Dumbledore trusted Snape so much, they wouldn't believe that the reclusive guy would really become good. A Death Eater was a Death Eater, at most just pretending for the time being.

"In fact, this book contains a lot of useful potion knowledge. With its help, my potion grades have improved a lot this semester. The problem is, the author of this book..."

Harry held up the book "Advanced Potion Making", his voice trembling slightly.

"I suspect that this is my mother's previous textbook—Percy said that if it's Sirius, maybe you can help us distinguish whether this is my mother's old textbook..."

"Hmm, Lily's old textbook?"

Lupin took the textbook from Harry and gave him a kind smile.

"We were indeed negligent about this. I'll find some photos of James and Lily for you later. If possible, I'll ask if there are any letters, notes, yearbooks or anything like that..."

"Ah, really!" Harry said in surprise, "I thought everything had been destroyed by Voldemort—"

"Heh—Voldemort didn't have the energy to destroy James and Lily's house. He didn't even have time to escape back then. Speaking of which, you reminded me. I'll ask Professor Dumbledore later. If possible, I'll ask for a day off and take you back to that place to see James and Lily..."

Sirius snorted disdainfully and tilted his head to look at the old textbook in Lupin's hand.

"How is it? Is it Lily's handwriting, Remus?"

He glanced at the dense, neat handwriting in the blank spaces of the textbook. At first glance, it did look a bit like Lily's handwriting—Sirius's impression of Lily's handwriting was limited to copying homework.

"It can only be said that it's very similar..."

Lupin frowned slightly. He flipped to the cover and looked at it.

"This is a second-year potion textbook, Sirius. Don't forget, Lily didn't have a good impression of you guys at that time—but I do have some impression of some of the operations inside."

He closed the old book "Advanced Potion Making" and returned it to Harry.

"So, Harry..."

Looking at Harry, who had an expectant face, Lupin thought for a few seconds and said uncertainly.

"Regarding the name "Half-Blood Prince", I never heard Lily mention it, but some of the potion handling methods mentioned in the book are only known by Lily. I'm not very good at potions, especially those techniques that are not recorded in textbooks, so I can't give you too much advice..."

Harry nodded excitedly and carefully put his "mother's old textbook" into his schoolbag.

As for what Lupin said later, Harry couldn't hear it at all.

At this moment, he only wanted to return to the Gryffindor common room as soon as possible and study this old book "Advanced Potion Making" from beginning to end, without missing any notes.

That's right, it's best to buy some magic to maintain and bind the pages!

After so many years, the spine connection has become a little loose, and there are many cracks and curled places on the pages. If they are not repaired properly, they may be damaged soon.

"Mom..."

Harry looked at the small words [This book belongs to the Half-Blood Prince] on the back cover and murmured.

This may be what Eileen once said, although those who love them deeply may die one day, love will not disappear, it is just accompanied in another form.

And this old textbook may be one of them...

————

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Yay!