Hogwarts: Becoming the White Lord from Breathing

Chapter 100 This book belongs to the Half-Blood Prince
"I sensed it too. Does that mean I can graduate from my apprenticeship?"

Damon recalled the experience just now. Without a doubt, he had perfectly defended himself against Snape's spying and even retaliated—Snape had excellent emotional control, but he couldn't escape Damon's current state.

For a fleeting moment, it seemed as if a black snake lurked in the other person's eyes, darkly ready to devour everything—he was clearly deceived by Damon's deliberately crafted illusion of anger and even influenced to some extent.

This also means that after just two hours of study last week, plus Damon's own practice during his free time this week, he has actually taken another step or even two steps in Occlumency, such a profound and extraordinary magic.

Not to mention Snape, even Damon himself was surprised—he vaguely guessed the answer. The Patronus must have sensed that his mind had been invaded, and in its anger, combined with his will, and then countered it through Occlumency.

"you"

Snape paused, desperately searching for a reason.

After thinking for a while, he said:
"We need to observe further. We cannot yet determine whether this reaction is a coincidence. Also, it's good that you transformed your happy emotions into anger. But can you transform more emotions?"

Snape's thoughts became clearer.

"Some kind of change seems to have occurred in you that I'm unaware of?"

"Oh, I just learned the Guardian Charm last week. The changes I just experienced must be the influence of the Guardian."

"Guardian Angel Spell."

Snape opened his mouth silently.

Not only did he learn Occlumency, but he also learned the Guardian Charm so quickly?

According to the procedure, Damon is about to use Legilimency on him. He deliberately revealed what this kid saw last time, so we'll have to put in a lot of effort to deal with it this time. You should have Snape tell Damon that he's afraid you'll read his memories, so he's decided to stop this practice. That would be worse than killing him.

He couldn't accept bowing down to a twelve-year-old boy.

Snape had mastered most of the basic spells before even enrolling at Hogwarts, and during his time there he invented countless self-created spells—who isn't a genius?
Let's have a go!
"Now, it's your turn to cast a spell on me. Come on."

Damon nodded and raised his wand toward Snape—this time, the Patronus did not come to his aid.

"Legilimens"

This time, Damon didn't see much.

He only saw Snape studying alone, a fragment of a potions prodigy's growth, and was quickly cut off by Snape.

When the two opened their eyes again, they both looked tired.

Mental battles are extremely exhausting, let alone when two masters of Occlumency are using Legilimency to attack each other—such a reckless approach could only have been suggested by Snape, a former Death Eater.

If it were Dumbledore, perhaps he would have used the Pensieve method, employing gentler approaches to help Damon.

But this was only in theory—the old bee never taught him.

"Okay, when you come next week, we'll try to see if you can disguise happiness as an emotion other than anger. After that, we'll make some changes, not just disguising happiness, but also sadness, anger, and grief. In short, you still have a lot to learn."

Snape sounded a little unsure as he spoke—these were ideas he had just come up with, and his teaching of Damon had sparked a lot of inspiration in him—he suddenly realized that if Voldemort were to return at this point, and he were to continue acting as a spy, relying solely on emotional deception might not be enough.

He was able to conceal his thoughts and offer some guidance, but he didn't actually make any significant changes—a single emotion would inevitably arouse Voldemort's suspicion.

Not only Damon, but perhaps he himself will also need to devote more attention to this.

“Okay, Professor, here is the payment.”

Damon's answer interrupted Snape's thoughts, bringing him back to his senses immediately.

He pulled out a photograph and handed it to Snape—this time, 'Lily' was wearing a British uniform, an academic cap, and a 'warm' smile, looking quite modern. The strong impact almost stunned Snape; he froze for two seconds before hurriedly putting the photograph away. When he looked up, Damon had already reached the door and was about to leave.

Goodbye, Professor.

Goodbye, Damon.

The relationship between the two of them has somehow become so peaceful.

After leaving Snape's office, Damon suddenly remembered something he hadn't done yet.

It's not that he forgot, but he didn't feel there was any need for it. Now that he remembered, he just went and took it.

Having forgotten the exact location, Damon wandered through every empty classroom at Hogwarts and finally found the book "Advanced Potions Making" in a locker in the corner.

He opened the book; it was unsigned, with only one line of text on the title page:

This book belongs to the Half-Blood Prince series.

Snape's mother was a witch and his father was a Muggle; his mixed-race heritage signified his origins.

Prince is Snape's mother's surname, which literally translates to "prince".

"Snape was quite a chuunibyou (delusional) when he was young."

Damon smiled, put the book away, and went back to the Room of Requirement to read it.

"Advanced magic crafting? You've already taught yourself sixth-grade potion-making techniques?"

Hermione's gaze turned wary when she saw the book he was reading—charms and transfiguration were one thing, practical application was another, and theory was yet another. In short, well, she wouldn't allow herself to fall too far behind Damon in her studies!
Although by the time she realized it, things were already much worse.
"Not so fast, I'm not that enthusiastic about potion making."

"Then what are you doing?"

"I stumbled upon this book, which must have been a textbook left behind by a senior student. It contains many novel ideas."

Damon casually handed it to Hermione, who took it and saw that it was full of corrections and alterations to the original textbook.

"This is utterly heretical!"

She shook her head and quickly returned the textbook to Damon—the content was too 'stimulating' for her; she couldn't accept it and didn't want to let such unorthodox ideas influence her thinking.

Damon smiled and accepted it, without responding to Hermione, but instead reminded Harry and the others who were still focused on practicing spells—these guys seemed to be competing with each other.

Last week, whenever he returned to the House of Requirement, the two of them would immediately come over and chat with him for a while as a way to relax.

Now, Ron seems to be getting more and more focused, while Harry is desperately trying to balance Quidditch training and spell progress. Neither of them wants to fall behind, and they're doing quite well.

Neville had nothing but obedience.

The two of them practiced intensely, so he practiced intensely as well, and was able to keep up with their pace.

Damon didn't join them for the time being, but instead closed his eyes and began to meditate.

A wizard's memories are a treasure trove. Peeking into Snape's memories is not just about practicing Occlumency and Legilimency—these memories are not useless; on the contrary, they allow him to see magic from Snape's perspective.

This is a good opportunity to help him fill in the gaps in his knowledge.

(End of this chapter)