Hogwarts: I am Snape

Chapter 130 There Will Only Be One President

“It feels a bit strange without Dobby,” Pandora said, putting down the vessel in her hand. “I’ve grown quite fond of that little elf who loves freedom and work.”

“Severus,” Lily stood opposite her, frowning as she looked at Snape, “you still won’t tell us why Dobby is like this?” She took a deep breath. “You haven’t been exposed to any dangerous dark magic, have you?”

“You’ve also gone to see Professor Dumbledore,” Snape shrugged, walking to the long table to begin organizing the potion-making materials that Dobby usually handled. “He vouched for me.” He pressed the side of a silver dagger against a Sleepy Bean. “The professor also told you that I need to keep it a secret.”

“But can’t even we tell?” Lily asked worriedly. “I’m a—”

"—Of course I believe you," Snape interrupted her quickly, his expression softening as he looked up to see two concerned faces. "But this is for your safety, and I don't want you to get involved in these things."

Pandora suddenly walked up to him, her light silver eyes staring directly at him, gleaming with worry.

“Since it’s you who’s taking the risk, how can I not worry?” She took off the opal bracelet Snape had given her from her wrist. “You should wear this; I haven’t used it in a long time.”

Snape froze. He scratched his head awkwardly, a wave of guilt washing over him.

“Don’t worry,” he straightened his chest, revealing a confident smile, “Trust me, don’t you know who I am? Hogwarts’ youngest potions prodigy, tournament champion, student council president—”

He deliberately dragged out his words, and Pandora rolled her eyes. "However," he changed the subject, pointing to the slightly messy workbench, "do you need another house-elf to help with the work? I can go to the kitchen and find one for you."

“No need,” Lily shook her head. “We don’t want to find someone to replace Dobby while he’s being petrified.”

“Although we don’t know exactly what happened,” Pandora nodded in agreement, “at least you said Dobby saved you. I’m not going to let Dobby lose his job.”

“Oh, alright,” Snape replied, his gaze unconsciously drifting towards the wooden door. “When Dobby comes back, we’ll definitely throw him a grand welcome.” Coming back to his senses, he slipped the bracelet back onto Pandora’s wrist.

After a while, Lily suddenly slapped her forehead: "The One Heart Society's activity is about to start, Severus. We're going to give a presentation today."

"What?" Snape looked up, only then realizing that it had been more than a week since he founded the club.

“There’s an event tonight.” Pandora pulled a crumpled piece of parchment from her pocket. “I’m going too. Barty wants us to share our OWL experiences with the students.” As she spoke, she quickly glanced at the contents, her lips moving silently.

"It should be fine now, keep it up." She muttered to herself, carefully putting the parchment away and giving Lily a thumbs-up.

"Study?" Snape couldn't help but ask. "Is this all you do at your parties? How boring!"

“You’ll see when you get there,” Pandora said, looking at him. “Want to come along?”

“You’re the club president,” Lily said. “Apart from the first time, you haven’t attended a single club activity since. You can’t always rely on Buddy and Albert to help you.”

Snape grinned. Indeed, ever since he founded the One Heart Society at the Duel Club, he had left all the organizational work to Barty Jr. and Abbott. He felt a little bad about it.

“Okay, we should go and see,” he agreed. “I wonder how Barty is doing.”

“He did a great job,” Pandora said as she packed her bag and took out two silver star-shaped badges with the number “1” engraved on them.

“Here you go.” She handed Snape a badge. “About a quarter of the students in the school have joined our organization. To be precise, almost all the Muggle-born wizards are in it.”

"You guys have this?" Snape looked at Pandora and Lily in surprise as they pinned on the badges. "I've never seen you wear them before?"

“This was Barty’s idea,” Lily said. “It was just finished a few days ago, and it cost him quite a few Galleons.”

“Alright, I’ll wear it too.” Snape hung the badge around his neck and asked, “And where do they—oh, where do we operate?”

“A classroom on the second floor,” Lily replied, walking toward the Room of Requirement, “was obtained by Abbott from Professor Dumbledore.”

As they walked down the corridor, they encountered several younger students who greeted Snape and the others respectfully.

He nodded in response, noticing that they also wore badges on their chests.

"There are so many people even in the first grade?" he asked in a low voice.

“Bati said we should start from a young age,” Lily explained with a smile. “He arranged different activities for each grade level.”

Pushing open the door to the second-floor classroom, Snape found it much more spacious inside than it appeared from the outside, clearly due to a space-expanding spell. The twenty-odd fourth and fifth-grade students sitting together didn't feel crowded.

Barty Jr. was already standing on the stage, his blond hair gleaming under the lights. Beside him stood Abbott, both looking radiant.

When they saw Snape and his group, their eyes lit up and they quickly walked over.

“Severus!” Abbott embraced him warmly, his voice rising slightly with excitement, “You’ve finally arrived!”

“I thought you’d forgotten we existed,” Barty said after hugging Snape. “Come on up, you’re in charge tonight.”

“No,” Snape quickly waved his hand in refusal. “You know I hate this stuff. I’m just here as a regular member today.”

“But you are the founder,” Barty Jr. insisted, “and everyone wants to hear what you have to say.”

“You’re all I need to do,” Snape said, finding a seat. “You’ve been in charge of so many events, I just want to see what you guys do all the time.”

“Alright,” Little Barty sighed helplessly, finally giving in, “but at least say hello to everyone later.”

Just then, a small, thin figure squeezed through the crowd.

“Snape…senpai!” a stammering voice came. Snape turned and saw Quirrell looking at him excitedly. “It’s so nice to have you here!”

“Quirklo?” Snape said. “What are you doing at an OWL event? Aren’t you only a freshman?”

“I come to the event whenever I have free time,” Quirrell said, his face flushed. “Even though tonight’s event is for fourth and fifth graders.” He nervously rubbed his fingers together. “I really like it here. Senior Barty said I can come anytime.”

“Of course,” Snape patted him on the shoulder, “I’m glad you like it here.”

Lily and Pandora exchanged a glance, and Lily suggested, "Severus, you and Quirrell sit in the same row, we'll sit in the back."

When everyone quieted down, Barty Jr. walked to the center of the stage. "Ladies and gentlemen," he said, pointing to Snape, "let us welcome our founder, Severus Snape!" Applause erupted, and Snape had to stand up and nod in response. He noticed that many students looked at him with great respect, which puzzled him somewhat.

“I didn’t do anything,” he thought to himself. “It would be reasonable for them to be in awe of me, except for Quirrell, but why are they all so enthusiastic…”

After Quirrell lowered his reddened palms, Barty Jr. announced, "We have three segments today."

Abbott waved his wand, and a huge cake appeared with a bang in the center of the classroom, with "Happy Birthday Ed" written on it in icing.

“First, there was Ed Smith’s birthday celebration,” Barty Jr. continued, “then there was life sharing, and finally, there was an OWLs exam discussion.”

As soon as he finished speaking, the candles on the cake lit up automatically. A chaotic "Happy Birthday" jingle filled the room, and the Muggle-born boy named Ed was speechless with surprise, his eyes welling up with tears of emotion.

"Treat the school as your home, and us as your brothers and sisters," Abbot said affectionately, putting a birthday hat on Ed's head. "Make a wish."

After the cheers subsided, Abbott waved his wand and presented slices of cake to everyone.

Snape took the large piece of cake that was thrown at him and offered to exchange it with Quirrell.

"Here, take this." Snape asked him while eating cake, "How have you been lately? Have any classmates been bullying you?"

“Except for those first few days,” Quirrell shook his head and mumbled, “there haven’t been any since I joined the One Heart Society.” He swallowed the cake in his mouth and added in a low voice, “Barty even helped me teach two Ravenclaw students a lesson.”

“Very good, Quirrell,” Snape said with a smile. “By the way, in your third year, I recommend you take Professor Kareddy Bubbaggie’s Muggle Studies class…”

After the birthday celebration, Barty invited a few classmates to share their recent news. Unexpectedly, a fifth-grade Hufflepuff boy took the opportunity to confess his feelings to the girl sitting next to him, blushing. The girl even responded shyly.

Cheers and applause erupted in the classroom once again.

Caught up in the emotion, Snape started clapping, only to suddenly feel a sharp pinch on his back.

He gasped in pain and turned around, only to see Lily and Pandora still cheering for the young couple, completely unable to determine who had done it.

When he turned back dejectedly, Little Barty had already written the title "Complete Explanation of the OWLs Syllabus and 100 Must-Do Questions Before the Exam" on the blackboard.

"Most of you here are either half-bloods or Muggles," he said with an unusually serious expression, his voice echoing in the classroom, "or pure-blood wizards from families that have fallen on hard times."

“You may not realize how important this exam is for a long time.” He paused, his gaze sweeping over everyone. “But it determines whether you can take the NEWT advanced courses, and the scores of these two academic exams will directly affect your future prospects after graduation.”

There was silence in the classroom.

Barty Jr. continued, "Children from privileged backgrounds, like myself in the past, were instilled with the importance of these exams from a young age and received targeted training."

“Compared to them, we are already far behind.” His voice was firm and resolute. “The wizarding world is even more brutal than the Muggle world. We must start working hard now to prepare for the future.”

“Many of you have been bullied by pure-blood wizards like me.” His voice suddenly became more stern. “Now, thanks to Tosifreus Snape, we have come together and things have improved at school.”

“But,” he waved his wand, and the Ministry of Magic’s emblem appeared in the air, “if we want to protect ourselves and our friends from being bullied after graduation, we must strive for a better position!”

“Perhaps one day, you will realize that they have already occupied high positions in the ministry and have amassed considerable wealth.” He looked at everyone meaningfully. “But, if, under the same conditions, they refuse us unreasonably without finding an excuse, don’t forget that you are a wizard or a witch.”

As he spoke, Barty raised his wand again.

Snape was completely stunned. Where had Barty Jr. gone for his studies? He was practically giving the organization a clear political goal.

Afterwards, Lily and Pandora took the stage to share their experiences in learning and taking exams in Potions and Charms, respectively.

It was already late when the event ended.

The students left in twos and threes, each one sincerely thanking and saying goodbye to Snape, Barty Jr., and Abbott as they passed by.

Snape noticed that Barty Jr. could call everyone by name and even knew about their family situations and learning difficulties.

“With such a small population in the wizarding world, if this trend continues,” he thought, “it won’t be long before Barty the Elder, let alone the entire Ministry of Magic, can’t beat Barty the Younger.”

After the last student left, Snape asked, "Barty, where did you learn all this?"

“Hehe,” Little Barty chuckled shyly, “Inspired by hearing that you guys use Muggle tools to make potions, I secretly bought a few Muggle books. They’re really detailed; I never imagined they had done so much research in this area…”

“You’ve done a great job,” Snape exclaimed, patting Barty on the shoulder. “Why don’t you just become our president? You’re in charge of everything anyway.”

Unexpectedly, Barty's smile vanished. He suddenly became serious: "The One Heart Society will only have one president, and that's you, Severus." His blue eyes stared directly at Snape. "Please don't say things like that again."

“Oh…okay.” Snape was touched; they were all good comrades. “No problem,” he said. “Let’s go.” From now on, he would have to devote more energy to the club; the training of the young wizards couldn’t be neglected.

The three of them went down the stairs.

In the foyer, through the high windows, Snape saw the full moon in the sky casting its silvery light on the stone walls of the castle.

He suddenly remembered something.

“You all go back first,” he said to his companions, “I’m going out for a bit.”

They looked at him with suspicion, but Snape shook his head, indicating that he was fine on his own.

It was quiet outside, without a single breeze.

The willow tree stood motionless in the bright moonlight, looking completely harmless.

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(End of this chapter)