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  The heavy curtains draped over the window cast the room into a sloom. Scattered oilcloths and the uling sight of dismembered corpses littered the floor. If Snape hadn't reized this as one of his own ed properties, he might have mistaken it for a dark wizard's sinister ir.

  "You're telling me you bumped into a dark wizard oreet, and a note just happeo fall out of his pocket?" Snape's voice dripped with disbelief, his face a map of fury, eyebrows drawn into a tight knot. "And this note, by sheer ce, tained instrus for a powerful dark spell, which you then proceeded to learn?"

  "Professor, I swear I'm i! I'm the victim here!" Ian pleaded, his green eyes wide with feigned innoce. "I was so terrified by the enter that I couldn't sleep a wink st night!"

  Of course, his words were a mixture of truth aion.

  Iahat books like The Secrets of Darkest Magic were sidered highly dangerous in the wizarding world, akin to forbidden knowledge.

  g that Aurora, with her Grindelwald name, had given him the book might not absolve him entirely, but it was certainly better than admitting he'd found it himself. Possession of such a book could have serious sequences, potentially branding him as the Voldemort.

  "I had no idea this pce was… well, a graveyard," Ian tinued, his voice trembling. "When those corpses started crawling out from uhe floor, I nearly fainted!"

  He exaggerated his plight, desperate to appear as harmless as possible.

  But Snape wasn't buying it.

  "Do you really think I'm that easily fooled, boy?" Snape's voice was sharp, a dangerous edge in his tone. "Do you think dark wizards are lurking around every er?"

  He dismissed Ian's story as ludicrous.

  "It was a dark wizard," Ian insisted. "I entered one in London too. He kept followirying to capture me for some nefarious experiment. It might evehe same one!"

  He tried to bolster his cim with the previous enter, but this only seemed to infuriate Snape further.

  "Shut up!" Snape roared, his voiing through the room. "Tell me the truth!"

  Snape's imposing aura intensified, making Ian's resolve waver. After all, he was just a naive college student before crossing over, easily swayed and easily deceived. If Snape hadn't barged in, f him to front the uliions swirling around the room, he might have tinued with his fabricated story.

  "Do you think I believe a young wizard from a Muggle orphanage, someone who barely uands magic, could indepely learn such a plex dark spell?" Snape scoffed. "The Corpse trol Curse? Even fourth- and fifth-year students wouldn't dare cim to master it in a few days!"

  "Perhaps you possess some hidden talent," Snape mused, pag the room, his eyes fixed on Ian. "A natural Legilimens, perhaps…"

  "I never said that Professor," Ian muttered, his voice small.

  "It seems your History of Magic textbook has beeing some use tely," Snape observed. "You know who You-Know-Who is… that's good."

  He tio study Ian's reas.

  Then, abruptly ging the subject, Snape's voice rose again.

  "But you shouldn't use your Troll-like brain to coct such a ridiculous lie, trying to vince me that you're more powerful than You-Know-Who himself!"

  "I assure you," Snape said, his voice dripping with sarcasm, "even at ye, You-Know-Who couldn't have performed this level of dark magic."

  Cssiape.

  "Gasp, you know You-Know-Who's true identity?" Ian excimed, attempting to ge the subject.

  Snape ighe feint. His gre remained cold and intense. "I could send you to Azkaban right now, let the Aurors use your supposed Legilimency to pry into your mind, and you'd spend the rest of your life there with the Dementors."

  "The only reason I haven't done so," Snape tinued, his voice dripping with icy disdain, "is to give you a ce. Uand that this opportunity is solely due to your status as a Hogwarts student."

  "Professor, I don't want to go to Azkaban," Ian pleaded, his eyes wide with a mixture of genuine fear and feigned innoce.

  This was a calcuted performance. He was certainly afraid, but not of Azkaban. He uood there was a e between him and Snape, a e that went beyond a simple teacher-studeionship.

  He khat if he truly fell out of Snape's favor, fet about favors like money or aodations— even a simple trip to Diagon Alley to buy sedhabooks would bee a distant dream.

  "If you don't want to spend the rest of your life in prison," Snape said, his voice low and dangerous, "then tell me, who taught you this dark magic?"

  Snape's gaze bored into Ian.

  "It was a dark wizard," Ian insisted, ging to his inal story. He couldn't bear to part with Grindelwald's annotated Secrets of Darkest Magiowledge, he believed, was i.

  "Good! Very good!" Snape smmed his hand oable, his anger palpable. "You think just because I 't find this mythical dark wizard, I 't verify your ridiculous story?"

  He gritted his teeth, the words seemingly forced out.

  "I'm telling the truth," Ian insisted, maintaining his i facade.

  It was the truth, in a way. Not the whole truth, of course, but with a healthy dose of artistic embellishment… how could that not be sidered the truth?

  "Self-righteous brat!" Snape sneered.

  He snatched a piece of part and a quill from the table and began to write furiously.

  "What are you doing?" Ian asked, his curiosity piqued.

  "This is a note dropped by a dark wizard," Snape said, his voice dripping with sarcasm. "e on, Mr. Prince, prove your talent surpasses even You-Know-Who's… perhaps even Dumbledore's…"

  Snape hahe part to Ian.

  "Are you… are you teag me magic?" Ian asked, his eyes widening in disbelief.

  Snape's eyes narrowed, a mog glint in them. "Perhaps."

  Ian eagerly examihe part. Sure enough, it tained detailed instrus for a powerful spell.

  (End of chapter)