Chapter 153
Chapter 153
“P-professor, I’m here.” Suer stopped in the open space before the desk, his head bowed in shame.
Snape was furious. The previous night, Dumbledore had ordered him to guard the castle doors for the next few days and, at the necessary moment, allow that damned Potter to leave.
He had already gone without sleep, and then Dumbledore instructed him to teach Occlumency to the young Hufflepuff standing before him. Snape had consequently waited here for an entire day.
It was already dusk! Only now had the wretched boy appeared. Waves of fatigue battered Snape’s mind, forcing his eyelids to droop.
By the time the lesson ended, it would nearly be time to take up his watch at the castle doors.
It was an important duty. If Dumbledore had not said that Snape alone could perform it, he would never have concerned himself with Potter, every bit as reckless and arrogant as his damned father!
Snape was a man, a wizard! Not a troll harnessed to a millstone!
If only that damned Potter did not have eyes identical to Lily’s! If only…
He would endure it!
Yet the longer one endured, the angrier one became. Snape’s face therefore turned even colder and his eyes still darker.
Suer stood nervously where he was, his hands folded obediently before him. He perfectly resembled an honest, dependable child awaiting rebuke for a mistake.
He waited a long time, yet the expected spray of venom never arrived. At last, Suer furtively raised his head.
Snape’s gaze pierced him with such force that his entire body went cold.
Good heavens… Would Suer live to see tomorrow’s sunrise?
Was it still possible to run? No, whether he could even reach the door remained uncertain…
Just as Suer felt his soul about to freeze, Snape rose from behind the desk.
“Well… well… How kind of Mr Bones to remember his professor amid his many pressing engagements,” he said with bland sarcasm.
“Follow me.”
Where a portrait frame had hung, an opening appeared large enough for one person to pass through. A faint, chill draught rose from its depths.
Snape had already disappeared inside.
Suer stood rigid, afraid to move. He had never imagined that Snape’s office, already beneath the castle, possessed an additional cellar. No — judging by its appearance, the chamber had existed for a very long time.
What sort of place had Hogwarts been in the past?
If Suer went down there, would he emerge alive?
In the end, he entered the hole breathing that sinister chill. He had already kept Snape waiting all day; making the professor wait even longer would be adding fuel to a fire, pouring petrol over the fuel, pulling the hose from a gas cylinder and touching it with a lighter — suicide in a kitchen.
Dumbledore knew Suer was here. He therefore did not fear that Snape might suddenly decide to slice him apart and dissolve the pieces in a potion.
Among Hagrid’s many sayings, at least one was true:
As a professor, Snape would never harm a student. Hagrid, however, plainly knew nothing about Snape’s methods of instruction…
Some time later, the pitch-black opening appeared again. Snape stepped out without expression and adjusted his black robes.
Swish… crack!
The robes snapped through the still air as Snape departed with brisk but unhurried steps.
Suer, meanwhile, was embedded in a high-backed chair like a puddle of mud.
Had he not occasionally sucked in a pained breath and furrowed his brow, anyone seeing his inhumanly pale face might have mistaken him for a corpse.
Then again, most things that entered this place were probably only a body part, a handful of hair or perhaps a bat.
As soon as Suer entered, he had noticed that bottles and jars filled every surface, from the spiralling stone staircase to the shelves beside the entrance.
Some held potions of unknown purpose; others contained preserved parts from various creatures.
Yes, pieces of the unfortunate basilisk were here as well.
After an unknowable length of time, Suer finally endured the stabbing pain in his head and sat up.
Snape’s teaching method was exceptionally brutal. He had opened with an amplified burst of Legilimency. Before Suer had even settled into the chair, he felt a spike far thicker than any embroidery needle wielded by a vindictive governess stab straight into his mind and twist around inside.
The agony instantly emptied Suer’s thoughts.
“A Dark wizard will not show the same mercy I have shown to a student as weak as an ant.” Snape appeared entirely uninterested in Suer’s memories. After that first use of Legilimency, he stopped and began to jeer.
The venom had arrived at last.
“This is their most common method. Generally speaking, they prefer to sever your limbs before investigating the rushes stuffed inside your skull.”
This was unquestionably revenge. It was Suer’s sole thought once he recovered.
“Judging by that performance, your ability to resist is virtually nonexistent. Even a troll would have attempted some futile opposition under those circumstances.” Snape spared no saliva as he drenched Suer in abuse.
“As far as I can see, you absorbed nothing from Dumbledore’s books. Is your head packed with rushes? Or are you as incapable of thought as those trolls stupider than pigs?”
“In your present condition, I would not even require a spell. A knife would be enough to end your life completely.”
“I cannot begin to understand why Dumbledore expects me to teach Occlumency to a useless creature.”
“Get up. Use whatever pitiful means you possess to resist me. Look at me!”
For the remainder of the lesson, Snape attacked while Suer could only draw upon what he had read: remaining calm and weaving false memories in an attempt to resist the assault.
It was futile. Under Snape’s unending offensive, Suer was a battered wooden boat upon a raging sea, tossed helplessly as he struggled to avoid capsizing and drowning.
Snape nevertheless knew where to stop.
Apart from the brutal first burst of Legilimency, he deliberately restrained the power of every subsequent attack. He had not forgotten that Suer was here to learn Occlumency, not to be reduced to an idiot.
Under Snape’s careful control, Suer still could not resist effectively, but amid waves of Legilimency at this intensity, he began to make progress.
He could not yet create the layer of false memories described in his books to protect his true self, but he could occasionally remain calm. He no longer suffered the original emptiness of mind or the sense that his soul had left his body.
Suer could also feel that each of Snape’s attacks withdrew the instant it touched him. Like an embroidery needle pricking through the skin and immediately retreating, Snape made no attempt to explore his memories.
As the lessons deepened, however, Snape would inevitably encounter some of those memories.
That meant Suer had to master the vague, elusive methods described in the books as quickly as possible. From this day forward, he needed to construct defensive walls within his mind.
Both the previous day’s test and the present lesson served as an unmistakable warning. Snape’s methods were inhumane, but remarkably effective.
At the very least, Suer now understood how far he remained from becoming a wizard capable of opposing Dark wizards.
Compared with people his age, Suer was plainly more reflective and could understand the deeper purpose beneath Snape’s seemingly vindictive behaviour. He normally bickered and played with Hermione and the others, outwardly resembling an immature child.
In essence, however, he was an adult capable of thought, quite different from his outward appearance.
Clutching his head, Suer swayed to his feet.
He prepared to leave, only for a small door behind the potion workbench to catch his attention.