For a long period of time before this, Link had always thought that Snape was a terrible person.
As a boy he was far too self-abasing, to the point where he didn't dare confess to the girl he liked. At the same time, he was weak, despicable, and stupid, using all sorts of lousy tricks to try and win that girl back.
In the end it only backfired, and he had to watch helplessly as the girl was married off to Harry's father, that "bad boy" of noble blood and wealthy family background.
Once grown, that event became the deepest thorn in his heart.
Hatred drove him to become a Death Eater, and he passed on intelligence to Voldemort. In the end, while killing his enemy James Potter, he also killed his own beloved, the woman who by then had changed her name to Lily Potter.
After that, he wanted to become a good person again.
He turned into Harry Potter's hidden guardian.
On the surface he went out of his way to give Harry trouble, venting the leftover malice he had toward James.
But secretly, he constantly protected Harry, shielding him from harm at the hands of others.
Link, reasoning with the mindset of a young man of the new era, speculated that Snape did all this probably just for the sake of self-moved sentimentality.
He wanted to use the feeling of making such sacrifices to make himself believe he was a great person.
Or, to put it more bluntly, perhaps Snape simply thought Voldemort was unlikely to win, and wanted to stand on Dumbledore's side so that he could ultimately secure the fruits of victory.
As for the part in the original story where Voldemort killed him over a trivial reason, Link felt that was nothing more than a small, normal miscalculation in his plan.
That was what fit normal human psychology.
But after coming to this world, and after long-term contact with Snape, Link realized he was wrong.
And not just wrong, wildly wrong.
This guy Snape, at his core, was nothing but a child who had never grown up.
The changes of time and environment had only altered his appearance from a gloomy youth into a sinister middle-aged man. They hadn't actually made any difference to his heart.
The reason he did so many contradictory things was entirely out of pure love for Lily.
His love for Lily had never, ever changed.
This was something Link only came to understand after truly learning about the Patronus Charm.
And by the same token, his boyhood self-abasement, meanness, stupidity, and pettiness had all carried over unchanged into the present.
The direct consequence of this bad personality was, when he realized that Link's feelings of sentimentality were completely one-sided, and that the reason Link had come to his office wasn't out of closeness but with other purposes, he became somewhat angry from embarrassment.
Link was directly thrown out.
Standing in the corridor, Link looked up once at the tightly shut stone door, then sighed and went off to the Room of Requirement to continue hiding out in peace.
Truth be told, speaking of comfort alone, the Room of Requirement really was far better than Snape's office.
Link immediately made the room turn into something resembling a magical creature park, then released Arkam and Yoyo
Those two little guys instantly began playing and roughhousing in the woods.
It wasn't their first or second time here either. Basically, as long as Link had no pressing matters, every two days he'd bring them out here to stretch their legs.
It was just like taking a dog for a walk.
As for the Boggart Bat, it didn't enjoy such treatment.
It still had to serve as Link's blanket, covering him whenever he lay down to rest on the lounge chair.
Truthfully, it wasn't really suited to that task, since its whole body was cold and it gave no warmth.
But Link still liked using it. Every time he came to the Room of Requirement, which always ran hot, covering up with it gave Link the same kind of wonderful feeling as using a blanket in a cold air-conditioned room, or eating ice cream in a heated house.
This time was no exception.
After letting Arkam and Yoyo run wild, Link immediately covered up with the Boggart Bat and began half-dozing.
Of course, he didn't really fall asleep. Instead, he was reviewing in his mind the information Snape had just given him.
That Snape fellow, he really was a sharp tongue with a soft heart.
Although he had chased Link out of the office in a fierce manner, before that he still told him everything Link wanted to know.
According to him, Karkaroff, as Snape's former colleague and a former senior Death Eater, had tested him the very first night he entered Hogwarts.
And the result of that test left Snape very satisfied.
Karkaroff was still the same coward.
The moment he saw Snape, he practically clung to Snape's leg like meeting a long-lost family member, crying about how the Dark Mark on his arm, that symbol of Death Eater identity, full of magical power, had started to hurt again.
That was a very ominous sign, because in the past the only times the Dark Mark burned with pain was when Voldemort was about to appear, or when Voldemort wanted to contact a Death Eater.
And that pain had never appeared again since Voldemort's disappearance, until now.
Karkaroff believed this was a sign of Voldemort's revival, and wanted to drag Snape to escape together.
This display of rodent-like cowardice made Snape feel that Karkaroff was unlikely to cause any other trouble at Hogwarts, so he let him go.
Later, after learning that Link had become a champion, he even, in the names of Madam Maxime and Dumbledore, gave Karkaroff a stern warning so that he'd give Link some extra points in the Triwizard Tournament judging.
As for why he didn't at the same time bump up Harry's score?
Snape didn't say.
But Link understood.
Most likely, Snape's pettiness had flared up again, he wanted to see Harry make a fool of himself.
All in all, from Snape's point of view, Link was just overthinking things.
And, Link was an ingrate.
Snape had secretly helped him so much, yet this guy Link not only failed to be grateful, he kept beating around the bush trying to direct Snape into doing even more.
Snape's words let Link relax a little, but not too much.
Because Karkaroff being cleared of suspicion only meant that those people who were truly plotting in the shadows were still hiding in the dark.
As for them, Link felt he absolutely had to show them some real power.
Anyway, with the Triwizard Tournament organizers giving them such a long vacation, he had more than enough time to deal with this matter.
And worth mentioning, Snape had also told Link another thing in passing.
This year's newly restarted Triwizard Tournament, as well as the earlier Quidditch World Cup, were actually both nothing but conspiracies by the British Ministry of Magic.
They wanted to use these two international events to reestablish the British wizarding world as the world's strongest cultural and economic center, sucking blood from the rest of the world, in short, to make British wizardry great again.
And to achieve this goal, the host country's Ministry of Magic would rig the contests so that their own people could take the championship.
The Quidditch World Cup was the perfect example. Even though Krum was dazzlingly brilliant, under the arrangements of the British Ministry, the winners in the end were still the Irish team (and Irish wizards also fell under the jurisdiction of the British Ministry).
The same principle applied to the Triwizard Tournament.
Even if the chosen champion weren't Link the "monster," but someone else, the Ministry would still find a way to ensure that person became the ultimate champion.
This was proven in the original story too, how else could someone like Cedric, a so-called "genius" with little actual renown, have ended up touching the Cup alongside Harry at the very last moment?
After all, this year's Triwizard Tournament venues and rules were all set and built by the British Ministry. If they wanted to insert some tricks, it would be the simplest thing in the world.
The only pity was for the students of Beauxbatons and Durmstrang.
Each of them had come with the grand ideal of reviving their school's reputation, full of excitement and spirit, yet they didn't know that from beginning to end they were nothing but pawns, stepping stones for the British Ministry of Magic and Hogwarts to gain greater benefits.
With deep pity for Krum and Fleur, Link finally drifted off to sleep.
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