Slytherin was rotten to the core.
After that bullying incident, Snape had never realized this point so clearly.
Led by Lucius and his clique, the entire Snake House was terminally ill, poisoned by pure-blood ideology, with everyone taking pride in the prospect of joining the Death Eaters!
Under such circumstances—
Snape made a decision so decisive it was cold: fight poison with poison. He completely abandoned any plan to steer other Slytherin students back to the righteous path.
The probability of success was negligible to begin with, and combined with his lack of interest, there was no need to try anymore!
Quite the opposite.
Since the Snake House was currently full of scum and villains who were destined to become part of the Death Eaters committing all manner of crimes in the foreseeable future...
In that case, he might as well put this waste to use, using their lives—destined for corruption—in exchange for his own benefit!
At the very least, Snape wouldn't let them run wild; the resulting consequences would be far lighter than them joining the Death Eaters!
Moreover, in Snape's view—
Although the exposure of the wizarding world was still far off, it was merely a matter of time, sooner or later.
His words to the other little snakes certainly contained elements of brainwashing, but they weren't entirely alarmist talk. There was nothing wrong with preparing for a rainy day decades in advance.
The best part was—
The "Muggle Threat Theory" Snape meticulously compiled overlapped partially with pure-blood ideology. Both were vigilant against, or even hostile towards, Muggles. This served well to avoid attracting the attention of Lucius and the others.
In fact, in their eyes, this was irrefutable evidence that Snape had finally joined the pure-blood camp; at most, it was just some whimsical thinking unique to young people.
Before this terrifying bomb detonated—
Not a single one of those high-ranking figures busy forming cliques would imagine that while they guided the transformation of Slytherin into a parasite upon Hogwarts, continuously feeding fresh forces to the Death Eaters...
In an imperceptible dark corner, there was another parasite disguised as one of them, also latching onto Slytherin, silently cannibalizing their flesh and blood, and corrupting their ideals!
Pure-blood ideology promoted maintaining pure-blood interests, striving to eliminate all Mudbloods and Muggles in the world.
The Muggle Threat Theory from Snape's hand, however, promoted vigilance against the Muggle threat, watching over the personal safety and interests of every wizard.
One should not harbor the intent to harm others, but one must not lack the intent to guard against them!
This similar attitude toward Muggles was Snape's best camouflage before his wings were fully grown, effectively preventing the pure-blood ideologues from discovering what he was actually doing.
This matter was destined not to be completed overnight.
Snape also adhered to his consistent style of caution. For the time being, he only promoted the first half of his philosophy within his dorm and the study group, and even then, it only circulated privately among students he had specifically selected.
Mulciber and Leo were the fanatics most deeply affected.
Under Snape's brainwashing of a "talk every two days, speech every five days," the little snakes, whose worldviews were still under construction, had absolutely no power to resist. Moreover, in their view, the content Snape spoke of didn't seem much different from the politically correct pure-blood ideology.
However, a miss is as good as a mile. Once this seed buried in the bottom of their hearts took root and sprouted, the fruit it bore in the future would be earth-shatteringly different from pure-blood ideology!
As for the study group, Snape's actions were primarily focused on stability.
Using his roommates' reactions as observation material, he waited until he confirmed that their ideological development was basically in line with his expectations before tentatively expanding the number of people he preached to in the study group.
From the initial three or four people to over a dozen later, eventually covering the entire study group.
No one noticed.
When Snape taught them, he was constantly mixing in his "private goods," consciously or unconsciously. Silently, he caused their thoughts to shift in a seemingly insignificant way from the current mainstream pure-blood ideology.
And after specifically inviting Lucius to audit for a moment—
The underground leader of the Snake House heaped praise on Snape's behavior. He was satisfied beyond measure with the obvious change in Snape's thinking. In his view, it wouldn't be long before the other party became "one of us" in the truest sense!
Everything developed under Snape's methodical advancement, and his originally shriveled wallet gradually fattened up with the influx of experience points.
Room of Requirement.
Snape stood alone in the center. Several dummies were placed in front of him, serving as material for spell casting.
However, Snape did not begin training as usual.
His gaze was slightly unfocused. In a corner no one could see, he opened the System, meticulously selecting from all the specialties he had encountered so far!
To this day, using this or that excuse, Snape had made physical contact with roughly over eighty percent of the entire student body at Hogwarts and all the professors except Dumbledore.
The number of specialties he could now replicate was an exaggeratedly astonishing figure!
Generally speaking, students were dominated by White and Blue specialties.
Only a very small number of top students possessed Purple specialties. Gold was as rare as phoenix feathers and unicorn horns, and as for Red specialties, Snape simply hadn't found a single one on a student!
The specialties on the professors, aside from the essential "Charms Master" and "Erudite," basically had a Red specialty from their respective fields as a foundation.
Snape had currently accumulated a total of just over 210,000 experience points.
This fortune was not enough for him to exchange for any Gold specialty, but it was more than enough for Purple specialties at 100,000 each and Blue specialties at 50,000 each!
Without any imminent threats, Snape didn't mind squandering all his current experience to accelerate his long-term strength improvement!
As per custom—
Priority was given to talent-type specialties, specifically those that accelerated skill improvement.
In Snape's careful selection, one Purple and two Blue specialties soon stood out from the crowd!
[Photographic Memory - Purple: Any book or knowledge you have seen will be firmly recorded in your mind at the first instance; even time cannot make them corrode or fade.
All Magic Skill Learning Speed x 1.3]
This was a specialty from Meadowes of Ravenclaw.
This girl was only mentioned in passing in the original books because she was killed early on by Voldemort personally after he perceived her as a danger. This undoubtedly fully proved Meadowes' excellent talent.
[Charms Specialization - Blue: Charms Learning Speed x 1.5]
[Spell Genius - Blue: When chanting spells to cast magic, Stamina Consumption +20%, but the Learning Speed for the Magic Skill represented by that spell x 1.3]
"Spell Genius" also came from Meadowes.
The other "Charms Specialization" came from a first-year student Snape didn't know.
Snape didn't waste the remaining 10,000 or so experience either, replicating a White specialty from Longbottom.
[Strong Physique - White: A strong body radiates to the mind, making spell casting more powerful.
Stamina Consumption -5%, Spell Power +5%]
Taking a deep breath.
Snape closed his eyes in intoxication. He felt he had never been better!
Many problems accumulated in his past studies melted like ice and snow at this moment. Knowledge points popped up consciously one by one; there was no need to struggle to recall them at all!
His body became stronger.
When Snape lifted his shirt, he found that neat, grid-like abdominal muscles had impressively appeared on his lower abdomen!
And at this time, his attribute panel also underwent a huge change!
...
[Name: Severus Snape (Eric Horne)
Age: 11
Experience: 3652 points
Skills: Charms LV4, Transfiguration LV4, Ancient Runes LV3, Dark Arts LV4, Potions LV8, Herbology LV7, Astronomy LV2
Specialties:
Ingenuity - Red (Herbology/Potions Learning Speed x 3, Innovation Speed x 3)
Dark Instincts - Gold (Dark Arts Learning Speed x 2, Innovation Speed x 2)
Agile Footwork - Gold (After arduous targeted training, you find that dodging and casting spells is no longer such a difficult thing. Stamina Consumption -30%, and every battle experienced will accelerate the formation of a combat dance step unique to your own style!)
Photographic Memory - Purple (Any book or knowledge you have seen will be firmly recorded in your mind at the first instance; even time cannot make them corrode or fade. All Magic Skill Learning Speed x 1.3)
Charms Specialization - Blue (Charms Learning Speed x 1.5)
Spell Genius - Blue (When chanting spells to cast magic, Stamina Consumption +20%, the Learning Speed for the Magic Skill represented by that spell x 1.3)
Strong Physique - White (A strong body radiates to the mind, making spell casting more powerful. Stamina Consumption -5%, Spell Power +5%)]**
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