His small hand trembled.
The wine glass slipped from his palm and shattered into pieces, startling everyone.
"Ah, no, no, no! Just leave it there; I'll clean it up myself."
Professor Slughorn stared intently at Snape.
He didn't care about the broken glass at all, his eyes shining with an unmistakable light as he repeated his inquiry with enthusiasm bordering on impatience:
"You said... you brewed the Scar-Removal Cream?"
"Didn't you know? I thought Madam Lavinia had already told you."
"...Veelas are always like this. While possessing stunning beauty, they also have a mischievous streak of teasing others. But this is incredible! Calculating the time, you probably hadn't even enrolled in school back then!"
Professor Slughorn was incoherent with excitement, his face unnaturally flushed.
He had never realized so clearly that the person he was currently in contact with was destined to be a famous figure who would go down in history!
When seas changed into mulberry fields, and everything familiar to him vanished under the mighty force of time—
Even then.
The student before him would still be on the lips of all future wizards, immortalized alongside the wizarding world as an epoch-making Potions Master!
Pig brain overload, brain stopped working!
At this moment, Professor Slughorn had only one thought:
My God, I must pull him into my collection! This is a once-in-a-lifetime SSR!!
The thought of regretfully giving up on Snape was long thrown to the back of his mind.
However, Slughorn's incomparably fervent gaze toward the boy sent a sudden chill up Snape's spine. A look of vigilance appeared in his eyes, and his fingers subconsciously rubbed the wand hidden in his cuff, ensuring he could launch a counterattack at the fastest speed at any time.
Noticing the distant indifference erupting in Snape's eyes, Professor Slughorn immediately realized his reaction was too eager.
He hurriedly waved his hands to signal no malice, trying to mend the fold after the sheep were lost:
"Sorry, sorry, I just can't control myself sometimes... Stay a bit longer. It's still early. I promise my potion collection won't disappoint you!"
"...Forget it. Let's do it next time."
Pulling the reluctant Lily along—
Snape suspiciously observed every detail of the Potions Professor and chose to resist the temptation, deciding not to stay.
Although he had long known Professor Slughorn had a collecting habit—it was even a golden specialty—thinking of the unprecedented scorching gaze the other party cast on him just now still made Snape's skin crawl. He felt it was better not to see those potions.
Too gay, I refuse!
Anyway, he would learn to brew them himself sooner or later. Why take the risk of potentially dropping the soap?
Regret welled up in Slughorn's heart like acid.
If he could, Professor Slughorn would have loved to grab Snape's hand and not let him leave!
But his rich experience communicating with dozens of celebrities and leaders in various industries told him that the most taboo thing now was to act with undue haste.
Suppressing his reluctance, Professor Slughorn's gaze still lingered on Snape, cherishing every second.
Moving with unprecedented speed, he quickly scanned his office, finally picked out the hourglass on the table, and shoved it into Snape's hand without even looking at it.
"For you, my boy. You will definitely achieve great things in the future!"
Before the dumbfounded Snape could refuse—
Professor Slughorn slammed the door shut with a bang. A few seconds later, cheers and wild laughter that both could hear clearly came from inside.
Snape: "..."
Lily: "..."
"Um, do you know what's wrong with the professor?"
It took a good while—
Only then did Lily recover from her dumbfounded state, turning her head hesitantly to ask Snape beside her.
"...Maybe."
"Maybe?"
Snape rarely hesitated.
According to the original book and specialty information, these abnormal behaviors must be due to Professor Slughorn's collecting habit acting up.
But if he bet wrong, Snape really didn't want to imagine what would happen.
Silently making up his mind, he put the Potions Professor on his long-term observation list, incidentally adding a "to be confirmed" option for humane destruction.
Professor Slughorn didn't know yet.
It was precisely because of the extraordinary enthusiasm he instinctively revealed near the end of the first gathering that his plan to woo Snape in the next few years became extremely difficult, never managing to get the other party to join his Slug Club!
And however happy he was now, he would be equally driven crazy in the future!
Countless times he wished he could go back to their first meeting and hit his uncontrollable self with a few Levicorpus spells!
"You got a gift, and I didn't."
Hearing the obvious sourness in Lily's voice—
Snape glanced at her, deliberately placed the hourglass in front of her, and showed off exaggeratedly:
"Gold will shine wherever it is. Just go ahead and be envious."
"Hmph, if there were three lions on it, it would definitely look better than now."
"I think snakes are pretty good too."
Chatting idly—
Passing by the library, Snape and Lily bade farewell to each other, incidentally agreeing on a night trip to the Room of Requirement tonight.
Watching Lily skip away—
Not long after, Snape saw with his own eyes that Lily joined a group of Gryffindor students seamlessly like a drop of water, without arousing any rejection or hostility from others.
Instead, judging from the smiles of others, Lily was obviously very popular with them.
Turning indifferently—
Snape walked into the library, ignoring the curious glances from all around, passing rows of desks where students sat in twos and threes.
Then he walked straight to the familiar position at the very back.
There, more than thirty mixed-blood students from Slytherin had been waiting eagerly in their seats for a long time. The moment they saw Snape arrive, their eyes invariably burned with fervor!
Everyone in Slytherin knew now that Snape was about to join the Black Eye Society, which only upper-year students could be selected for, with unprecedented first-year status!
This news shocked countless Slytherin students who couldn't get in, making it hard to believe!
Not to mention his teaching standards were so excellent.
Combined with the visibly brilliant background he would have in the future, every mixed-blood present wanted to seize the opportunity to build a good relationship with Snape!
It was another unforgettable and profound teaching session. The little wizards who usually couldn't keep up with their studies all gained something, their faces full of smiles.
And Snape was lucky enough to achieve an immersive level, harvesting nearly forty thousand experience points at once. This was something that would have taken more than two months to gain through individual tutoring with Lily in the past.
However, unlike previous tutoring sessions—
After this teaching, Snape specifically asked a few Slytherin students with puzzled faces to stay behind.
When he confirmed everyone else had left, a book specifically recording Muggle history was smilingly pushed in front of them by Snape.
Thus, once again, the devil's gentle seduction from hell rang out!
"Do you know that, in fact, we are only a thin line away from danger?"
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