Matthew returns to Slytherin's common room with Elaine Shafik.

They are still talking about topics related to the Christmas holiday...even though it has been more than a month since Christmas.

Just as they passed by the auditorium—

Suddenly, Miss Shafik covered her forehead and let out a scream of pain.

"What's wrong?" Matthew frowned and asked quickly.

"Matthew...my head... hurts so much..." Elaine said tremblingly.

She seemed to have something unexpected.

"Do you want to take you to the school hospital?" Matthew asked with great concern.

It's still quite long before the lights are turned off, so it's time to take her to the school hospital.

"No..." Elaine said weakly, "Send me to Professor Slughorn..."

Matthew frowned again in an instant.

"Please, Matthew...I feel like I'm going to be sucked..." Elaine Shafik begged.

"Okay, I'll send you over now!" Matthew Wakefield had no choice but to nod.

...

Supporting Elaine Shafik, they started back to Horace Slughorn's office.

To be honest, Matthew felt that the girl around him seemed to be a little weird...

Not only did the sudden "disease" behavior... Matthew thought it was strange, including many things before.

Many times, for herself, she acts like two people at a glance... Sometimes she is very enthusiastic about herself, like a friend who can talk about everything; but sometimes she is very cold, and even deliberately avoids herself...

But when this situation occurred, he could not ignore it. He had to obey Elaine's words and send her back to Slughorn's office.

Soon, they returned to the door of the Potions Professor's office again.

After a light knock on the door, Horas Slughorn poked his head out.

He had already changed into a green velvet pajama and wore a nightcap of the same color.

"What's going on in Matthew?" he asked loudly, "I'm ready to rest."

Before Matthew could speak, Slughorn's face changed when he saw Elaine Shafik's abnormal behavior...

"Oh my God!" he exclaimed.

Then, without hesitation, Professor Slughorn picked up the little girl and ran to an interior room with her in her arms.

Then he ran out in a hurry, holding a small bag in his hand.

Matthew had to stand aside with some boredom, watching Slughorn open the dispensing bag, add some of this and that to a small crystal bottle... they are all medicine materials that have been processed long ago.

His movements were very fast, and Matthew couldn't see clearly.

Just a few minutes later, he picked up the crystal bottle and ran back to the room while stirring.

Matthew couldn't even see the final color and shape of the potion there.

After handing the potion in the crystal bottle to Miss Shafik, Slughorn finally breathed a sigh of relief.

Matthew didn't say anything throughout the whole process, nor did he look very interested.

It was not until Slughorn finished his work that he asked, "What's going on, Professor? Is Elaine okay?"

"Of course... thanks to you who sent her over in time..." Slughorn quickly replied, "Poor Elaine, she has had a congenital genetic disease since she was a child and needs to take magic potions in time to suppress..."

"So that's it." Matthew nodded with a smile.

But in the bottom of my heart, Matthew was even more confused...

Because he felt that what Slughorn said was not like the truth, but rather more like an excuse to find temporarily.

After taking the medication for a few minutes, Elaine got up from the bed... She looked nothing unusual.

"Then let's say goodbye again, Professor." Constrained his inner confusion, Matthew spoke calmly.

Slughorn hadn't spoken yet, and suddenly, the door of his office was knocked again-

...

"Wait a moment, Matthew," Horace Slughorn frowned, "There are still guests at such a big night!"

He walked slowly towards the gate.

Matthew could only continue to stay where he was waiting...

The door was opened, as if it was forced to open.

"Severus?" Slughorn exclaimed.

"Professor Slughorn!" There was indeed a voice from outside "Severus Snape".

However, the voice of this professor in Transformation Class is far less gentle and amiable than usual class.

"Don't try to be a fence!" he said coldly, "It's time to make a decision!"

"Severus..." Slughorn's voice seemed to be frightened, "I still have students here..."

"This is the final warning!" "Severus Snape" continued, without any scruples about Slughorn's words, "You are a smart person, you should be able to guess what is about to happen..."

"Okay..." Slughorn nodded stutteringly, "Thank you, Severus...I'll consider it..."

"You don't have much time left..." "Severus Snape" left a sentence at the end, then turned around and left.

Through the figure observed in the crack of the door, Matthew could confirm... the familiar black suit seemed to be their deformation professor just now...

...

The two children in the inner room looked at each other in a little.

They seemed to hear something bad.

Horace Slughorn returned with a decadent look on his face, his face full of worries.

"What's going on, Professor?" Elaine Shafik asked naively, "What do Professor Snape's words mean?"

Matthew thought Slughorn would definitely refuse to answer.

But he didn't expect that he opened a bottle of honey wine directly, then waved his wand and turned out three wine glasses.

"I... should we go back?" Matthew asked in a low voice, "It's not far from the time to turn off the lights..."

"No, I have time to spend a few glasses of wine with a decadent old man..." Slughorn shook his head a little dismal, and then began to lower his head to pour wine:

"By the way, let me tell you another story!"

"A story from fifteen years ago..."

...

To be honest, Matthew was not very interested in any "story".

But when Slughorn suddenly mentioned "the story of fifteen years ago", he suddenly looked excited.

There is no doubt that all the strange phenomena that have happened recently, whether it is the fugitive of Azkaban, the Order of the Phoenix, and the undercurrent of Hogwarts, seem to be related to something that happened to Hogwarts fifteen years ago...

But the truth of that incident cannot be found in any book.

If the only channel to get in touch with the truth is probably only someone like Slughorn.

Matthew quickly cheered up.

Slughorn slowly handed two glasses of honey to the two children.

Then he picked up his own glass and drank the honey wine inside in one gulp.

"I'm afraid you're all curious, those three Azkaban fugitives... Why did they break into Hogwarts after escaping Azkaban?" Slughorn's face turned red due to the effects of alcohol, and he also spoke:

"Because all three of them were Hogwarts students, just fifteen years ago...their names are James Porter, Sirius Black, and Peter Pediru..."

Matthew once eavesdropped on this passage through Hermione's stealing device and eavesdropped on two broom bars.

"In fact, it's not just the three of them..." Slughorn continued, "The students of that class of Hogwarts were full of talents, and they were all concentrated in Gryffindor College... In addition to the three names just mentioned, there were Remus Lupin and Severus Snape..."

Matthew was stunned. Could it be that Severus Snape of this world really graduated from Gryffindor College?

"...It's hard to imagine that all five boys in a college are very smart and talented; maybe Peter is a little worse, but he is also excellent enough... I've been in Hogwarts for so many years and it's the first time I've seen them all... I've put them all in my arms..."

"Wait, professor..." Matthew couldn't help but interrupt him, "Does the 'Severus Snape' you just mentioned refer to our potion class teacher Professor Snape?"

"Of course not," Slughorn sneered, and then spoke without hesitation, "He is fake!"

This view was not shocking to Matthew's opinion; but it was a bit intriguing when it came out of Slughorn.

"Fake?" Elaine Shafik, who was beside him, said in surprise.

"Because of that incident fifteen years ago, the real Severus Snape has been missing," Slughorn continued. "For fifteen years, no one knows what he is now, and no one knows what he is doing... and the person who claims to be 'Severus Snape' is naturally very likely to be disguised..."

"...Others may not see it," Slughorn said coldly, "but I am still very familiar with my favorite disciple!"

Matthew only felt that the amount of information was a bit large, which made his mind even a little irreversible.
To be continued...