Part 1.3 - Snape's First Year, Student - 1971-72

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17 March 1972

1. I have the book. Moste Potente Potions.

2. It is prime. There is no end of useful instructions in it. Some people would say that a lot of these potions are dark, but I don't. It depends on what you use them for.

3. There is a recipe for an even better protection potion than the one with moly. That must be why the Princes told me to get the book. I will start looking for the ingredients.

4. The magic is strong in the Restricted Section. I could feel it. The books were rustling and kind of whispering. I whispered back - - show me how to create spells. And a book flew right off the shelf and came over to me.

5. It is called Spell Theory. It is small. I put it inside iMoste Potente Potions/i and Madam Pince didn't even see it when I left.

24 March 1972

1. They talk about me. The teachers.

2. Evidence: I heard them. In the library.

3. Details: I was sitting in the back corner near the Restricted Section. I was the only person in there. Everyone else was skiving off because the Easter break starts soon and they are stupid enough to believe that if something doesn't have to be done until after break, they don't need to think about it right now.

Professor McGonagall came in. She said - - Quiet night, Irma?

Madam Pince said - - Very.

McGonagall said - - I was hoping that at least a few of the N.E.W.T. students might be trying to get a head start on their major project, but I suppose that's too much to expect, this close to the holiday.

Pince said - - Just wait until examination time arrives, then they'll be sorry, mark my words. But no one has been in for over an hour. Young Snape from Slytherin was here earlier but even he seems to have left.

I stayed totally still, I didn't even turn a page. I didn't want them to know I was still there.

McGonagall said - - He takes his schoolwork seriously, that boy. He's one of the best of his year in Transfiguration.

Pince said - - If only they could all be studious like him. He spends more time working in the library than any other student, even the N.E.W.T. candidates. He does research on his own, outside of assigned reading.

McGonagall laughed and said - - Sounds as if he should have been in Ravenclaw. The sorting hat must have made a mistake.

Then she sounded more serious and said - - I'm concerned about him, though, Irma. He's very bright, but he's so. . .I don't know, so suspicious and withdrawn. So hard to reach, and he doesn't seem to have many friends.

Pince said - - He talks to your Lily Evans sometimes. And to some of the Slytherin boys, Mulciber and Yaxley.

McGonagall said - - That's part of what worries me. The political situation being what it is, a disaffected boy like Snape could be ripe for recruitment by extremists. I'm wary of Yaxley and Malfoy; I think they support all that pureblood purity nonsense.

Pince said - - Isn't Snape a half-blood? They won't be interested in him.

McGonagall said - - Don't you believe it. They'll be happy to make use of his level of intelligence, especially if they can get him on their side. You know, convince him that the rest of the wizarding world has wronged him somehow and that he should be loyal to them. I imagine Mr Snape is capable of a great deal of loyalty; I've seen him talk to Lily, too, even when it's clear that his Slytherin compatriots don't want him to.

Pince said - - You're probably right.

McGonagall said - Houses can be wonderful influences in a child's life, but they can be bad influences, too. I just don't think Slytherin is good for Snape.

Then they talked about other things, and McG got some books and they turned down the lights and left. They never did see me.

4. A strange thing happened when I was writing about McG and Pince's conversation. In each paragraph, as soon as I started putting down the words, the quill began to write on its own. It wrote the words just as they were said aloud.

It is better than I could have done by myself. I would not have remembered every single word.

5. I believe it is the Prince book helping me.

6. Thank you.

7. I looked up "disaffected" and "compatriots." "Disaffected" means "rebellious, discontented, dissatisfied with authority." "Compatriots" means "from the same country" or "companion, colleague."

8. I am not rebellious. But I am definitely dissatisfied with Gryffindors.* (Note - - *except Lily)

9. Slytherin is not a bad influence on me. This is a lie. Slytherin has given me compatriots.

10. I don't like it when people talk about me.

11. Or watch me.

12. But I am not sorry they know I am smart. Smarter than any Gryffinwank, that's for sure.

13. I am the best Transfiguration student in my year.

1 April 1972

1. Tomorrow is Easter.

2. Only five of us left in the Slytherin common room over the break. No one else from my year.

3. I have been experimenting.

A. Potions: I brewed three phials of the new protection potion.

Results: Successful.

Evidence: I drank one phial and then went to the beehives near Hagrid's house and put my hand straight in. I did not get one sting.

B. Spells: The theory in the book is difficult.

Results: Unsuccessful. So far.

End of the Term

1. Tomorrow I leave to go home.

2. I have packed everything except this book and my nightshirt. And my quill.

3. I will sit with Lily on the train. I waited for her after breakfast today and she said -Yes, for a little while at least.

4. I have not written much here in the last few weeks because exams and homework were ridiculous.

5. I have continued to experiment with spells.

Results: promising.

6. Professor Devlin gave me a note to say I could take Plants and Potions home with me over the summer. (I will take Spell Theory too, but no one will know.)

7. Professor Devlin is not coming back next year. He has to go somewhere warm for his health.

This is not good news.

6. Thoughts

A. It has been a good year overall.

B. I have learnt a lot. Examples:

- -A lot about making potions. More than I can write here.

- -Dark magic is only dark if you make it dark.

- -You can use dark magic safely if you don't let it control you.

- -The wizarding world is unfair to Slytherins, but things may change someday.

- -If you have power, be careful with it.

- -If you are careful and have a system and think things through, you can make changes in the potions recipes without blowing up any cauldrons (like moron Pettigrew) or creating fumes that cause everyone at your table to break out in warts (like moron Avery). And your potions will be better.

- -Teachers watch you even when you don't know it. And they talk to other teachers about you.

C. Yaxley and Lucius and some of the other Slytherins have been nice to me. In my year, Mulciber is not so bad. Avery is an idiot.

D. I will pay back Pooper and Blackhead for everything someday. They'd better watch out, that's all.

E. Now I have said all I will say about this year.

Signed, Severus Snape, SLYTHERIN.