Knockturn Alley was kinda shady. Weird people, weird shops, weird things being sold, and I could smell at least two people involved in death magic. Sev guided me directly to Borgin and Burkes. Why did everything happen there?
"Master Snape", greeted Borgin in a manner that told me Sev was a usual customer. "What can I do for you today?" And then Borgin's eyes landed at me with confusion.
"We're here for a wand. I suspect he's not going to find a good wand between light magic wand-makers."
"Of course, of course. May I ask…"
"You may not."
Borgin just nodded respectfully and went to the storage. I didn't dare to steal anything this time. Instead, I inspected the wardrobe Malfoy was going to use. When Borgin returned, he stared at me with suspicion and wariness, which was enough to tell me that Malfoy has already been here.
"Just looking", I said and returned to the counter. There were three beautiful wooden boxes at the top of it, each one with a delicate wand carefully polished and carved with runes. I touched the first one, but it was angry and volatile. The second one felt small and shy on my hands.
The third one smelled like death. When I touched it, I felt sparkles running through my arm until a very specific place inside my chest that bubbled in happiness. The tip of the wand glowed in purple light and then faded.
Both of them looked at me with wary eyes.
"What?" I asked.
Borgin cleared his throat.
"Nothing. It's… It's eighteen galleons."
"Eighteen? That's outrageous. I'll pay no more than seven", I declared. Borgin stiffened.
"Listen here, boy…"
"Mr. Prince, I assume from here. Wait outside, please."
I shot him a dark look before leaving, but Sev only took a few moments.
"Let's return to the castle. I suppose you're hungry?"
And just like that, the two weeks of torture began.
I needed to pass as a student, and even a stupid one would have at least some knowledge about magic. On that same day, I went through extensive lessons about the theoretic aspects of Charms and Transfiguration. I've never taken so many notes in my life, up until the point my hand felt cramped.
I've never been a good student, and now I was having a hard time trying to memorize everything and understand the principles behind it. Charms was fine, it was just a matter of concentration and visualization, and I had a pretty good imagination. But Transfiguration involved math and a complete understanding of the thing I was transfiguring. I wondered how it would feel to try to transfigure things as complex as animals and humans… I would suck at it.
After dinner, Snape forced me to read three introductory books about defense against the dark arts and I had to write twenty inches of parchment about what dark magic stood for and what was the difference from light magic. I just stared at the parchment.
"How… how long are twenty inches?" I grew up with centimeters, for fuck's sake.
Sev stared at me with suspicion, opened the roll of parchment, and pointed to a place. It seemed to be half a meter of writing. My cramped hand screamed.
I didn't know how long I sat there writing my soul out, but I hadn't finished it yet when Sev stood up and said it was time for my Astronomy class.
"People still do that class after the fifth year?"
"A few. But Astronomy is necessary for a large variety of classes, such as Arithmancy and Potions."
It was chilly up there, but it was nice. The wind blew my hair off my face, and it was the closest I had of freedom recently.
The first lesson was just introductory and it was perfectly aligned with what muggles knew about the universe. Unfortunately, I couldn't say the same about the Arithmancy class next morning. I woke up so early that the sun was barely poking out his face, and after a hurried breakfast, Professor Vector had to introduce me to the basics of math.
I used to be good at math in the muggle world, but Hogwarts seemed to be stuck two hundred years ago at least. It was useless to correlate any of the things I learned in the muggle world with Arithmancy. All the notations were different and it was a mix of derivatives and integers with probability and an astounding number of fractions, which had to be represented graphically. It wasn't a normal graphic though, that shit was circular and it had so many weird symbols that I could barely wrap up my mind about their meaning.
I headed to the Ancient Runes class with a headache. That was the easiest class so far because it was just a matter of translation and I was given a dictionary. The only scary thing was the prospect of having to memorize the four-hundred-page dictionary in two weeks. I was absolutely sure I wouldn't be able to do it.
Before lunch, I still had to study Potions. For some reason Slughorn couldn't be here before September 1st, so Sev was there again, for which I was grateful.
"Let's begin with a simple potion to cure boils. I expect more than sheer incompetence from you." With a wave of his wand, the instructions appeared on the board. As soon as I started, he began with an avalanche of criticism and sarcasm.
"You shouldn't have touched it without gloves, you're obviously contaminating the material. Start again with your gloves."
"How can you be so stupid? Read the instructions again. Does it say 'slice the horned slugs in foils' or 'chop it like a brute'?"
"The fire is too high. You ruined it. Start over."
"If we were in class I would have deducted points by now. This is absolutely wrong."
I lost my patience fairly quick.
"Why don't you fucking show me how to fucking do it instead of belittling me every time I try?"
The condescending look he gave me was infuriating.
"This is how you should learn. Every time you make a mistake, you are giving yourself another chance to do everything right from the beginning. Potions do not have room for anything less than perfection."
I scowled.
"Your attitude about it isn't helping."
He pinched the bridge of his nose, a gesture that was becoming familiar to me. I was already seeing the detention I would receive for this when normal classes started. We both had quite a temper and I tried to breathe slowly to control mine.
"Can you show me the proper way to do it, Professor Snape?"
It turned out that, as soon as he showed me what I was supposed to do, I was able to replicate it perfectly. I had absolute control over my body, another bonus of being a vampire, so it was simple to adjust my wrist to the same angle and apply the same amount of strength. I checked the next step, remembered what Sev did and replicated it in the exactly same manner.
He just stood there, staring at me, not a single comment about my performance leaving his mouth. When I finished, he immediately put another potion on the board.
"Try to do it without my help this time. The hospital wing needs more Calming Draught."
It was harder this time because I didn't have the visual help. I tried to replicate some movements of the first potion, but this one had new stuff I had to pay attention to. I put the next ingredient on my right and mixed the cauldron slowly anti-clockwise. Snape turned his back on me to get something and I checked his butt while my hand grabbed the ingredient on my left and poured it on the cauldron.
The potion hissed, spitting his contents upwards. Snape hurried to the cauldron.
"What did you d-"
The cauldron exploded, the acid potion landing painfully both on me and on Sev.
"Take off your clothes, now."
"Wow, our relationship escalated very quickly."
I shouldn't have said anything. By the time I finished what I was saying, the potion had already burned a hole in my robe and it was in direct contact with my skin. I took off the upper part of my clothes and tossed it on the ground, but the damage had already been done, and I had several spots of burned skin.
A stinging feeling appeared on my leg. I looked down to see that the potion had already spread to my trousers and, by the look of it, to my underwear too. In a few seconds, I was standing in the Potions classroom completely naked.
Snape vanished both of our clothes and the cauldron's content. He was in the same fashion I was and I took my time staring at his body. His skin was creamy-white and unblemished; the pelvis bones were prominent and he had a fantastic negative belly with zero fat, pathing the way to the long dick dangling between his legs.
He also had a visible collarbone and broad shoulders, and I couldn't tell how many times in my both lives I dreamed about men with these features. My mouth watered with a hunger I hadn't felt for a long time. My cock reacted with a tug.
"You stupid, reckless boy! Look at what you've done!"
"Yes, I'm looking at it." My voice was deeper, carrying none of the sarcasm it usually had. Sev certainly felt the difference by the way his cheeks burned with a delicious red. He glanced in my direction, eyes traveling down my body until my erect penis.
My power made a tentative move in his direction, but the choker blocked it and I groaned with frustration, immediately trying to rip it off. How could I seduce him without my power?
Sev headed back to his quarters and I followed him. I grabbed his hand and pushed him against the wall, getting so close that my cock rubbed against his skin.
"Take this thing off me. Please", I asked, my voice rough and deep.
"Don't be stupid. I will not grant you power. And don't forget I can put you down with a single spell."
I felt something poking my chest and looked down to see his wand pointed at me. Below that, he was as erect as I was. I smiled.
"Your wand is already ready for me."
His eyes flashed with anger and embarrassment.
"Get. Away. From me."
"Are you angry at me or at the way you're reacting to my presence? Why don't you just relax and have some fun for a change?"
Without breaking eye contact, I kneeled in front of him, opening my mouth to suck that delicious cock.
Suddenly, I was hurling in pain, every fiber of my body stinging with electric shocks.
He didn't lift the spell. My head seemed ready to blow open, my mouth and chin were covered in a hot mess of blood. Still, the pain didn't go away. I clawed my nails in my thigh, but it was nothing but gentle poking in comparison with the rest of the pain.
I blacked off.