[Hogwarts]

[Nate's POV]

A week passed since the start of term and Nate adjusted to the newer curriculum that he had to handle. He had taken the Ancient Runes and Care of Magical Creatures elective classes. Babbling had accepted quite easily that he would only be taking end-of-year tests.

He had still made it a point to not only send an order to The Three Broomsticks for a bottle of premium oak-matured mead, something that had cut in his own monthly budget dearly but a professor on his side, despite not being in any important position would be a welcome development. The gift would buy him goodwill.

Nate had always maintained a polite attitude towards the Hogwarts staff. He had a positive relationship with Flitwick, Babbling, Hagrid and Binns.

Flitwick was a literal dictionary Nate used to search for charms he would like.

' I mean, I can't always waste my time searching books for useful charms, simply asking a man who has a repertoire of charms memorised over a long period of time is a better solution than sitting in the library. It also led to a relationship of mentorship between me and Flitwick.'

Babbling was more of a friend than a professor. They would discuss ideas for runic clusters. She was one of the very few people that knew his ability to cast runes.

Hagrid was a large man with a heart of gold. Dumbledore had gained an honourable man that would die for him at the drop of the hat when he had helped the man fifty years ago.

And half-giants were very difficult to put down and were also deceptively fast. One simply did not want themselves on the bad side of a wizard that could break adult men like twigs, shrug off a cutting curse and cast magic back.

Nate had been one of the few students in a very long time to actually pay attention to history of magic as an important teaching point. History was an important part of his studies in time. When Nate prodded the man for information, he freely gave it away, the only problem with Binns was, questioning the veracity of his words would have the man foaming from his mouth.

Nate really pitied the man, ' The man's whole existence was about teaching history and even when he was dead, he continued doing it. Nobody appreciated him just because he was forced to teach Anti-Goblin Propaganda by the then ministry thanks to the Goblin rebellions.' Nate grimaced at the sad existence.

The ministry's sheer incompetence sometimes made Nate want to really kill the morons. They could have changed the material but things like that were too difficult to do. An outdated education was a norm in every damn place.

' The department of magical education being headed by hundred-year-olds doesn't help either.' Nate thought bitterly.

Nate's studies in Time were again progressing at a pace that was good enough for him. His mastery in object local temporal manipulation was great. He could manipulate time for an individual object quite easily.

The question that had risen to his mind after using it on things like clocks, trees, chemical reactions and even physical changes was, can temporal manipulation affect spells too?

So he tried it on them and it could not only affect the speed at which the spell travelled but also the speed with which the spell's effect took place. A bombarda when he sped time up would move faster than Nate could see and shatter anything that it touched faster than a normal bombarda.

It took a lot of intent to effect spells and the only spells that he could affect at the time were fifth-year level or below.

' It can't be used defensively but offensively it could be used.'

His mastery of illusions was complete since Illusions were not institutionalised like Transfiguration and Charms, he couldn't really take a test to prove it but, according to the author of Illusions and Nightmares, Quinn West, a master of the mind arts and described by many as a master of illusions, Nate could be considered a master illusionist.

It was one of the best skills Nate could acquire thanks to its flexibility.

He had worked for the past six years to study magic, apply magic and master magic. It was time to test whether his hard work would pay off or not.

So he walked towards the man he wanted to test himself against, Nate strutted arrogantly towards the dungeons.

Severus Snape, spy of the Order of the Phoenix, the man that had originally won Dumbledore the second wizarding war, a prodigy in Potions, Arithmancy and the Dark Arts. Nate would freely admit that Snape was strong, one of the strongest men he knew, if Nate had a list of the most competent fighters it would be Albus Dumbledore, Voldemort, himself followed by his grandfather, Snape, Moody and Bellatrix Lestrange.

Nate could have gone to Flitwick but Nate did not want to learn to duel, he already knew the basics of the standard rules used in the international circuits.

Nate's step paused as he came in front of Snape's office, he knocked on the door.

"Come in," Snape's cold and waspish sounded.

As Nate entered, he could see the man's face remained neutral yet his eyes had cooled.

"Professor." Nate gave the barest of nods.

"Grey, what brings you here?" Snape had moved his eyes down to a piece of parchment on which he wrote slowly with his quill.

"I have a request I would like to make," Nate said.

"Is it related to potions academia?" The man asked without looking up from his parchment.

"No." Nate said and then added, remembering he was there to make a request, "Sir."

"Then I will have to refuse, Mr Grey, much as I would like to help you I do not have the time." Snape's tone remained the same as before, cold like a corpse and yet Nate could feel the mocking intent behind it.

Nate suppressed the indignation at the casual dismissal through Occlumency and said, "I would have liked to learn duelling from you, sir."

Now there were many things one could say about Nate but his arrogance and power were his most obvious characteristics.

"Would the Ravenclaw Head of House not benefit your interests more?"

"He isn't a master of the dark arts, I want to fight against a dark arts practitioner."

"And so you came to me, seeking me as an alternative, Mr Grey. A second choice?" Snape asked still not looking away from the parchment.

Nate was annoyed yet he said, "No. Professor, you were not the second choice, but rather the first one, I already know the rules for duelling and while Professor Flitwick is a master duelist, he does not make use of the dark arts, nor is he proficient in their use."

Snape drawled, "Has it escaped your brilliant mind that I don't take students for duelling like Filius? Mr Grey, you may be used to the headmaster showing favouritism, but do not think all of us will bow down to your whims."

"You will have to take the headmaster's displays of favouritism with the board of governors. Lucius Malfoy, a friend of yours, will surely be happy to hear about it." Nate said.

"Measure your words Grey," Snape said, "You do not want one of Britain's top potion masters angry at you. Imagine if someone you loved got gravely injured, you wouldn't want me to, how do you say it, toss the potion up, right?"

' Fuck being polite to this asshole.' The temperature in the room dropped. Nate could feel the presence of Mist, still invisible around himself.

Nate did not take well to threats, "My words are measured, Severus. Though it reminds me of our earlier topic about favouritism, it means showing positive bias towards a particular group. You have been showing a lot of bias lately too, positive towards your house but that is a common thing in these halls.

It does not stop there though, does it? You have also been showing negative bias, towards one, Harry James Potter. It wouldn't have anything to do with something you tossed up in the past, would it?"

The quill's scratching on the parchment that had not stopped since Nate entered the room paused for a moment before continuing again.

"You have overstayed your welcome in this room Grey. Leave. And twenty points from Gryffindor for your baseless accusations and use of my name."