Chapter 32 – Dumbledore’s Doubts.

[Chapter Size: 2800 Words.]

Third Person POV

Hogwarts.

...

...

Severus watched little Heloísa walk toward the stool, while he stopped paying attention to the Slytherin students and focused on her from the moment he heard her name being called.

She seemed quite nervous as she sat down. McGonagall placed the hat on her head, and it began speaking softly to her, while the girl had a rather surprised tone upon learning that the hat was seeing into her mind. She even started replying with a few quiet words.

It did not take long, but the sorting certainly left Severus stunned. "SLYTHERIN!" the hat shouted for the entire school to hear.

Severus immediately widened his eyes in surprise, just as the atmosphere in the hall became tense in the very next moment.

Everyone in Slytherin had been minding their own business, but the moment the house name was spoken, they all immediately raised their heads. Professor McGonagall looked at Heloísa in horror, while the girl displayed an excited smile, completely oblivious to the atmosphere she had just caused.

Slytherin started clapping, but without any enthusiasm. Their eyes darted toward one another, wondering who the girl was, whispering her family name, Vittorini, to see if anyone recognized it.

As McGonagall removed the hat from her head, the girl jumped slightly, quickly looking toward the Slytherin table searching for someone.

Severus tilted his head slightly to the side, staring at her, while his eyes also kept drifting toward the Hufflepuff table, where Iris was pressing her lips together, looking at the girl with a worried expression, then at him...

The girl finally found Severus and started running toward the entrance area, stopping in front of him excitedly, while even the Headmaster was looking directly at Severus once again.

"I'm in Slytherin!" she said excitedly, as though celebrating. Which meant it had been entirely her choice, she must have forced the Sorting Hat to choose that for her.

While everyone stared at the girl, Severus merely sighed.

"Come sit beside me," was all he said.

In the end, what else could he even do now?

The girl nodded excitedly, sitting beside him. There were suspicious, confused, and even disgusted looks directed at Heloísa. Even though those first two groups still did not know she was a muggle girl, certainly most of them would also look disgusted afterward.

"Why is she sitting with us?" said a fourth-year student from the other side of the table. "She isn't from an important family, after all, I've never heard of Vittorini... and you, who are you?" he asked, almost as if it were a demand.

Severus's eyes moved toward the boy. A member of the Rowle family, Edric Rowle, if he remembered correctly.

Heloísa, who had been excited, seemed to shrink at the boy's tone, while Severus touched her head and looked at Rowle, ignoring the next child being called to the Sorting Hat by Professor McGonagall on the other side of the hall.

"None of us are obligated to answer you, Rowle," Severus replied calmly. "If you can't identify who is who, don't think others are dogs meant to obey every time you bark." He did not like that boy's tone.

While the boy stared at him somewhat stunned, it was soon possible to see anger surfacing, and he was about to say something, but someone placed a hand on Rowle's shoulder.

"Wait, Edric! Don't be so foolish. Letting anger take over is not a very good image for a noble of Great Britain and the prestigious Rowle family."

Beside him, another boy said this, trying to calm things down. He was another member of the nobility, a Yaxley. Arthur Yaxley.

He looked at Severus the next moment with some curiosity, but there was also a calculating glint in his eyes. Even for a fourteen-year-old boy, it was somewhat impressive for this era.

"Please, could you tell me who you are? I'm a little curious. Not only me, but everyone around us. And I would also like to know who she is and about your Vittorini family, I've never heard of them..." he said in a more courteous tone, while his friend snorted but also looked at Severus waiting for his answer.

Severus looked at him, sensing Heloísa beside him, somewhat nervous and worried.

'This shouldn't be the house she was supposed to stay in...' Severus thought about it for a moment.

He sighed, unable to do anything else about it, and looked at the two boys.

"I'm nobody that special..." he began.

'Not special? You only have two bloodlines: that of the prince and that of the king. You're just the heir to the throne of Great Britain! And I don't even properly know what you were in your past life, which certainly wasn't insignificant... And not to mention the magic you command... You're more powerful than that old man, far more powerful than anyone else here...' Articuno hummed inside his mind.

Obviously, he had told her about his experience at Gringotts, but the magical bird did not seem that surprised. To be honest, Articuno was more interested in the power Severus possessed than in the bloodline he represented.

'Let's stay silent about that,' Severus murmured in his mind. He might possess more magic than even the Headmaster, but he also needed to learn how to control that power. He was not sure he could actually defeat that old man, after all, he had never seen him fight... Even so, he would not run if challenged by him.

'Tsk... Fine, fine...' the bird replied, still humming, before speaking again in a more serious tone.

'You need to make little Heloísa be careful around these people. They certainly don't like, or won't like, the girl from what I understand... But they must respect power...'

'I know. We'll deal with that later,' Severus simply replied.

Then his eyes returned to the students practically waiting for his answer after he had said that.

"Actually, I'm not some transfer student. You already know me as Severus Snape. I merely made a few changes," Severus replied calmly.

The entire table was stunned upon hearing that. Even the irritated Rowle boy almost choked when he heard it.

"You're Severus Snape?!" Arthur Yaxley was bewildered, just like the others around them on that side of the table.

Of course they knew him as one of those who walked around with the group of future Death Eaters, whom everyone respected greatly, even though they talked behind Severus's back for being a poor half-blood.

But many of those younger students certainly held some respect for him. After that, everyone became somewhat cautious.

"You certainly changed a lot..." Yaxley said, looking at Severus with an almost disbelieving expression at what he was seeing.

Severus used to be a silent boy who walked around with Mulciber and Avery, who were now talking together with the seventh-year students, among whom Rabastan Lestrange was present.

"And who would she be?" another cautious student asked, pointing at Heloísa.

The other girl remained silent.

"She's just Heloísa. Nothing more. Her family is muggle."

There was no reason to hide that, it would only show weakness to these people, and they would discover it anyway.

Disgust immediately appeared in the eyes of those present, and seeing that, Severus acted. His eyes suddenly began glowing brighter.

The air around them seemed to change, and the temperature immediately started dropping.

While Severus kept his hand on Heloísa's head to protect her from the icy magic that was beginning to form in the air, everyone felt the temperature rapidly decreasing.

Severus's eyes were like two emerald beacons.

"She is under my protection, and I do not intend to be friendly if you are cruel to her..." he spoke slowly, but there was a clear threat in his tone, and it made all the students on that side of the table tremble.

Even those arrogant boys could not stop themselves from shivering from the cold and looking at Severus with a certain horror. Everyone shrank back as they watched ice beginning to form across the table.

Everyone knew that, somehow, Severus was causing that, even though they did not know how. Heloísa was surprised, watching everyone around her trembling and looking fearfully at Severus, while she herself remained comfortably warm beneath Severus's hand, unlike the others.

Severus knew many people were noticing the commotion, and he knew the Headmaster himself could sense the air changing on that side of the table, while he kept staring directly at Severus the entire time.

Professor McGonagall, by that point, had already informed everyone who he was, and now he somewhat understood why she had been so disturbed when she said she had seen him in Diagon Alley.

Severus saw that no one responded due to the fear he was instilling in those teenagers, so he began changing the air once more, while everything slowly returned to its normal temperature.

Ice still remained in some parts of the table, while everyone present finally stopped trembling.

"Well, I suppose that's all, now enjoy the evening..." Severus broke the silence with a charming smile, as though he had not terrified a group of children just moments ago. Perhaps it was shameful for a two hundred and fifty-year-old man like him, but with his kingly knowledge, he knew he had to impose limits and threats. Showing what he was capable of if he needed to act.

"Where is my bag?" Heloísa asked, trying to change the subject while looking at Severus.

She could not see the bag anywhere. He smiled at her and pulled a coin from his pocket.

"I transformed it into a coin. I was going to give it to you in Slytherin," he said, putting the coin away again. He could hand it to her, but the spell could be undone, and Heloísa would not know how to deal with it before it transformed back into a trunk and injured her.

Even so, he was still somewhat worried that she had suddenly come to that house. Of all the options, that place was not good for her, she should not have chosen Slytherin...

At the same time, the Headmaster finally began clapping, drawing the attention of all the students after every first-year student had been sorted into their houses.

"Well..." he began in that gentle tone, but loud enough that no one dared interrupt him or pay attention to anything else.

Then he started speaking, giving the speech he delivered every new school year.

First, he welcomed the new students, then the returning students of Hogwarts. He spoke about the dangers of the Forbidden Forest and several other warnings that Severus found somewhat strange.

Then he introduced a new Defense Against the Dark Arts professor. A Russian man who had accepted the position, although Dumbledore did not say much about his qualifications, which probably were not very impressive.

After all, given the curse that plagued that position, no one wanted to take it. There had even been many competent professors in the beginning, trying to free the position from the curse, but all of them had been brought down, suffered accidents, or even died in mysterious ways.

Now, decades later, the position no longer lasted even a single year with the same professor before changing abruptly, causing the subject to steadily decline in quality, despite being the most important subject in dark times like these, when children should know how to defend themselves.

Dumbledore's speech ended as he clapped his hands.

Suddenly, all the tables magically began filling with food, transported by the house-elves using their magic. Severus felt Heloísa clutching his clothes beside him in surprise.

"Well, now you may finally have dinner."

With those words, Dumbledore turned around and began walking back toward his chair, while everyone seemed excited.

Severus looked at the plates of food spread across the table.

"Can I serve myself whatever I want?" she asked excitedly.

"Go ahead," he said, while beginning to serve himself as well.

He ate with the refined etiquette of a king, more refined even than those wizards born from pure-blood families sitting before him. No one said anything else about him or Heloísa, but everyone's gaze remained on him with a certain caution. They were afraid of him.

"I wanted to get some mayonnaise... It's a little far away..." Heloísa murmured.

Severus realized she did not want to draw attention and would do so if she simply got up from the table to fetch the food some meters away.

Severus looked at the mayonnaise and raised one hand. The container immediately began levitating, catching several students by surprise as they watched the mayonnaise float directly toward Severus.

"Without a wand..." they murmured the obvious.

They watched with surprise and even admiration, seeing Severus do that with only a few fingers. It was a level of magical control none of them had ever witnessed before.

"Go ahead," Severus told Heloísa.

She nodded excitedly, adding some to her plate, while Severus also took a little before returning the container to its place.

His eyes turned back toward the students in front of him, who had stopped eating to admire that display with cautious expressions.

Severus said nothing. He simply returned to eating as though none of that was important.

"Did you see that?" Professor McGonagall murmured beside Dumbledore, looking directly toward the area near the entrance where she had witnessed Severus's display with the food container.

"Yes... I saw it," Dumbledore murmured with a strange glint in his eyes.

Outwardly he remained calm, but inwardly he was in chaos.

He had noticed Severus when he entered carelessly, tossing a bag into the air as though he had just won the Golden Snitch itself in a Quidditch match.

A student being outside the hall during the first-years' Sorting was certainly a violation of the rules, yet he entered without caring about anything while casually choosing a place to sit.

And not among his old friends.

Not that Dumbledore had realized that at first. After all, he saw a student he did not properly recognize, though the boy's magic did not feel unfamiliar.

Hogwarts itself would never have allowed him to enter if he were not already a student. The castle itself would have reacted and warned him if any intruder had entered.

Dumbledore, when he had the opportunity, used Legilimency. His eyes glowed as he stared into those green eyes while immediately trying to probe who that person was.

However, his ability was not only blocked with ease, leaving him stunned. After all, no teenager should possess such mastery over Occlumency and Legilimency. But the boy also seemed to be enjoying the Headmaster's attempt.

The strange part was that Dumbledore could sense even two minds blocking his mental attack. Even though it was almost imperceptible, he felt it, and the other mind was clearly not human...

And then came that comment echoing directly into his mind:

‘Interesting... You can use Legilimency with just a look? I hadn’t read about that...’,

Dumbledore became deeply alarmed by that.

It was only after discovering that it was Severus Snape that his concerns seemed to multiply even further.

What had happened to the boy?

How had he changed so radically?

He had always known the boy was somewhat dark, but now he was even more cautious because he could not define what Severus Snape truly was.

He had watched the entire time, watched the boy cast magic without a wand while simply taking care of that girl, a muggle sitting among Slytherins, which was something deeply concerning.

Severus seemed to speak on her behalf and was trying to protect her from the other students.

McGonagall did not seem to have seen what he did earlier, how he changed the entire temperature around the table, since she was still handling the last first-year students, but Dumbledore had seen it and it sent a shiver through him upon sensing that chaotic elemental magic.

It was only after Professor Minerva saw Severus levitating a plate of food that she mentioned the incident where she had seen him levitating books in the shop at Diagon Alley.

He had no wand. He merely moved his hand.

Dumbledore did not know what to say about that. He was certain the boy had not been nearly this impressive before the holidays.

So he kept wondering... what happened...?

His eyes shifted toward Slughorn, who did not even seem to have noticed Severus, as he remained more focused on his favorite students whom he liked collecting and chatting with the other professors.

Dumbledore merely sighed while suddenly watching the castle ghosts begin invading the feast.

The first-year students jumped in fright, while the older students started laughing and greeting the ghosts, whom they knew well.

Everyone was in a far more cheerful atmosphere.

Dumbledore, however, remained there, deep in thought.

This year would be far more complicated than he had ever imagined.

And it was not only because Voldemort was beginning to grow bolder than ever outside the school.

◆◇◆◇◆◇◆◇◆◇◆◇◆◇◆◇◆◇◆◇◆◇◆◇◆◇◆◇◆◇◆◇◆◇◆◇◆◇◆◇◆◇◆◇◆◇◆◇◆◇◆◇◆◇◆◇◆◇◆◇◆◇◆◇◆◇◆◇◆◇◆◇◆

🦝 Raccoon here: 🦝

I deeply appreciate your support since the beginning of this exciting journey!

🌟 RaccoonLeague | 🌟

Visit our for more: https://www..com/RaccoonLeague

Extra Content Already Available:

One Piece - I Am a Different Luffy!: 30 extra chapters!

👑 Game of Thrones: The Legend of Jon Arctic!: 30 extra chapters!

👑 Game of Thrones: DragonBorn! 30 extra chapters!

👑 HOTD: Jon Arctic! 30 extra chapters!

🌀 Naruto - Minato Namikaze SI!: 30 extra chapters!

🗡️ The Witcher - As Uchiha Madara! 30 extra chapters!

⚡HP - Jon Arctic as Severus Snape! 30 extra chapters!

⚡ Harry Potter - Shadow Monarch! Finished! [100%]

⚡Danmachi – The Alchemist! [Coming Soon.]

Visit our for more!!

◆◇◆◇◆◇◆◇◆◇◆◇◆◇◆◇◆◇◆◇◆◇◆◇◆◇◆◇◆◇◆◇◆◇◆◇◆◇◆◇◆◇◆◇◆◇◆◇◆◇◆◇◆◇◆◇◆◇◆◇◆◇◆◇◆◇◆◇◆◇◆◇◆