Volume 1

The new school year began for Severus Snape with another prank of the younger Potter and Arthur's sixth son, Ron Weasley. Although what these two threw out this time was quite difficult to call a simple trick. Scandal! The scandal with the violation of the status of secrecy and the theft of personal transport from the patriarch of the Weasley family.

Yes, for such an outburst, ninety percent of Hogwarts students, not that they had flown out of school, could even get into Azkaban, even at the upper levels. And these at least henna. The patronage of the director is able to cover two troublemakers and from much louder scandals. Still, Dumbledore does not just take his positions. His power is quite real and is backed up by whole orders of supporters and assistants. And here we are talking not only about the Order of the Phoenix, Dumbledore had at least three simple fan clubs…

In general, yes, the beginning of the year at Dean Slizarin did not work out from the very first hours of work. And it would be fine if the problem was only Potter. Over the past year, Severus has managed to get used to the presence of this thorn in school, and subconsciously expected from the son of his old enemy some kind of a dirty trick. We can say that the man's expectations were met, and therefore he was not particularly furious with the whole situation. Dean Slizarin was much more worried about his new "colleague".

Yes, the main reason for Snape's bad mood could be considered a new teacher in ZOTI ... Zlatopoust Locans is a fairly well-known writer of women's novels and a frankly mediocre wizard who bought himself several high-profile medals and membership in the order for the fight against dark forces, behind which he hid his mediocrity. And he even did it, most of the townsfolk firmly believed that all the exploits described in the books were performed by Zlotopust on his own.

Educated wizards considered him a simple idiot who could write funny stuff. Real masters of their craft perfectly saw where the real story overlaps with the author's arbitrariness of the Locance itself. Actually, because of such a skill, respected magicians considered the new professor to be an ordinary fraudster and mediocrity… Severus could also add from himself that Locance was a narcissistic turkey, that he sought to show his imaginary greatness to everyone ... and not very willing. Actually, the entire Hogwarts faculty suffered from the last wish of the new Professor ZOTI.

The new professor ZOTI managed to get everyone with his "advice" and inappropriate help. Even Dumbledore received some advice from the writer, let alone about Snape. After the first twenty minutes of conversation with the writer, the potion maker passionately wanted to give him a potion brewed according to the "recipes" of Locans himself. At least, bodropertsovoe, brewed according to the instructions from the writer, promised to become a real poison, the vapors of which alone can mow down an entire audience in a couple of seconds… Well, or a nasty rotten thing that can harden over time, Severus wasn't sure of the result, but somehow he didn't want to test it in practice…

Yeah, literally everything screamed to Snape that this year promises to be especially difficult ... But he did not listen, preferring to prepare for class and monitor his own faculty. He had too many things to do that he couldn't interrupt because of some kind of premonition. Freshmen have always demanded a lot of attention from their dean, and potions for the hospital wing are brewed again by him… Perhaps, if not for such a heavy workload, Severus would have paid attention to the affairs going on in his native faculty.

No, the potion maker was still following his wards regularly, protecting them from problems. Nevertheless, Slizarin has a very ambiguous fame among other faculties. Well, to be completely honest, Slytherin was frankly disliked in other faculties, and the snakes responded to everyone else in the same way, maintaining some kind of contact only with crows. It is not at all surprising that in such an atmosphere conflicts arose almost every other day. So Snape had to protect his wards, simultaneously playing the role of the "horror of the dungeons" for all other faculties, occasionally making allowances for the Ravenclaw.

What has changed this year? At first glance, nothing. Conflicts still continued, the hospital wing was steadily replenished with victims of other people's jokes. Scores were still flying from all faculties, and Flitch was driving the rowdies to work. Externally, nothing has changed in the new year… But only externally.

Snape almost physically felt a certain wrongness, but he could not understand where this wrongness came from for quite a long time. I couldn't exactly until it was time to write another letter to Lucius. The blond paranoid asked Severus very much to write to him at least occasionally about the successes of his own son. And Snape listened to the request of an old friend… except there wasn't much to write this year.

With the exception of excellent studies, which Draco had not neglected before, there was simply nothing to write to Snape about. His godson was too quiet. Even his eternal confrontation with Potter has somewhat subsided. All their chips were now more of a purely symbolic nature, although James's geek was still being led to the usual and even banal insinuations. It could be said that Draco calmed down, but something still confused the seasoned spy.

And this "something" turned out to be a sharp set of the younger Malfoy's reputation. Imperceptibly, literally bit by bit, but Draco's weight at the faculty grew day by day. Gradually, even the senior courses began to take into account the opinion of the younger Malfoy. But before Draco, even his fellow students did not respect him too much. He relied too much on his father's reputation and connections, which many frankly did not like.

This year the situation has changed radically. In Draco's conversations, inappropriate references to his father can no longer be noticed, and there are almost no relevant ones left. In general, the boy began to cite certain authorities less often as an example, focusing more and more on his opinion. Severus only shook his head approvingly at such changes, realizing that at such a pace the boy was trying to become a kind of authority for his own course. This will not work with the elders, children and teenagers are rarely able to show at least some respect for those who are younger than them.

Although the new abilities gave some chance that the elders would accept Draco as a kind of authority, or at least remember him as a very capable wizard. Still, in the magical world there is a very special relationship to ancestral gifts. Any owner of at least some gifts will be treated with one respect or another. Well, the wizards who were able to awaken the ancestral gifts in themselves after the age of eleven, generally rose in the eyes of others almost to an unattainable level. This phenomenon is too rare, personalities who awakened the heritage of their ancestors stood out too much from the crowd…

And Draco was a bright personality. Snape had noticed before that children were drawn to his godson. Like moths to a bright light in the night, but only in the past, he pushed too many away from himself. Draco's blind admiration for his father made him too boring and uninteresting a companion for the children of aristocrats, whose fathers were not too different from Lucius. Now the situation has improved, and the constant changes in the boy's appearance attracts the attention of others…

And Draco seems to enjoy this attention. Somehow, the potion maker could not explain the boy's thorns in the common living room. Yes, the constant play with hairstyles, long and thick hair, quite fit into this assumption. It's not just that Draco, over the past week, has embodied almost a dozen of the most popular female hairstyles on his head… How did McGonagall not just have a stroke at the sight of such an outrage?...

- Leave the lyrics. Severus ordered himself, reproaching himself for empty thoughts and stupid thoughts. He will be able to think about changes in the younger Malfoy later. Now the dean of Slizarin needs to understand how the changes in his godson affected the entire faculty as a whole ... and it was worth writing to Lucius at least something. For example, about Draco's successes. Let Lord Malfoy be happy for his own child... if he can be happy for others at all, which Severus himself doubted. Lucius was too selfish and ambitious…