Chapter 158

"Did I tell you that your skin feels nice?" she said, raising her hand and rubbing it against his cheek.

"Er…"

"Oh well. I'm off. Goodbye Mr. Toadinger," she said as she patted his head and skipped off towards the Astronomy tower, leaving Harry feeling confused, and oddly enough, slightly molested.

After a moment of staring after the girl's disappearing back, Harry shook off the sheer mountain of confusion that Luna had dumped on him and looked at his list to see that only one name was left.

It was time to head to the dungeons.

Last year, Albus Dumbledore had put into action a plan that involved testing Harry to see whether he had the mentality of a dark wizard or not. That plan had ultimately ended very poorly after Harry had almost died after a tussle with the Dark Lord Voldemort himself.

Professor Dumbledore had since then apologized to Harry, and had been very helpful towards him, which helped Harry lose some of the wariness he had towards the century-old wizard, but there was one more Professor who had known about the entire plan, and had not only gone along with it, but also looked him right in the eye, and manipulated the living shit out of him.

While Harry had forgiven both of the Professors for putting his life in danger, he was still a bit salty about the manipulation part.

After all, Harry Potter forgives, but he never forgets.

He looked down at the last name on his slip.

Severus Snape - Potions

Oh well, better to do it sooner rather than later. He did want to get started on designing the game as soon as he could.

He knocked on the office door twice.

"Come in" came the patently flat voice of the Potions master. Harry pushed open the door and let himself into the office. The man was sitting at his desk, clothed fully in black.

"Can I help you Mr. Potter?" Professor Snape asked.

"Um…Yes, Professor" Harry said before he went on and explained his project much in the same way he had explained it to the other teachers.

The dour man patiently listened to the entire project summary. He took a moment after Harry finished his explanation before he spoke.

"So you intend to finish this before your seventh year?"

"I do professor," Harry replied.

"Ambitious," the professor said, "But not impossible. You've worked out a lot of the major kinks and issues by yourself, and Professor vector clearly trusts you with the Arithmancy. But there's one major issue that I'm seeing here."

"What's that sir?" Harry asked.

"It lacks strategy. Its current design only tells me that players will simply use their virtual creatures to fight it out, and whoever has the better creature will win. I would suggest adding another aspect that gives the weaker player an edge, and introduces more strategy into this…Game of yours. The ideas are all very interesting and well thought out, but there is a large room for improvement. I hope you take this for the sincere advice that it is. I am being very direct with you here Mr. Potter"

An almost involuntary scoff escaped Harry at that last statement, which he tried to pass off as a cough.

It didn't fool the keen-eared professor, who had heard the scoff.

"Have you developed some attitude problems during the summer break Mr. Potter? Or is there something you'd like to tell me?" he drawled. There was a sharp bite in his tone. It was clear that he didn't take very kindly to being mocked.

A spike of resentment flared, and Harry defiantly replied, "Yes there is sir. I was contemplating the sheer absurdity of the fact that you are being direct."

"Oh?" he raised an eyebrow, "And whatever made you think that?"

"Oh, nothing much. Just how easily and willingly you lied and manipulated me into a test that almost took my life."

The professor stared at Harry for a second before he sighed.

"I understand your resentment, Mr. Potter, but I never lied to you. Those actions were necessary"

"Oh yes," Harry snarked, "Necessary. That makes it so much better."

"I'd reign in the cheek Mr. Potter," he said in warning, "And the actions were necessary"

"Necessary to quell your and Professor Dumbledore's paranoia that is," Harry shot back.

The Potions master looked at Harry for a second, before he spoke, "It wasn't paranoia. There are four people in the entire British Isles with Occlumency shields strong enough to be considered virtually unbreakable Mr. Potter. Three of them are masters of their chosen Arts, two of them are couple of the most dangerous wizards to ever live, and one of them almost wiped out the entire Wizarding Britain. The fourth one, is you."

Harry wondered where this was going.

"You have power Mr. Potter. Power even you don't fully realize yet. And when you are in a position similar to the Headmaster, you have to look out for the greater good. That was what he was doing when he decided to put you through the test, and ordered me to manipulate you into heading after the Stone. It proved to be harmful and dangerous to you, but it also proved to the Headmaster that you could be trusted to use your power responsibly and for the right reasons"

"And you? You just followed his orders? How do you trust that he knows what is the greater good? How do you know that your definition of greater good is same as him? Or that his greater good isn't bad for everyone else?" Harry argued.

"Do not give me arguments about objective morality Mr. Potter. There is only one greater good that Albus Dumbledore believes in. The survival and protection of the wizarding kind. If he hadn't tested you last year, then he would have been risking an incredibly powerful dark wizard passing through Hogwarts undetected. One with the potential to do some real harm to the Wizarding Britain. While I do regret the fact that your life was put in danger, and I do think that the test could have been much less dangerous than it was, I do not disagree with the headmaster's intentions. You were an unknown and dangerous factor. You needed to be tested and you were."

Silence reigned in the office, as both teacher and student stared at each other, neither knowing what to say next.

It was a moment before Harry spoke again, "I can integrate potions into the game. Players could scan, and then use various potions, which can be used to heal the player's own creature and to slow down or harm the other player's creature. I can make it so that each real-life potion can only be scanned once. That should add enough of a strategy aspect to the game."

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