Snape didn't know much about Willy's movements after graduation, only that he had gone to work as an official in the Ministry of Magic. He hadn't expected Albus Dumbledore to have dug up Willy's resume so thoroughly, even uncovering private details like his two-year stay in the Muggle world.
"It seems you are paying extra attention to our new Professor." Snape quickly suppressed his surprise, his lips curling into a sneer. "With such a detailed investigation, I expect you've even found out what color his underwear is."
Dumbledore didn't mind the blatant offense at all.
"I give equal attention to every student at Hogwarts, Severus," he responded with a smile. "If you'd like to hear those vivid stories from your own school days, I could tell them to you as well."
"As for his post-graduation experience, that is a necessary background check I must perform before hiring an extremely important faculty member. This is being responsible to the school and to the students."
Snape stared intently at Dumbledore for a few seconds.
He opened his mouth, seemingly trying to find a sharp angle for another sneer, but the other man's response was airtight. The logic left him unable to find a flaw for the moment. This feeling of powerlessness—like punching a bale of cotton—made his chest feel uncomfortably tight.
"Knock, knock."
Just then, there was a knock on the office door.
Without waiting for Dumbledore to speak, the door was pushed open, and Willy Shafik walked in.
He walked straight to the desk and placed two alchemy books with complex patterns on their covers in front of Dumbledore.
Those were the terms they had agreed upon when he proposed installing all-encompassing monitoring at Hogwarts; the Principal had to have a copy of the monitoring book as well.
Snape was already in a foul mood, and seeing the person in question now only added fuel to the fire.
He spun around abruptly, his black robes billowing, and demanded harshly, "What are you doing here?"
However, to Snape's surprise, Willy didn't snap back, nor did he even answer the question.
Willy simply stopped, turned his head, and looked Snape up and down.
There was no anger or mockery in his eyes; instead, they held a look akin to pity. It was the kind of look one might give a stray dog that, after being kicked by its master, could only bark wildly at passersby to hide its pain.
This silent concern drove Snape crazier than any vicious curse ever could.
"What is that look in your eyes?"
Snape was suddenly infuriated to the extreme. The questioning words almost burst out, only held back in his throat by the last of his self-control.
But Willy didn't give him a chance to lash out.
He shook his head, as if he couldn't bear to look any longer, and turned directly toward the door.
"Goodnight, Principal."
As the door gently closed, Willy's footsteps gradually faded into the distance.
In the corridor, Willy sighed helplessly as he walked downstairs.
"What a poor man... he seems to have gone mad, attacking innocent passersby indiscriminately," Willy thought silently. "I wonder what heartbreaking thing Dumbledore said just now to make him lose his composure like that."
While Willy didn't know why Snape was so obsessed with such an unlucky position—the previous Defense Against the Dark Arts Professors had met all sorts of miserable ends—seeing Snape so entangled with the role made him feel the man was truly unfortunate.
It seemed he really was a sentimental person... The night was as still as water. In the faculty dormitory, the fire in the fireplace had gradually dimmed. Otto had curled into a ball on the rug in front of the hearth, its three heads emitting soft, rhythmic hisses—its unique way of snoring.
Willy leaned against a soft velvet pillow. Instead of holding a book, he summoned the system panel that only he could see.
Looking at the [Current Points: 600] in the top right corner, Willy's mood brightened slightly. Those were the points he had earned after completing the monitoring of the Castle and the Forbidden Forest.
"Let's see what these points can get me..."
With a thought, Willy opened the [System Mall], which glowed with an enticing light.
When the system first awakened, Willy believed the magic he had mastered already covered most fields. What good things could a system shop possibly sell?
If the system had come earlier, he wouldn't have had to study so hard for so many years.
However, as he browsed through the product list from top to bottom, his initial arrogance was quickly replaced by surprise.
His gaze first fell on a spell called [Sectumsempra], priced at 1500 points.
Description: A powerful Dark Arts spell invented by the 'Half-Blood Prince.' It is highly stealthy and difficult to detect when cast non-verbally. The wounds it causes cannot be healed by ordinary healing magic; only a specific counter-curse can undo it.
"Good stuff." Willy rubbed his chin, a flash of appreciation in his eyes.
Although 1500 points wasn't cheap, this could be called a sharp tool for individual combat. More importantly, in reality, this was Snape's signature skill and would never be shared.
No matter how talented Willy was, he couldn't learn an original spell out of someone else's head from thin air.
In contrast, the [Fiendfyre Curse] next to it, priced at 2000 points, didn't seem as cost-effective to Willy.
Rather than spending precious points to exchange for Fiendfyre, he preferred to practice it himself.
In fact, Willy wasn't exactly ignorant of the Dark Arts; he had mastered at least the three most famous ones, which was why he hadn't found them in the mall.
When Willy was in school, the Ministry of Magic's control over the Dark Arts was nowhere near as strict as it was now. At that time in Hogwarts, many students had more or less come into contact with some, especially in Slytherin House, where the trend of researching the Dark Arts was prevalent.
It wasn't until the end of the war that this trend was slowly suppressed.
The Dark Arts often didn't require much talent; as long as you had enough negative emotions and magic power, you could unleash startling lethality. For young Wizards craving power, it was an almost irresistible temptation.
Willy was certainly among them, but after personally experiencing the physical and mental toll the Dark Arts took, he stopped his research. In the days that followed, he even tried to use many normal spells to replicate the effects of the Dark Arts.
Willy pulled his thoughts back from his memories and continued looking down the list.
[Legilimency: 2000 points] — Fairly practical. Willy had tried to teach himself before but found that practicing it was a big hassle.
[Parseltongue: 3000 points] — The hallmark of Slytherin. Willy remembered there was a Basilisk in the Chamber of Secrets at Hogwarts; this skill might be very useful. Besides, he also wanted to communicate with Otto.
[Flight Spell: 2800 points] — Flying through the air without any props. Few in the wizarding world could achieve this; it was high on style but a bit lacking in practicality.
Finally, his gaze landed on the very bottom of the list, on the ultimate product emitting a faint golden light.
[Dark Arts Purification: 30000 points]
The description was only a short sentence, yet it gave Willy a massive shock:
Eliminates all negative effects and erosion brought to the caster's soul and spirit by using the Dark Arts.
Willy gave a bitter smile and did some mental math. At his current rate, if he wanted to buy this purification buff, he'd probably have to work at Hogwarts until his beard was longer than Dumbledore's.
"Forget it, being overly ambitious is a major taboo."
Willy shook his head and turned his attention to products that were a bit more affordable.
With the 600 points he currently had, there were only two things he could afford:
[Humanoid Creature Language Pack (includes Goblins, Merpeople, Trolls): 200 points]
[Magical Beast Language Pack (includes Dragons, Unicorns, Phoenixes): 500 points]
"But what would I buy these for?"
Willy looked at these two options and fell into thought.
He wasn't going to rob Gringotts and didn't need to negotiate with Goblins—besides, Goblins spoke English. As for the rest, they were even less necessary.
"I'll just save them for now."
Willy made his decision and waved his hand to close the system panel.
The light blue screen dissolved into the air, and the room returned to dimness.
Willy lay on the bed with his hands behind his head, staring at the intricate patterns on the ceiling, and began to think about his next plan.
Although these 600 points were earned quite easily, regarding campus construction for a thousand-year-old famous school like Hogwarts, Willy couldn't think of anything else that needed to be added in the short term.
Since hardware construction was temporarily saturated, he could only start working on the Young Witches and Wizards.
Fortunately, there were only ten days left until the start of school.