Savior

The Half-Blood Prince

Lord Voldemort held out a long-drawn sigh at the unconscious boy in his bed, red eyes narrowed at how the latter unknowingly clutched his blanket for dear life. In addition to that, his guest was swaddled in scarves and clothes spelled with warming charms since the cold sensation running along the boy's body hadn't gone down even after he pulled the young man out of the Pensieve. He briefly wondered what would happen if he hadn't followed the boy into the stone basin.

Speaking of the viewed memory, the Dark Lord admitted what happened to Severus Snape was unpleasant and downright disturbing, but at the same time the terrible incident opened up to more mysteries surrounding the young man. Recalling at how Severus' fists shook in rage when seeing his past self struggling with the O.W.L questions, then at the four Gryffindor boys who attacked him... he suspected there was something huge going on between Severus and the four boys.

He conjured an ink bottle, a quill and a piece of parchment before jotting down what he witnessed in the Pensieve, making notes about how Severus answered the werewolf questions, and the Gryffindors' nicknames.

When all was done, he put the quill in the ink bottle and tapped his chin. If he remembered right, one of the Lions' boys – the prefect – was called 'Moony'. What a strange name, he once thought but the more he delved into Severus' behaviors with them, re-watching the memory on the boys' conversations and checking his observations, it then made so much sense.

Was there... a werewolf in Hogwarts?

The Dark Lord huffed with flared nostrils. He should have known it was Albus Dumbledore's doings for taking in such creature into the school where young children roamed around, remembering the half-giant student a few years below him when he was in Hogwarts. It was a lucky thing that bumbling oaf had a spot for dangerous animals otherwise he couldn't pin down the blame of Myrtle Warren's death onto him.

But why would the old coot let a werewolf attending the school? No, wait; how could a werewolf attend such place? Hadn't the Department of Regulation and Control of Magical Creatures put up a warning so that humanoid citizens of the wizarding world must be registered or otherwise paying up a hefty fine?

Unless of course, the werewolf in Hogwarts was unregistered and Dumbledore vouched to the Prefect boy's parents that the school would prevent unwanted incidents to happen. That probably wasn't true since Severus somehow found out about it, and Lord Voldemort's eyes glinted greedily at the raven-haired boy who remained unconscious, a wide grin was on his pale face.

Yes, he really had struck the jackpot with the young man. Did Severus know he held the keys that may topple Dumbledore's authority in the wizarding world? Perhaps not but that made the Dark Lord more willing to wait until he woke up. Patience is a virtue, after all.

Then they could create chaos for his new reign.

***

It was about two weeks into their summer vacation, and Remus Lupin was in the Leaky Cauldron, barely listening to his friends gushing over the old, battered Advanced Potion Making book that they took upon seeing Lily Evans left it on the table after the Potions O.W.L examination. He knew enough that the book didn't belong to the redhead girl due to it looked like an older edition; rather he had high suspicions that Severus Snape was its real owner.

And he was conflicted over it. The spells the Marauders found in the book were more than entertaining like the Langlock spell and the toenail-growing hex while the muffling charm was helpful in preventing others from listening in to their conversations.

But the Levicorpus spell... Remus felt it was the prototype for something bigger that when James used it onto Snape, his heart clenched in great anxiety. Sooner or later, Snape would know of them using the spell, and may plan his revenge soon. With his spell-crafting skills, Remus could only imagine in utter fright on what the Slytherin boy had in store for them.