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Chapter 181 – Trying to Bribe the Professor!!
[Offset successful]
Following the system's prompt, Darren immediately felt new memories settling into his mind.
They were… terrible.
All recycled lines, all empty chatter.
Darren skimmed the memories and sighed internally.
Snape's "memory editing" skills were truly awful. Everything he inserted was just pointless conversation.
He apparently spoke beautifully with Dumbledore.
They even exchanged a few cold jokes—Dumbledore laughed, Snape grunted twice—and that was the entire memory.
At the end of it, Dumbledore abruptly had "urgent business" and left.
Leaving only Snape and himself.
So Darren simply had to "say goodbye" and leave.
That was the whole memory.
He sighed lightly.
"Potter. What are you doing sitting there like a stunned troll?"
Snape's cold voice cut through the air.
Darren jolted, scrambling to his feet. Then—because he might as well squeeze a little Father Value—he pretended his legs went weak and collapsed back into the chair.
"S-Sorry, Professor… you startled me—"
[Ding, Father +100]
[Ding, Father +100]
[Ding, Father +100]
[Ding…]
Snape stared at him.
His expression was complicated… painfully so.
This boy apologized even when he was the one scaring the kid.
Just like Lily.
Snape's heart twisted.
But precisely because this boy was involved in something so dangerous, Snape knew he had to cut ties. He couldn't let his own feelings cloud his judgment.
This child had to stay away from him.
"I thought you were a Slytherin," Snape sneered softly. "Not a reckless Gryffindor lion. But you never fail to disappoint."
Darren's face instantly drained of color.
"P-Professor, I'm sorry… I'll—next time—I'll definitely pay attention—"
"I don't care how you got yourself sorted into Slytherin," Snape cut in sharply.
"But here's your warning: don't let me catch you again. Otherwise, I'll have you expelled."
Snape's tone had grown icy enough to frost glass.
Darren sensed that he meant every word. Snape genuinely wanted him far away from Hogwarts—from the entire wizarding world.
Of course, Darren "couldn't" know that.
So his eyes widened, the disbelief raw on his face. He reached out, clutching Snape's sleeve with trembling fingers, eyes reddening.
"Professor… you can put me in detention, take points… just don't expel me. I… I want to stay with my brother…"
[Ding, Father +100]
[Ding, Father +100]
[Ding, Father +100]
[Ding…]
Snape's heart nearly gave out.
Even Occlumency couldn't protect him from this little menace.
But he forced it down.
He forced all of it down.
He yanked his sleeve free, adopting an even colder tone:
"It seems a certain student has absolutely no respect for his professor. Very well—next time, I'll inform the Headmaster that Darren Potter, the brother of our famous Harry Potter, tried to bribe a professor in secret."
His voice sharpened.
"And the hand-carved wrist guard you gave me for Christmas? Still have it. Excellent evidence."
"P-Professor, you can't—!"
Darren's shock looked painfully real—as if he had never dreamed a Christmas gift could be used as evidence against him.
"I can," Snape replied smoothly.
"And I will. Filch may be merciful during night patrols, but I am not. If I catch you once—just once—I'll have you expelled before sunrise."
Snape rolled his sleeves back down.
He gave Darren one last glance.
The boy's eyes were red… but not as shattered as Snape expected.
Instead, the boy slowly pulled himself together and offered Snape a polite, perfectly Slytherin fake smile.
"As you wish, Professor."
"Hmph."
Snape turned sharply, cloak whipping around him, hiding every trace of emotion as he left.
Darren remained still for a moment, staring toward the door Snape vanished through.
Then he let the fake smile drop, replacing it with confused worry.
"Why would the professor suddenly want me to hate him? I obviously like him. Could… could he be threatened? By Voldemort, maybe?"
He sighed softly.
"I wish I could help the professor… but if he wants distance, I'll listen.
Still… he's so troublesome. Just says 'pretend to hate me' and expects me to figure the rest out?"
[Ding, Father +100]
[Ding, Father +100]
[Ding, Father +100]
[Ding, Father +100]
[Ding…]
Darren nearly laughed.
He had just harvested enough Father Value to feed a small village.
Harry and the others were still hiding—Dumbledore and Snape too.
This office was ridiculously mysterious. Not even Harry's Invisibility Cloak could hide someone from those two.
Well… normally.
Still, Darren couldn't let anyone know he'd sensed them.
He casually greeted the Sorting Hat, played with Fawkes a bit, then finally left the office.
As soon as the door opened, Harry and the others slipped out behind him under the cloak, following him down the stairs.
Once they'd cleared the tower completely, Harry tugged them into an empty classroom—one with no portraits.
"Merlin, that scared the life out of me," Ron groaned, throwing off the Invisibility Cloak. His whole body finally reappeared.
Hermione emerged next, holding a cat.
If Darren had been there, he would've immediately recognized it—this was Leizi, his lazy cat who used to sleep all day but now was never around.
"Leizi," Hermione complained, "where did you steal this cloak? This one's obviously better than Harry's—Dumbledore and Snape didn't notice it at all!"
"Meow!"
Leizi meowed with disdain, grabbed the cloak in its teeth, and hopped straight out the window.
"Oi—Leizi! That's the sixth floor!" Ron yelled.
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