In the Harry Potter Without Harry Potter

Chapter 367: What is the fifteen-year-old boy thinking? (2 in 1)

"Bang!"

Snape's hand slammed down on the desk, and right where his hand had landed, there is a very well-maintained and polished wand!

However, after uttering the words that would almost certainly be 100% capable of angering Snape, Barty Jr. also made a quicker move.

He reached out with one hand and grabbed Snape's wrist just before he could grab the wand and lift his hand.

Snape is a true geek.

Unless Voldemort specifically orders him to do so, he rarely steps outside of Hogwarts, and he rarely even goes out of his own office when there are no classes.

But Barty Jr. had always been running errands for Voldemort outside of school as well, in addition to his regular duties within the school, so he is much stronger and fitter in comparison to Snape, who gets little to no exercise at all.

Therefore, Snape grimaced lightly and grabbed his wand with a death grip trying to lift it up, but couldn't break free of Barty Jr.'s grasp.

"Don't be grumpy Severus, it's not like I was trying to taunt you about it, it's all true, isn't it? We always have to talk about something relevant to lead the conversation before we can get down to the main topic."

Just as Barty Jr. was beaming, like he had Snape completely in his grasp.

Suddenly, the middle-aged man, who had always stayed isolated, swung his left fist!

To which Barty Jr. clearly did not react; he simply did not expect Snape to simply abandon his spell-casting and use the most basic physical combat to return a blow in kind.

So he took Snape's punch solidly, and the smile on his face turned to anger as his head twisted to the side from the force of the blow.

The punch struck Barty Jr. directly in the side of his temple, causing him to feel a momentary blackout, and if Snape's hand had been any stronger he would have passed out on the spot.

But even then, he couldn't control Snape's hand, which was holding his wand, and surprisingly, after being able to use his magic, Snape did not swing his wand, but continued to punch Barty, who was already on the ground!

He pursed his whitened lips, not much anger visible on that pale face, but the emotion revealed in those eyes was enough to make anyone who looked into his eyes feel a kind of chill.

"That's enough!"

Snape didn't utter a word, but simply continued to raise his fist at Barty Jr.'s face, which was beginning to flush with bruises and swelling, just like he had been expressing from the start, it looked like he really didn't want to waste even a single breath to communicate with him.

"I said that's enough!"

He was still greeted with a heavy punch.

"That's really enough!"

Barty Jr. finally couldn't take it anymore, and he erupted with power, pushing Snape away with a scowl on his face!

"My lord has done more than enough for your plea! Do you know how many of us have died in vain over the years to not kill that woman! What's so wrong! I can't even mention her anymore!"

Snape's breath was much heavier than it had been just then as if he had exerted himself a little too hard.

But he still didn't look up at Barty Jr. as if that would dirty his eyes.

After straightening the robe he was wearing, he then sat back down in his seat again.

"Get out."

His voice was cold, but Barty Jr. didn't make any move to leave.

The young professor, whose face looked wretched, also gasped and straightened his robes and continued to sit back down across from Snape, all that grimace and gloom on his face now reined in, but there was no more of his usual false smile; with an expressionless look as if the beating hadn't just happened at all he spoke.

"Jon Green, even if he is a genius, he is only fifteen."

Ignoring Snape's repulsion, Barty Jr. continued the conversation that had just been interrupted.

"After learning of his exploits last year, I immediately retrieved everything I could about him and took a personal trip to the orphanage where he had lived, and used a Legilimency to extract the memories of the children he had grown up with to make sure he hadn't been faking his age, and all of his experiences before being exposed to magic were traceable. "

"Following the information from that orphanage, I also found his biological father, his mother had died seven years earlier and the only remaining parent was not much closer to death when I found him due to the consumption of what was known as 'heroin' in the mouth of a mudblood. I carefully examined all the memories of this biological father of his and determined that Jon Green was his real son and not a random faked identity."

At the sound of serious talk, Snape didn't act as paranoid as he had at first, and he raised his head slightly, but his voice was still as cold as ever.

"You've investigated all this just to confirm his true identity?"

"It's important, Severus."

Barty Jr. leaned back casually, his thumb and forefinger flicking his wand.

"If you had learned of all the things this little mudblood had done in the beginning, and eventually been informed that he was only twelve when he started doing them, and only fifteen now, would you have believed it?"

Snape was silent, but not saying anything was tantamount to an attitude.

"You must have been sceptical at first too right, geniuses certainly do appear, there have been countless talented wizards in the wizarding world, but this little mudblood is a little too genius for his own good isn't he?"

Barty Jr. calmly stated what any normal person would have thought.

"After learning that he had killed Bella and Rodolphus and that he had been the one who had rescued the first and second-year mudbloods last year, I assumed that it was Dumbledore who had quietly assigned a very capable wizard to pose as a student."

"Beneath that, the boyishly young exterior was most likely a wrinkled and grey-haired rotten old man; as only a wizard with enough magical accumulation and magical experience like that could have defeated Bella and Rodolphus one against two. Dumbledore ordered him to drink Polyjuice Potion and pretend to be a young boy, and then he did so many amazing things just to disgrace our lord and show everyone, 'Look, it didn't even take Dumbledore himself to make an appearance, a little mudblood who had only been enrolled in school and hadn't even touched his wand for as long as we had been reciting incantations, to leave the greatest of gentlemen dusty.'"

"But then, after a complete investigation into the background of Jon Green's life and finding several loopholes that simply didn't explain my thinking, I dismissed the possibility that this little mudblood that has been giving us so much angst in recent years was impersonated by a wizard of great ability."

As he spoke, Snape turned his attention to his analysis.

The two men were at odds with each other, but at least the camp they were on today was the same, and understanding and dealing with Jon as a person was something they both had to think about together.

Barty Jr's gaze also became extraordinarily grave.

"Firstly, if he really is an adult wizard pretending to be one, then there's no way he could be able to lurk in Hogwarts Castle for so long in the first place."

"You and I both know that the Age Line magic here was arranged by our lord personally, so there is no way for Dumbledore to evade it unless he comes over himself, otherwise there is no way to deceive our lord's arrangement even with his Transfiguration without knowing the core runes; he has tried to have adult wizards pretend to be students to sneak in before and failed, so unless he has completely surpassed our lord, it is unlikely that he would be capable of countering Age Line magic, and if that were the case, then there would be no need for him to send anyone to infiltrate or to go around roaming like a bereaved dog."

"Secondly, the selection of the Goblet of Fire."

"There was no problem with that cup, and it was kept safe until it was taken out, and no one would have had access to it at all unless the Triwizard Tournament had been restarted. And after the Goblet of Fire was taken out, it was in the possession of our people at all times and I can confirm that no one has done anything to it. That means that in this case, it would only follow the rules to select students from the participating schools to be champions. If Jon Green was another person pretending to be a champion, there is absolutely no way he could have been picked under that name and the magic on the Goblet of Fire would have vetoed his entry."

"Third."

Barty Jr. narrowed his eyes.

"I went to our lord specifically to ask him about this, and he told me that Jon Green was not impersonated by any other wizard, he is who he is, that much he can confirm."

Snape just looked at him.

"So what? You confirmed that he is who he is, a fifteen-year-old who has only been exposed to magic for less than four years, what does this reveal to us."

Barty Jr. crossed his legs as he asked anew.

"Still the same question, what were you doing when you were fifteen, Severus?"

The gaze in Snape's eyes began to grow dangerous again, his hand was already moving closer to the wand on the desk, and as if he sensed how he was behaving, Barty Jr. quickly followed up with his next sentence.

"You're simply so fragile inside, and as I said, it was just a normal question, not meant to mock or insult that woman."

He continued the question with a serious gaze.

"We could also ask it another way, what do all the kids in the world normally tend to think about most when they're fifteen? Whether they're brilliantly talented or humble and mediocre."

Snape was silent for a moment, then he said in a cold voice.

"Isn't that a question you should find a fifteen-year-old student to ask?"

Barty Jr. shook the wand in his hand, and a smile returned to his face.

"Just in the first week of school, when the first tournament task was going on, do you know how many impatient couples I've met on that lawn behind the castle after being reunited after a long absence? Guess what age most of them were?"

They were both smart people, and since Barty Jr. had put it this way, there was no way Snape could not still understand what he was trying to say.

"You think Jon Green would be the same as those of them?"

"Why not? I don't deny the brilliance of that little mudblood, and there may indeed be a natural genius in magic, but one can't bring one's own emotions of exposure to these things from birth, can they?"

Barty Jr. gazed into Snape's eyes, there was no hint of jest in that gaze.

"Fifteen-year-old boys, that's when they are interested in the opposite sex, it's not something that can be defined by talent or lack of it or anything, just like you, Severus doesn't look at me with that look, well I'll change the subject. Like me, I had three girlfriends in school when I was that age, and lord, I remember him talking to us servants once about the time when he first became Prefect, about how he was surrounded by female students who were interested in him, and he rewarded some of them."

"It's human nature, isn't it? No fifteen-year-old boy can avoid active advances from the opposite sex unless he's been exposed to them from a young age, or he's not interested in women, but apparently, from what I've learned about Jon Green, he doesn't fit either of the above."

There was silence for a few seconds after he had said this, and then Snape asked the most rooted question straight away.

"What do you want to do about it?"

Barty Jr. said softly with a smile on his face.

"As has been the tradition in past Triwizard Tournaments, on the night of Christmas we are to hold a grand ball, and during this ball, each student champion is required to bring a dance partner of his or her own to lead the dance."

"With that charming atmosphere, soft music and dancing, do you think he would refuse when a fifteen-year-old girl approaches him for a kiss at the end of the lead dance?"

Snape scowled vividly.

"I don't think it would work, Dumbledore wouldn't allow his students to have any contact with the schoolgirls with whom we have a connection."

"I will certainly have that arranged." Barty Jr. crossed his fingers at the tip of his nose, which made his gaze seem unmistakably dark and treacherous, "I'm only talking to you this far to tell you one thing. Would you brew a potion that has no colour or taste, has a certain amount of binding properties, and if it is ingested into your mouth, then it is a certain death?"

Snape didn't answer first, he stared at Barty Jr.'s face, still the same wretched face he had beaten like he was speechless at the man's ruthlessness.

It was only after a long moment that he spoke out again.

"Does our lord know what you intend to do."

"I reported it to our lord before he left the castle, and he did not agree nor refuse, only told me that it would be up to you and me to decide what would happen in the castle."

This answer was somewhat baffling, at least Snape didn't hear any indication from it as to exactly what Voldemort's attitude was towards this next move by Barty Jr.

But after hearing this statement from Barty Jr. his gaze turned hollow and cold again.

"Even if the potion that exists today doesn't have such an effect, I can still formulate it for you."

Hearing Snape's reply, Barty Jr.'s face held his usual gentle smile.

Only the curve of his mouth was a little unnerving in the candlelight.

----

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