HP: It's a snake, not a badger.

Chapter 6: When the snipe and the clam fight, no one benefits?

Malfoy Estate

"Severus, what made you come here in the middle of the night? It's time to rest!" Lucius sat on the sofa with a dark face. If he hadn't been unable to beat his friend who was disturbing his sleep, he wouldn't have been able to leave Malfoy Manor unscathed.

Snape ignored him and handed the contract from Americus to Lucius. "You should be able to understand this kind of thing better than Thaddeus. Aren't they giving too much?" Snape didn't think he deserved so much preferential treatment. There were so many Potions Masters, not to mention that every family had a Potions Master they were loyal to.

Lucius took the contract and began to read it. "It seems my friend, Thaddeus has some designs on you. This is one of the best contracts ever offered; very few have been given out in Malfoy's history."

He lay back and stared at his friend with interest, his resentment at being woken up gone. "My suggestion is to accept this contract. The conditions for termination aren't high: no selling the researched medicine for five years, and the return of the copy. It's a guaranteed profit." He could still enjoy the spectacle and was genuinely curious why such a large family would treat his friend so well. Surely they didn't have their eye on Severus?

After putting away the contract and giving Lucius the beauty potion for the month, Snape went straight back to the cellar, completely ignoring the person who wanted to watch the show.

Snape sat on the sofa, looking at the contract. He pondered what he had that Emeric might be after, and realized he had nothing. He signed the contract casually; after all, he had nothing left. If Mr. Thaddeus wanted to scheme, he would only end up with nothing.

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After finishing his first day of classes, Emeric found an empty classroom and contacted the person his father had arranged. Almost every magic academy had someone from Thaddeus. His two fathers were worried he'd be bullied, and as for getting into the Ministry of Magic after graduation, that was an adult's business—what did it have to do with a child like him?

"Young Master"

A boy and a girl entered the classroom one after the other and bowed to Emerick. "My name is Garian Aardole, a third-year Ravenclaw student." "Good day, sir. I'm Lyra Soramia, a third-year Hufflepuff student."

Gallian was there as a companion, while Leila was there because her father was worried Fufu wouldn't be able to get in, so he went hungry nine times in three days. Each school had at least two children of its subordinates; one was sure to love cooking, and the other might be strong, intelligent, or good at communication, etc.

Ever since he fainted from hunger when he was 6 years old due to picky eating, his father has stopped caring about his picky eating, fearing that he might faint from hunger again.

"Long time no see, Garian and Lyra. I didn't expect you to be in England. I already knew about the general situation and power of the school before the start of the semester. Tell me about the specific distribution." Garian and Lyra were his playmates before he was 5 years old. Later, their parents were sent abroad and they could only see each other once a year at Christmas.

As Emeric listened, he sketched out the general distribution and relationships. "So you mean the headmaster will openly favor Gryffindor and have hostility towards Slytherin? Wow, is there no one in Slytherin to resist? Even if the board of trustees are keeping each other in check, when has Draco Malfoy ever been so good-natured?"

Lyra lowered her head silently, completely at a loss for how to explain these questions. She glanced at Garian.

"Young Master, Lyra and I aren't Slytherin members, so we don't know much about these things. Apart from the Headmaster and Professor Snape, the other three Heads of House are all very fair and don't deliberately favor their own houses when dealing with issues." Garian didn't know what the cunning people were thinking, so he could only go along with it and bring up the issues between the professors in the process.

"Interesting. Gryffindor and Slytherin are hurting each other, but it's Ravenclaw and Hufflepuff who are getting hurt. The lion and the snake are keeping each other in check. Didn't your Eagle House even try to get first place? I can understand Badger House a little bit, they're good kids who love to eat." Emeric looked at Garian, who was so embarrassed that he was digging his toes into the ground, with great interest. Lyra also stared at him with schadenfreude.

Garian felt so embarrassed he wanted to dig a tunnel and disappear. There was no way around it; their house's defining characteristics were intelligence, creativity, and knowledge. The key issue was creativity. Every year, Ravenclaws lost points for creating dangerous experimental subjects, and each time the points were deducted more than Gryffindor's nighttime outings. Year after year, they were banned, yet year after year, they were still re-offended.

Emeric, seeing that he was practically burying himself, mercifully let him go. "The Sorting Hat noticed Silas yesterday, how interesting~ Logically, if they had noticed, they should have sorted me into Hufflepuff. I'd love to dismantle them and play with them." (Personal interpretation: Silas is a forest god. Essentially, the forest is a survival-of-the-fittest environment. Only those who can devise strategies to protect themselves can survive in the forest, just like the shrewd and non-reckless nature of Slytherin.)