Chapter 1073
Snape's Teachings
Chapter 1073 Snape's Teachings
The scene unfolds before your eyes: Dumbledore sits behind his desk, his long, silvery beard hanging down to his chest.
This time, Vader examined the memory he had woven himself with the mindset of an outsider.
The half-minute conversation ended quickly. Wade felt as if someone had pushed him in the chest, and he leaned back, involuntarily pulling himself out of Snape's memories.
The Potions Professor remained seated back in his chair, his dark eyes calmly fixed on him.
A few seconds of silence lingered between them.
Wade closed his eyes, reviewing everything he had just witnessed.
“What did you find?” Snape asked.
“The portrait on the wall… is a little blurry,” Vader said slowly. “There should be Armando Dippet behind Dumbledore, but it’s Phineas Black instead.”
In the portrait, because the Slytherin headmaster liked to suddenly interject with a few words, and Wade was quite familiar with him, he unconsciously used his image.
Snape slightly raised his chin and said, "Anything else?"
“And Fox,” Wade sighed. “I misrepresented it.”
The "Fox" in this memory is smaller than the original, and unlike the phoenix's golden-red, very shiny feathers, its feathers are like flowing flames.
That's not Fox, that's Wade's Firebird, Mikhail.
Snape nodded; he had noticed that detail immediately.
"besides……"
Wade paused for a moment and said, "We're wearing winter clothes, but the view outside the window is summer... I'm sorry, I was probably too focused on the relationship between light and shadow and made such a basic mistake."
He's finished speaking.
There was a moment of silence in the office before Snape spoke again:
“Very good... I’m glad you can see the problem from an outsider’s perspective.”
"This is the most difficult part of condensation – when you are shaping a memory, you are the creator, and you will choose the part that you think is most important and present it."
"And the parts you subconsciously ignore can easily become your weaknesses."
"So be careful not to apply your own experience to it, and don't use things you're familiar with to fill in the gaps. You have to completely step out of this memory and examine every detail from an outsider's perspective."
"Furthermore, your failure actually began from the very beginning when you chose the principal's office as your stage."
"The more complex the environment, the easier it is to make mistakes. As a beginner, I suggest you start by the Black Lake or on your balcony..."
“An even simpler approach is to choose the nighttime. Thanks to the dim candlelight in the castle, you’ll find that you have much less work to do.”
"Of course, these are only temporary shortcuts. To truly master this magic, you still need to start with the details..."
Snape waved his wand, and smoke billowed from the fireplace, creating a blurry image in the air.
This is exactly the memory scene that Wade just fabricated.
The potions professor pointed out every flaw that Vader had missed, from the placement of the quills on the desk to the length of the fingers, from the folds of the clothes to the firewood in the fireplace. It seemed that even a single hair was full of loopholes in his eyes.
Ten minutes later, Wade tried a second time.
Then came the third time... the fourth time... the fifth time...
It wasn't until curfew was approaching that the Potions Professor finally nodded.
"It's barely enough to fool people—as long as you don't choose someone as meticulous as Granger."
He said rather reluctantly, "However, as someone who is practicing this spell for the first time, your progress... is barely passable."
Vader let out a barely perceptible sigh of relief, put down his wand, and said softly, "Thank you, Professor." "Before we conclude today's lessons," Snape said, "answer me one question, Vader."
Wade looked up at him.
Snape said, "In the process of forging a memory, you will repeatedly review it, examine it, and add countless details to it, making it even richer than the real memory."
"In this process, the memory will continue to strengthen its weight in your mind until even if someone uses Legilimency on you, they will only see the fabricated memory and not the real part beneath the ice."
“But, Wade…”
The Potions Professor leaned forward slightly, looking directly at Wade, and asked softly:
"By then, will you still be able to tell the difference?"
"What is false, and what actually happened?"
"Maybe two or three years from now, all you'll remember is the fake you created...maybe the person you thought you were isn't you at all?"
Wade fell silent.
The human brain is amazing; it doesn't objectively back up and recycle data like a video recorder, but rather it forgets and reconstructs.
When encountering certain scenarios, some people's brains retrieve fragmented information stored in the past and make connections, making them feel "familiar".
There are also some people who, when repeatedly emphasized to them about something, will have their brains unconsciously recreate related memories, overwriting the original memories, even if it never actually happened.
"Concentrating thoughts into form" is actually such a proactive process of coverage.
But if real memories are completely erased, what's the difference between that and actively using "forgetting everything" on oneself?
Snape didn't wait for Wade to come to a conclusion; instead, he gave him the answer directly:
“When using mind-shaping, always remember to set an ‘anchor’ for yourself, something that will never change.”
"It will help you distinguish between truth and falsehood, and prevent you from getting lost in the lies you create yourself."
"Go ahead, this is your task for the next week."
His gaze swept over Wade's face twice, then he reached for a quill pen, dragged the student's homework in front of him, and said:
"When you come back next week, I hope you've figured out what your 'anchor' is."
Wade stood up and said hesitantly, "But Professor, it seems you haven't taught me how to set my own 'anchor' yet."
Snape didn't look up; his voice seemed to come from the shadows:
“That’s a coordinate in your memory. Anything can be an ‘anchor,’ such as a painting, a glass of water, or even a stone…”
"Most importantly, it has a unique symbol for you without arousing suspicion from others."
"Go back and think about it carefully."
"Yes, Professor... Good night, Professor."
Wade stood up and walked towards the door. Just as he grasped the doorknob, Snape's voice came from behind him again:
"Grey."
Wade turned around.
Snape remained seated, his eyes gleaming faintly in the darkness.
"Dumbledore has his reasons for sending you to learn these things."
He said, "But remember—memory is the most honest liar. It doesn't lie to you because it only says what you choose to believe."
Wade looked at him and nodded.
The door closed behind him.
The door slammed shut, and after a long while, a whisper echoed from the Potions Professor's office:
"monster……"
(End of this chapter)