A week later, O'Shea returned to the school once Christmas vacation ended. The first thing he did after returning was to survey his dorm room and his housemates. Most of the Slytherin house kids belonged to the family of Death Eaters and had declared for Voldemort, so they were skipping school or those who came were either planning to join Death Eaters or had already formed junior Death Eater gangs.
This was his fifth year going forward, in 1978 after Christmas break. Since he kept himself limited to his experiments, he was mostly isolated in the campus. But this year, all those things have to change as he had to start weaving his web which needs to encompass the whole wizarding world so by the time Dumbledore and Voldemort are finished, he must be the only one remaining to control both the pureblood fanatics and the light wizards.
As for grey faction, no such idiocy existed by the time war was at its peak. Either you declared for Voldemort or went against him, indecision won't be helpful against the lack of patience of the dark wizards. And if you went against Voldemort and stayed in Britain then you knew that Voldemort has only one person to fear, Albus Dumbledore. So, either you become a member of light wizards or as they like to call themselves Order of the Phoenix.
Frankly both wizards were good at what they did, particularly Voldemort, a genius even as he was touching the ceiling of an intermediate rank warlock at such a young age. Dumbledore himself was only a peak intermediate warlock, quite a little distance away from Voldemort but as Dumbledore's progress was stagnating at his age and he was involving himself more in plots, conspiracies and war against Voldemort, he was stuck at the same place where he had been for nearly decades.
While O'Shea was in his fifth year, the people of note currently in Hogwarts were Crouch Junior, Snape himself in seventh year, James Potter and Black brothers - Sirius and Regulus Black, Alice Penz who would likely marry Frank Longbottom, Lily Potter, and Bill Weasley who had yet to join Hogwarts. There were some other minor characters but not much of use to him.
First, he cornered Snape while he was entering the dungeon. In Slytherin, hierarchy and blood status were valued but since his blood status was shown in the outside world as simple pure blood family, he would have to go by it.
"Senior, a moment of your time."
For a moment...
Severus Snape was confused as he knew the boy who was calling him but he wasn't clear about the reason. As far as he remembered, O'Shea Wyllt was rarely involved with anything. The boy was an anomaly in Slytherin as he was likely more suitable for Ravenclaw. He was always either closed in his dorm or busy with some experiments in an empty classroom, but overall anti-social.
"What, Wyllt?"
"Some personal business, if you have time."
"About?"
"Your mother."
For a moment, Snape was numb and then a rage-filled question slipped out from his tightly clenched jaw:
"How do you know about my mother, Wyllt?"
His mother always was a confusing piece of emotion as far as Snape was concerned. When he was a child, his mother had taught him magic initially but years of living in Tobias Snape's household had turned her into a frustrated middle-aged woman, who was prone to different magical maladies as is wont to wizards who keep their magic bottled up. It was expected as she wasn't the most gifted witch so her life was more or less centred around his violent and ill-natured father. Nowadays, she kept to herself smoking while he drifted deeper in Voldemort's inner circle as his magical talent bloomed.
"Ah senior, don't think my line of inquiry to be rude. As you know my family is into business so they were searching a manager for one of our warehouses. One of the people who was shortlisted turned out to be Eileen Prince. On her background check, she turned out to be your mother. My family asked my opinion on this issue, as you are my schoolmate and so here I am."
While O'Shea was on vacation he had requested his manager-cum-guard Dazak to collect information about Eileen Prince, citing the reason as Severus being a friend. The overall report was surprising to say the least as the witch was currently wandless as her husband Tobias Snape had reportedly snapped it sometime in the past. Her current condition was pathetic to say the least. Supposedly, she was wallowing in misery, poverty and confusion as her muggle husband was now deciding her fate. She was poor enough to not achieve anything by herself and even if she bought a wand, what use would that be in face of her husband's order of not using magic in his house.
O'Shea had his men meet her by chance and offered her a job as he wanted to bind Snape to him. Snape was too talented for him to die as Dumbledore's pawn and it was not like he was going to interfere in upcoming events. Nope, it was more like he was going to find himself an operator or commander when he graduated from Hogwarts in the future, but that was a distant plan. As for returning to Hogwarts, for that he had to see how things developed after graduation.
Currently, he knew that the conditions were too volatile in the outside world and with him being both a pureblood and Slytherin, Dumbledore would not allow him access to books in the forbidden section. But he wasn't in a hurry either, for now he had to prepare for his O.W.L.S. as he planned to spend a lot of time in the British wizarding community.
"When did she apply for a job? I have no such knowledge?"
"Her name was suggested by an old classmate of hers who is working for us, goes by the name Amira Kovacs. Originally she was not considered but as she was your mother and you were currently my senior, I was asked for an opinion."
"What is this job about?"
"It is usually related to logistics supply of rare potion ingredients. The pay is good, around eighty galleons a month but the job is in Scottish hills. It's your choice so take your time but I have to send a reply to my family before this month ends."
Snape hesitated but didn't refuse, rather he told O'Shea that he would reply later. As for Amira, she was actually a member of a side branch and also a classmate of Eileen, but the two had never talked, so chances of Eileen identifying her were minimal. Even if she told Snape that she was not particularly close to her, it could be chalked up to her poor health and memory.
The idea was to slowly lure Snape over as O'Shea was quite certain Snape would remember this favour. If for Lily's life, he could forever be loyal to Dumbledore, then he just had to better his target. He started with looping in Snape's mother for another reason: her surname.
Prince is a rare surname to be used by such an outcast and her behaviour of living with a muggle after so many years despite suffering for so long was a bit crooked. In the magical world, words, particularly surnames, have meaning, an identity, and unlike first names which can be changed with a bit of effort, surnames never change over life as they are proof of identity.
As O'Shea requested Dazak to dig deeper, he found out the lineage of Prince, which was both a shock and a surprise. Prince was a bastard child of a side branch of another hidden family belonging to Arthurian factions. These noble factions were the original pureblood fanatics in the Arthurian era, but as time passed and their power waned, they lost their glory and retreated into shadows.
Supposedly, Snape's mother Eileen Prince was a bastard child of an nondescript member of the Prince family and she instead of marrying for family power chose a muggle husband for herself, her name was removed from lineage. Well, good for him, their loss was his gain. If Severus was a member of that family, there would be a lot of complications to handle even though their power is weak enough for even a single side branch of his to wipe them out. The point was that his position in the family was not high enough to order too many people and family elders would not attack another family solely based on his whim. But now there was no such consideration as the Prince family need not involve in this matter altogether.
Another surprising discovery was the love of the woman towards her family. Dazak specifically mentioned this issue to him and that was surprising as the man was a block of ice and violence as far as O'Shea was concerned. Even such a man mentioning emotions got him thinking about the unrequited love of Snape towards Lily Evans. Perhaps loyalty and sincerity runs deep in the family.
Anyways, he was even more excited by his decision to rope him in then. Now that he had been done with him he had to start working on his second target, Lily Evans.
O'Shea started his laborious hard work in Hogwarts for the first time. Despite being always busy with magic previously, this was the first time he was working hard on academics in the school. Earlier he used to experiment with ideas and knowledge he had gained at home and used to ignore most of the basic knowledge being taught by professors. The reason was that his basics were far superior compared to the quality of knowledge being imparted in Hogwarts. Also, his practical knowledge always let him pass the exams with little effort and he had neither patience nor interest in being a topper by working hard on the theoretical part. He was still one of the better performing students in the class as it would not be nice if a Wyllt heir could not even perform to the level of commoners.
His disdain for mediocre education had made him ignore most of the theoretical parts of knowledge taught in school. His Defence Against the Dark Arts and Ancient Runes knowledge was vast as he had been learning it from the age of five and most of the stuff he practiced was based on these subjects. But he had ignored subjects like Magical History, Arithmetic, Herbology and Potions. His family had specialised potioneers, so he had never felt the need to invest time to learn the subject itself.
His knowledge in Astronomy was passable and though he had extensive knowledge of Charms, it was focused mostly on hexes and jinxes.
After the death experience, O'Shea realised that he was too dependent on his family and previously he only wanted to follow the knowledge that his family had stored. But now, he had decided to learn the basics of magic taught here at Hogwarts as the main curriculum still followed the original idea implemented by the four archmages. He felt somewhat conflicted in attending some of the classes but in his defence, Hogwarts had quite a few subpar teachers for subjects like Care of Magical Creatures, Magical History, Divination and there was no one teaching an important subject like Alchemy.
On the other hand, from a student's point of view, he came to realise that every head of the house was an excellent teacher, particularly Filius Flitwick whose mastery may exceed the common high wizards of his family.
Now that he had planned to extend his stay in the wizarding world outside, he needed some credentials to establish an identity apart from his family. Even though it seemed difficult at the moment, in the long term scoring good in O.W.L.S. and N.E.W.T.S. would allow him a lot of freedom in acquiring a Ministry job. It would lead him to a variety of pathways filled with varied branches of knowledge.
With chaos spreading all around, it was the best time to enjoy the resources the British Ministry of Magic had kept hidden for so long. Yes, his target was to become an Unspeakable from the Department of Mysteries.
It was a boring job quite away from the limelight of war but all this fighting and subsequent capture of Death Eaters would go on as long as 1984, according to the memory of that dead politician. By that time, around seven years ahead, he would be easily enclosed as a senior employee in the department and enjoying access to all kinds of deep and mysterious knowledge without anyone watching him over the shoulder.
Scoring good in O.W.L.S. may be difficult for others but for him, it was comparatively easy as he had limited theoretical knowledge but his practical skills were top-notch. So, learning Charms according to the prescribed syllabus was a walk in the park, but it was Potions making actually which turned out to be his sore lacking skill.
He decided to turn his inability into an opportunity. Learning Potions was easy as Slytherin's house head was Horace Slughorn, and he also had in his sight three genius potioneers: Snape, Belby, another junior fourth year from Slytherin and last but not the least Lily Evans, his next target.
Horace Slughorn was a braggart and pompous in nature but his teaching skills were not to be questioned. With a bit of prodding and flattering, he agreed to give some extra classes and referred O'Shea some books and journals which were quite outdated but good enough to quickly strengthen his basics. He planned to get the basics from Slughorn before spending some time bonding...he meant learning from Snape and Belby. Lily Evans he planned to approach last before O.W.L.S. but in this case he thought luck favoured him.
Surprisingly, extra classes with Slughorn helped him to get acquainted with Lily Evans without any hard work on his part and that too without any plotting...erm, he meant planning. In future, she might turn out to be a formidable witch after continuous fights with Death Eaters but that was a story of a different day. Today she was a Muggle-born witch, sharp but limited in her knowledge of the wizarding ways. Most importantly, she didn't have the protectors around her, James Potter and Sirius Black, as they would have outright rejected her meeting with a Slytherin pureblood.
O'Shea met Lily Evans when she was asking Slughorn some questions related to advanced potions. So, he requested Slughorn for her information despite knowing it and old Slughorn was very happy to comply. They shook hands as Slughorn introduced them.
After she left, Slughorn said to him:
"Ah, you are too anti-social, Wyllt, you should go out and make some friends. How long are you going to be packed in a room, boy?"
"I have spent too much time on my own, Professor. If I really went and accompanied someone, they will doubt my intentions. After all, the wars have divided us too deeply. No one trusts anyone these days, Professor."
"This war, what a tragedy! That's a very sad thing to happen, really sad. Let me help you out. Why don't you come to my Slug Club meeting this weekend now that Hogsmeade visits are banned? I was planning a last party before the exams begin. Come over this weekend, you will come to know the outstanding witches and wizards of your generation in my club. Maybe they will give you a hand in your career in future. After all, it is always nice to have some connections, my boy."
"Thank you, sir. I will definitely be there."
That week turned out to be quite a lucky one for him. As he went back and entered the Slytherin dungeons, the Bloody Baron told him that Snape was looking for him. He was exhilarated as this talk with Severus would decide the results of his first plan after using the skills of the dead politician.
He knew Snape would have tried to collect information about his family business and it would never yield any result. What a joke it would be if some seventeen-year-old boy could dig out their true capabilities.
He expected him to meet him along with his coterie, maybe try to threaten him, but it seemed like he was a true loner and wanted to discuss private matters alone. After dinner that day Snape met him in the hallways and said:
"I wanted to ask your opinion on a few matters before deciding."
"If it's about specifics of the job offer, I can arrange a meeting with my family or if it's something else I will try to answer."
"I have asked around about your family business. It's reputed and has a long history. I also came to know that your family is pureblood, has a seat in nearly all wizarding council and governing bodies but it doesn't associate with other families of our group. My question is simple."
He fixed his hawk-like visage on O'Shea and asked with clenched teeth:
"Are you planning to join Dumbledore or will you remain on our side? If you want to join Dumbledore, I would rather have my mother away from this job."
"These types of decisions are not taken by me. My elders decide what to do or who to support in the wizarding councils or Wizengamot. I can neither inform nor interfere in that decision-making. As far as war is concerned, we won't be joining either side, but if you are specific about Dumbledore, that much I know about. We won't be giving help to him in any capacity."
"If your family changes position, I..."
"This decision has been finalised long ago. Regardless of circumstances, we will not be supporting the Order of the Phoenix or Dumbledore. If that is your worry you can be rest assured."
"Alright then, if what you say is correct then she will go to the hills. I have thought about your offer and talked to my mother. She has agreed and I do too."
"Fine, I will send an owl to the family."
They parted ways after entering the dungeon and entered their dorms separately.