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Severus woke up with a small yawn as he looked around his bed. He had slept last night in one of the guest rooms of the Factory. It had been too late in the night with the drinks, food and dances and dealing with the end of the party with his employees and colleagues.

He sighed inwardly, he had taken many guests to dance but couldn't take Alice even for a single dance. It made him feel a little guilty about that, but he had hardly time for asking her to dance when he had been swarmed by the Potion Masters and the guests alike for talk.

He could remember vividly about the other girls he had danced, there had been many who were the daughters, sisters and wives of the guests. It had been very important to dance with them otherwise they would have felt slighted. It honestly made sense now for him about what Evelyn and Andromeda were stressing about the importance of the formal dancing. In total he had danced with 53 girls last night, if he remembered correctly during the span of four to five hours. Italian families who were eager to talk to him as their house was one of the richest and oldest family in magical Italy.

Thankfully Alice wasn't a girl who got insecure over this type of things. He had seen her in dance with her brother, Lucius, Ted, her father and some guests who had dared to ask her. The last part made him a little angry but he was not going to be jealous like a little child. She could hardly say no in a party like this same as him when someone asked politely.

Alice's family were also present here as it had been late and his mother had persuaded them enough to stay here.

"Master Severus, breakfast be ready," a little elf wearing blue small top and dark blue skirt spoke up as she opened the door of his room. Severus knew the elf, her name was 'Bessy'; one of the Prince family elves who lived in the factory. The factory was home to a family of elves who were tasked to keep the factory a little clean. Apparently his great grandfather was fond of the elf as the elf had helped very much in rearing him. Bessy was the grandaughter of that elf.

"I will be arriving there shortly in ten minutes. Alert the other people for the breakfast," he said taking a yawn as he got up and walked to the bathroom.

Fiteen minutes later, he walked to the hall where the tables from the last night were still present. He saw Alice along with Florean and their grandmother Lady Bethany. The Tonks family was there and Lady Bethany was talking with them.

His mother was present and talking with Grace Weitts who too had stopped in the guest rooms as she had been late. The Weitts family was a small family of Britain, they were a middle class family who were not much famous apart the fact that they were Pureblood family.

He took the seat besides Alice as he greeted everyone in the table 'good morning.'

"Slept well?" He asked slowly to Alice who was sitting besides him and heard that.

"I did, and you?" She asked him back as she looked at him sideways with a small smile on her face.

"Fine as much as I could," he replied back with a small smile.

At that moment, more members arrived in the form of Lucius Malfoy and Evelyn Rochefort who arrived together.

"Good morning everyone", Evelyn cheerfully spoke up as she took the seat at other side of Alice.

Lucius took the seat besides him and he looked a little downcast about something. It was not in his face but Severus who had known Lucius for so long could see the subtle signs in his posture.

Mr and Mrs Fortescue arrived too and the breakfast was started. Bessy started to serve the food along with her sister Jenny magically to the plates.

Alice meanwhile looked at the elves who were wearing clothes, she had never seen something like that.

There were small talk being made across the table when the 'Daily Prophet' arrived.

Severus picked the paper as he read the titles on the first page as well as second and third page.

'Prince Potions Factory started once again', 'House Prince declares Neutrality', 'Will House Malfoy be neutral', 'Lucius Malfoy trying to be neutral', 'Heir of the Prince Family makes a tremendous invention in the field of potions', 'Is there a new alliance with vampires by Italian Ministry with the help of Severus Prince?', 'The Malfoy and Prince alliance.'

"Don't they have another news to print, it took them five pages and two of them are just filled with photos", he commented with a frown as he looked at the newspaper.

Lucius who had been reading that was curious as he read the articles carefully about the Malfoy family eagerly. He too was excited to learn more about what the Daily Prophet had written about him.

There were pictures of him dancing with various people during the party. Evelyn, Alice, Grace, Eileen, Andromeda, Francesca and even the various female guests who had arrived the party. He also learnt about the rumours of him finding interests in girls and women in the party for the new Lady Malfoy.

The rumours made his lips twitch as he read more about them.

There was a picture of Severus holding Nymphadora during the party along with an interesting comment below the picture. He was sure that this was the work of the witch weekly girl whom he had asked to arrive.

He showed the comment to Mrs Prince who started laughing at the comment. The rest of the table slowly understanding and having their own laughs when they saw it. Alice had to supress her laugh at those words as she saw his sour face which was scowling at the newspaper.

She sure was going to hear him ranting a little about the whole picture and the comment. Alice had to admit though, that he really looked nice and happy in the picture.

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The Great Hall of Hogwarts was completely filled with students during the morning. Many students were waiting for the Daily Prophet to see the news and the events happening around in the Wizarding World.

The intensity of the war was increasing day by day and it made them more nervous about their loved ones and family.

The Gryffindor table was however cheerful as usual as the students there were sitting and enjoying.

Albus Dumbledore was sitting in the Head Table along with other teachers as his blue eyes went over the children occasionaly searching the tables for faces which were happy and those who were sad.

At that moment, there was a flutter of large number of owls. A huge number of owls appeared with newspapers in their legs or talons. All the papers being the 'Daily Prophet', the number one newspaper of Wizarding Britain.

The owls dropped the newspapers on the table spilling food and drinks alike on some tables. Some of the owls which had newspapers tied on their legs simply lowered down where the student untied that newspaper from the owl's leg.

Albus Dumbledore too saw three newspaper dropping from the sky which were catched from the air by their new Defence Against the Dark Arts Professor, Mr Hart. He had been a Gryffindor in his Hogwarts years, growing up to be an auror who served in the Ministry. A teaching job was something which he preferred now after retiring from the auror force a year ago.

"Thank you Benjamin," Albus said as the man passed a newspaper to him while giving the other two to his colleagues.

Albus Dumbledore looked at the paper and his old blue eyes widened considerably at reading the headlines.

'Prince Potions Factory and the Prince Heir', 'Who is Severus Prince?'

It immediately grabbed his attention as he started to read more into the newspaper articles trying to get as much information as he could from them.

He was not the only one as the entire front 6 pages were filled about the same things related to the previous late night party and the happenings.

The wizarding war was very small as compared to the muggle one so even a single event worth noticing grabbed much coverage from the media and the last night party had given them more than enough with the moves of two of the biggest families of Wizarding Britain and Italy.

The Hufflepuffs and Ravenclaws were frowning and looking at the newspapers with interest as many of them recognised the name of Severus, those who couldn't recognize him from name surely did from the first page photo of him standing in the podium and speaking something and the ones in which he was shaking hands with the Minister of Magic of Italy and some another man who was in his thirties along with Lucius Malfoy.

From the Ravenclaw table, Pandora looked at the newspaper headlines with a frown as she read them and turned the pages only to see the pictures from the party. Her friend Alice was in a photo where she was dancing with a smiling Lucius Malfoy. It confused her a little but then again it seemed to her that they were still keeping their relationship secret for a little more time. She read the papers about everything and smiled, it seemed Alice was bringing Severus's good side more and more everytime and it made her happy. Afterall if Severus was going to be famous then her friend was surely going to be too.

In the Gryffindor table Pandora's happiness could hardly be reciprocated by them.

Sirius Black had to spit out his creamroll when he heard a 'bloody hell' from Remus. Remus hardly cursed and when he did, it was surely going to be something big.

"What happened Moony?," James asked from besides Remus who had heard it too and reached to a conclusion like Sirius.

"The Prophet, Snape is all over the prophet," he said loud enough for the Gryffindor students who were present there. The Golden Trio, Marauders and everyone from the 6th and 7th year Gryffindor students who were there heard it too who had to yet open the prophet.

Hermione was the first one to took a prophet and opened it as she was surrounded by Ron and Harry aside.

Lily too opened one 'Daily Prophet' as she was swarmed by Marlene and Mary.

Remus was the one who read the articles slowly and loudly for most of the 7th years near them and the Maruaders. Hermione was the other one who did it too while Lily read hers silently.

"'The invention of this potion had made House Prince a staunch ally of the vampires. With this potion, our members would be more pacified and it's invention has resulted in a new alliance between our coven and the Ministry. We thank House Prince and Malfoy for this oppurtunity and grateful to be a part of this great revolution; both of the houses will have shelter and protection of our coven should they wish it' was the statement made by Vampire Coven Leader Arron," Remus whispered in awe at the working of the potion. He wondered if something like this was also for werewolves but he knew he could never ask Severus Snape it, after the shrieking shack incident in fifth year. Besides he had an inkling that Severus had done this on purpose to stregthen the vampires to help them in combating their natural enemies in which he too was a part of.

James and Sirius were shocked by the news of the invention of his potion and its useful in alliance. Snivellus was doing something which was empowering the dark side; more publicly and was pretending to be neutral. It baffled them at how the Prophet was speaking wonders of him. They had long known about which side he will bat from very early days of Hogwarts and their suspicions and accusations had been verified by Harry. It seemed he had already started to play for his side with all his discoveries for the dark side.

"On being asked about the stance on the war, Mr Prince gladly replied that whoever wins the war will have a toast of congratulations from him. It gave away that he will sit out of this entire conflict until he is dragged on. We have however heard another interesting and shocking rumours. We have guesses that House Malfoy will also follow the path to Neutrality same as Mr Prince as both the heads of their families are very close friends with each other and business partners too. We can see this from the photos of their interactions," Hermione read to both Harry and Ron who witnessed a smiling Severus Prince drinking wine in a glass with Lucius Malfoy talking about something and having smiles on their faces along with the Minister of Magic.

"That git had made another problem for us now," Ron cursed slowly.

Hermione and Harry frowned at his words until Ron explained, "Mione, Harry - if Lucius Malfoy turns neutral than it means that we have to search for the diary from the scratch. If Malfoy remains neutral than it would be too hard to find that diary."

Hermione had to admit that Ron was infact right. She couldn't help but feel a little jealous and awe at the whole discovery however. Awe, because of the sheer importance and use of invention. She was however jealous too as this Severus was a year below her in age and yet he still was making important inventions and discoveries while she had hardly done so.

Harry was conflicted with the news but he was still not going to like Snape. The bastard had gone and like the self serving one he was, had gone and decided to stay out of war while innocents were killed.

Ron was the same as Harry as he too thought that the slimy bastard had gone and did what Slytherins did best - saving their slimy asses from whatever thrown their way.

Lily meanwhile took everything the paper was offering and saw the photos and comments from various people present on the party along with her girlfriends.

"Professor Slughorn who is also the Potions Professor says that it is a great oppurtunity and discovery for the Wizarding World and expressed his happiness at his student's works and inventions. Potions Master Algie Cabello spoke that the factory products were perhaps the most interesting and impressive items in recent potions history," Mary commented with a frown.

"Professor Slughorn had went too in the party," Marlene commented as she looked among the photos to see Slughorn with other group of wizards who were talking with Snape.

"Hey look, even Alice was there too. She did told that she worked in Malfoy's shop so he probably invited her too. Malfoy is so hot and dreamy though like always and our Alice was there dancing with him," Marlene commented as she looked at the gorgeous figure of Lucius Malfoy and Alice.

"Wait till the girl returns. We can ask her about the party. This party afterall is stated to be the best in this year till now," Mary spoke up excitedly as she looked at their group of girls.

Lily meanwhile looked at the photograph of her old friend who was enjoying himself fully in the photographs. There were so many photographs of him dancing with so many witches and girls. There were so many beautiful girls who had been pictured with him and whose photos were in newspapers too. She looked at tthe gorgeous Camile, who was apparently the vampire coven leader's daughter.

One photo however brought a small smile on her face. It was one in which Severus was holding a girl who looked young in his arms. The comment below from the reporter was that Mr Prince was a very child loving man who adored children. He will surely care for his future children very much from the lucky witch who will win his heart. It made her want to laugh in amusement. If the reporter had been in front of him, the Severus she knew would surely have hexed her. For some strange reason the photos of him with other girls made her a little uneasy though.

In the Slytherin table, Narcissa Black was clutching the paper strongly while she looked at the same photo with some strange emotion in her eyes. Afterall besides the photo was the mother of the child, Andromeda Tonks laughing and dancing with Severus Prince. The paper had listed her as an employee and the child's name was also given as Nymphadora Tonks, the daughter of her sister and the wizard she had ran away with. This will have consequences from their family as Andromeda had returned to the wizarding world. Regulus too was having the same thoughts as her as he looked at the picture and comment. He had to laugh, Prince hated little children like he hated his own brother. He sighed inwardly, why did Prince had to go and give his cousin a job? At that precise moment came a huge owl, flying to him carrying a letter with Black family crest.

He opened the letter and let the words hit him. There was only a single sentence in handwriting of his father.

'Come over to Grimmauld Palace now.'

"On being asked more about the neutrality of House Prince later on during the informal party. Mr Prince replied that only their political views be neutral for now. It clearly meant that they will not abandon their practise of usage of some restricted magic or their dealings. Only the political stance would be neutral. We have an inkling that House Malfoy will also join House Prince in neutrality. If this happens we could see a huge block of neutral power," Laena Greengrass read calmly as her mind worked the news. Sure enough she knew that her father would send her a letter regarding this and she had a guess about what action he wanted from her.

Meanwhile in the head table, Albus Dumbledore was sitting with a calculating glint hidden behind his glasses as he took in everything with plans already in head regarding the events.

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