"Because then I might have developed a taste for the stuff," he explains. "The last thing I needed in school was a reason to go Hogsmeade or a hunger to be exploited." Slughorn, of course, thought otherwise; that being easily pleased opens channels for continuing future trade. But Slughorn, being of old-enough blood and a comfortably well-off family, had started out in a genuine peer relationship to his peers.
"No core, less efficient, less responsive--more power, but a very poor capacity for focus," he says promptly. "Have you ever used one? They're good for weatherworking, mostly; very useful for agrarian work." And flattening entire armies, but this isn't something you encourage Rodolphus Lestrange to think about. "Once you start mucking about with the weather, of course, stopping becomes difficult. But the harp..." He gestures, leaning forward with gleaming eyes. "Very difficult to use, of course, and spells were not worked nearly so quickly as we can do them now, but the sheer versatility in the hands of a master, the subtlety of effect... And, of course, the skill involved elevated their status before the muggles as not only feared but genuinely respected."
"Neither mad nor batty, thank you," he replies placidly, and possibly untruthfully, "unless in the sense of chronically angry and possibly vampiric. Otherwise I shall think you've confused me with the Trelawney creature."
"It did sound interesting; I would," Severus says. "One rarely encounters saffron as a spice."
Oh? What about him? No, he doesn't, does he. (squishes warily) Yeah, I figured you would, that's why I'm telling you now, before you'd planned for him to succeed. ;p Gaav and possibly Susan should really be the only two people currently in the game capable of getting past or even into Xel's woods without his meaning them to; that's already been set up. Rus can stalk him, it'll just have to be in Margate proper.