Several days later.
Descending into the basement, Severus walked to the centre of the room. In the middle stood a silver pedestal, and it, like the entire room, was completely covered in red symbols, with a small depression in the centre.
Without a word he took a transparent dark crystal from his wallet, the size of a human head and cut in a precise shape. Lifting it with magic, he brought it to the depression and lowered it into place.
In the next moment, inscriptions many times smaller than those on the building's walls flared over the crystal, and the crystal itself began to shimmer with rainbow radiance.
"Now the second stage." He cut his palm and squeezed, letting blood drip onto the crystal. Little by little its colour shifted to scarlet. Closing his eyes, he began whispering something unintelligible, and with each new word the radiance only intensified.
The runes on the pedestal lit, and the glow spread in a wave through the inscriptions on the walls, then flowed onward to those beyond the room.
At that time enormous streams of magic from the air, moving at incredible speed, began to be absorbed by the house. There was so much magic that even Nagini, standing outside the manor's territory with the house-elves, could clearly see it. Wild currents of air swirled like a storm. They could have easily demolished an ordinary building, but they did not affect this house at all. If Severus had not placed a concealing barrier in advance, then within minutes a huge number of wizards and Muggles would have gathered for such a show. It was like a gigantic tornado with its epicentre at the house.
Watching it, Nagini could not help worrying about Severus. Still, she believed in him and tried not to think about the worst. The Maledictus could clearly feel his calmness through their connection, so she did not panic herself and only waited.
After some time, in the basement, Severus removed his hand from the crystal and, sighing tiredly, looked at it with a satisfied smile.
"Everything turned out simpler than I thought, and now." He lifted his gaze to the room and raised his hands, slowly spreading them apart. In that very moment the walls began to move away. Within seconds the space grew from a modest forty square metres to three hundred. "House as an artifact. I never thought I would use this one day."
"House as an artifact" could not be attributed to runology, artifacting, potion-making, or charms. It was magic that combined all four directions. A work of art created by a Great Archmage millennia ago. It could turn a house into a true artifact that could protect itself, hide, and attack uninvited guests. The inside could be changed however the owner desired, except for furniture. The house could not create furniture, and it still had to be bought. For its work it absorbed magic from the air, but Severus still planned to create ten more crystals besides this one, just in case. He did not know what might happen in the future. After his rebirth he had become much more cautious and did not want to lose his life because of some accident. If he were attacked and the magic around the house was limited, and the opponent was very strong or there were too many enemies, he would always have a reserve to fight them off and leave the danger zone.
After returning the room to its previous size, he began changing the interior itself, shifting the tones to lighter ones. It was not difficult and did not require much magic. This was not illusion, but transformation, one level below transfiguration. It worked on one of alchemy's principles, equivalent exchange, and even so it was very useful. It could not make objects from nothing, but in cases like this, transformation was far more effective.
Ten minutes later, after finishing with the interior, he left the building, where the house-elves and Nagini were already waiting for him.
"Almost everything is ready. I suggest we go buy furniture and move here completely. What do you think?" Severus smiled at Nagini and held out his hand. She quickly slithered up along his arm.
"Why are you asking me? If you want to, then let us go," she answered calmly, pressing against his cheek.
"And who else should I ask, them?" He pointed at the house-elves. "They do not care. That is obvious, I think. All right, let us go already. I will show you everything inside."
"Uh-huh!"
Over the next two days they settled into the new house. Severus transferred everything from the shop and, yesterday, bought furniture, mostly from the Muggle world. It looked much more pleasant than that old-fashioned horror from Diagon Alley, though beds, pillows, bedding, and kitchen utensils in the magical world were many times better. Severus placed charms on everything, so in practice there was no difference at all.
Besides that, yesterday evening he visited the Malfoys and met Lucius's father. The older Malfoy was talkative and kept offering to buy potion recipes, promising big money. Severus refused again, saying he had an agreement with the Ministry, and only they and he himself could sell them.
From Lucius's words after the meeting, Severus understood the invitation had been the father's idea. He wanted to see the young man who had made a huge fortune in a short time. The attempt to buy out the recipe was simple testing. If it had worked, the older Malfoy would not have minded signing the same agreement as the Ministry, because potions brought enormous profit, especially in troubled times.
In general there was nothing special about the meeting, except that Severus removed slave seals from two more Death Eaters close to Lucius and got better acquainted with the Malfoy family. Lucius had completely taken after his father, but the elder was more cunning and better hid his emotions and thoughts behind a façade of indifference.
Gringotts Bank
The very next day, in a forge with a huge furnace and anvils, Severus examined with interest a set of dark leather armour: metal shoulder pads, bracers, boots, and a belt, along with patterns along the edges of the cloak and across the chest. He barely restrained a satisfied smile, because it was even better than the blueprint. Goblins had excellent taste.
The elderly goblin, seeing the human's pleased expression, proudly lifted his chin.
"One of my best works."
"Honestly, I am surprised. I thought it would be much worse, but everything is perfect." Severus ran his palm over the patterns on the shoulder pads, nodded, and touched the pocket on his chest. In the next moment a metre-long piece of Basilisk hide appeared on the floor. At the sight of it, the eyes of Gobrari and the other goblins lit up. The hide of the King of Serpents was an extreme rarity. One could even say it was impossible to get. It appeared on the market once in ten, or even dozens, of years, and only in small pieces of poor quality.
"Do not underestimate goblins! We are the best craftsmen! Not a single little human can compare with us!" Gobrari said it in a very serious tone, with pride, while getting down on his knees, drooling, and almost licking the hide. The picture was far too contradictory.
"Of course. And did I deny anything?" Severus put the armour into his wallet and looked at Gobrari again. "If I need other things, can I contact you?"
"Of course."
"But not for free?"
"What did you think?" Gobrari rolled the hide up carefully and placed it into a chest standing beside the largest furnace.
"That is what I thought. Well then, thank you for the excellent work." Severus smiled, or rather grinned, and held out his hand.
"I will be waiting for the next order with impatience." Gobrari grinned back and shook the offered hand.
Severus did not voice his thoughts aloud, but the look made it clear enough: "You are waiting for my Galleons, damn goblin."
As soon as Severus left the room, Gobrari turned a thoughtful gaze to the chest. Then he walked to the wall and touched it, and a magic circle lit around his hand.
"This hide is identical to that one. He tried to spoil it a little, but I am sure it was only recently removed from a living Basilisk," Gobrari said confidently, stroking his beard.
The response came silently through the connection.
"I think so too. We should not make rash moves, even as a group."
Another silent response.
"Yes, understood. I saw nothing."
After removing his hand, Gobrari looked at the chest again and rubbed his palms together, grinning. He could not wait to start processing the hide, and the behind-the-scenes affairs of the elders and the chief goblin concerned him very little.
Leaving Gringotts, Severus went straight home so he could quickly place charms and apply runes to the armour. But ten steps short of the door, he heard the beat of wings. Turning around, he saw an owl with the pattern near the beak that belonged to Malfoy.
"What does he need now? We just discussed everything yesterday." The owl landed on his shoulder and happily rubbed against his cheek, then raised a leg with a small red box attached.
"Hm?" Severus tilted his head in bewilderment. He checked it first, and only then opened it. To his surprise, inside was a ring with quite powerful mind-protection charms and a moon engraved into a black precious stone. "Um, and how am I supposed to understand this?"
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