Chapter 249. The Real Villain.
Several days later. London.
In a room steeped in twilight, a young man sat beside a bubbling cauldron full of thick green liquid. A white cloth mask covered his face, and with an open book in one hand, he read calmly while stirring the cauldron's contents.
*Three more hours, twenty-two minutes, three seconds before adding the next ingredient…* Severus thought indifferently, turning a page. He'd been in this room for four days, ever since he'd started this potion, a brew so temperamental it could spoil at any moment without constant attention. *And I still have to brew the real one. But with the practice batch behind me, it'll be much easier. I have to admit, Felix Felicis is an excellent potion for the nerves, and paired with Ravenclaw's gift, it's the best possible combination. I haven't felt this focused in a long time, even controlling the clone comes naturally now…* He looked down at the cauldron again, lowered the flame slightly, then turned his finger clockwise. The viscous liquid inside obeyed the rhythm of his movement.
~ Knock-knock-knock.
"Come in."
The door to the room opened silently. Nagini slithered in, a small iron tray hovering above her, bearing two sandwiches and a glass of juice for lunch, all shielded by a pale blue dome to keep the airborne poison from contaminating the food.
As she looked at Severus, her gaze was full of anxiety and worry, but also a faint hope that he would succeed. Yet she was even more concerned about his health; after all, staying in a room with such a high concentration of poison couldn't possibly be good for him.
And his claim that he was also trying to strengthen his immunity this way did nothing to ease her mind.
In those few short days, she had already wanted to stop him seven times. It was hard to watch him destroy his health for her sake, but seeing him endure it all so stoically made her swallow those words. And her own desire to become human again played no small part in that.
Because of this, Nagini felt terribly guilty; it seemed to her that she was using him. Though if Severus himself knew her thoughts, the former witch certainly wouldn't have gotten away with a mere flick on the forehead.
At the moment, however, he couldn't read or feel her emotions; he had temporarily disabled that bond, leaving only the most basic functions.
Severus's eyes lowered to Nagini, frozen near the entrance. Under his gaze, she grew completely flustered for the second day in a row.
"How many times do I have to tell you not to overthink things?" He let out a tired sigh and beckoned her closer. "Come here."
But instead of obeying, she nervously covered her snout with her tail and edged backward, which only drew a terrible smile from him, or so she thought.
"I wasn't thinking about anything like that! You imagined it!" But before she could even register what had happened, she found herself right in front of him, and a moment later felt him gently stroking the top of her head.
"If you listen to me and stop worrying about nonsense, I might finally be able to focus properly on the potion," he said playfully, poking her snout and making her feel slightly embarrassed. "And thank you for lunch. I was just getting hungry." He picked up one of the ham and salad sandwiches.
"Mm… enjoy your meal." She nodded shyly, a little flustered, then glanced down at the cauldron. A shiver ran through her at the sight of the acid-green liquid and its foul, swampy smell.
She was genuinely surprised he could eat under these conditions, because she could clearly see he wasn't using any spells to block the stench.
So Nagini stayed fairly quiet, to avoid the reek on her tongue. The thought that she would have to drink this stuff made her nauseous. If she were human, her face would surely have turned green.
"By the way, have you thought about where we'll go first once you're human again?" He took another bite of his sandwich, followed by a couple of sips of juice, then went back to his meal.
"Beauxbatons," she answered without a moment's hesitation, excitedly recalling those unbelievably beautiful gardens and landscapes on its grounds that had filled her with such awe.
"Good. Then that school will be our first stop." He nodded slightly, not especially surprised by her choice. Glancing back down at the cauldron, he turned up the flame just a little.
"That's all. I'll go. I don't want to disturb you any more than I already have." She slipped off his lap and reappeared near the door. "Leave the plates here. I'll take them when dinner comes," Nagini added quickly, and then she was gone.
Although Severus couldn't feel her emotions through their bond, over the past few years he had learned to read her from a single word. Even from her impassive, snake-like face, he could pick out the strongest emotions: joy, anger, anxiety, fear, and the like.
So he more or less understood what she was going through now, though not completely.
For that reason, he'd decided to "play" with her a little: to help ease her anxiety, and to distract himself as well.
A few minutes later, after finishing his second sandwich and his orange juice, he was about to return to reading the Grimoire, but paused. His lips pressed together in dissatisfaction.
*They found it after all. I tried to minimize the death energy absorption rate, but even that was enough…*
France. Paris. Paris Catacombs.
Black smoke raced through the dark tunnels of the former quarry at tremendous speed. Behind it, colorful flashes flew in pursuit, harmless to the walls, but if one struck the wizard himself, he would be paralyzed on the spot.
"Impedimenta!" A white beam with a pale blue outline shot from the wand of one of the seven pursuers, French dark wizard hunters, and surged toward the smoke. Difficult to make out in the twilight, yet impossible to dodge. Yet just as the spell was mere meters from the wizard, he cut sharply around the next corner, and the beam struck the wall, leaving only a small dent. "Slippery bastard!" one of them snarled, vanishing on the spot and reappearing a second later at the far end of the tunnel, already taking aim again. "Impedimenta!"
"Stupefy!"
"Carpe Retractum!" the other wizards echoed.
But no matter how hard they tried to hit him, their spells kept flying wide. Even Apparating in these dangerous conditions couldn't help them catch him. He was always one step ahead, and that strange, unpredictable way of moving was driving them nearly mad.
Still, the brave law enforcement officers refused to give up. They pressed on with the pursuit, even though the slightest mistake could mean death. The fact that they hadn't crashed into anything, gotten stuck in the walls, or lost his trail over the last ten minutes testified to their solid training, excellent Apparition skills, and deep knowledge of the terrain.
But when they rounded the next corner, three passages and three dark trails lay before them.
"Chloe, Roman, left passage. Domenic, Stefan, right. The rest of you, follow me through the center," the ranking officer ordered crisply, adjusting his hat and gripping his wand tightly.
"Yes!" In the same instant, they split up and dove into the passages, vanishing from sight…
A few seconds later, in that very spot, a ripple ran along the left wall, and a figure in a dark cloak stepped out. In his hand was a sphere as black as pitch, and his pale lips curled into a grin.
"Naive little children…" the figure drawled in a hissing tone, half his face hidden beneath the cloak. "I showed them one little necromancy trick, and they fell for it so easily, as if that's all I can do…" He tilted his head toward the sphere. "With this, I'll finally be able to crush that damned old man and seize Britain. And after that, I might take a look at France as well, since all the local Ministry lapdogs are so stupid…"
"Confundo!" A wave of invisible force burst from the central tunnel, rushing straight at the dark wizard.
"Tsk!" Dozens of human bones shot up from the floor, absorbing the impact. "Persistent rats…" he spat, spotting the return of the wizards who had been chasing him. A slightly curved wand carved from bone appeared in his hand, a sinister thing. "Re-sur-ra…" A dark aura erupted from the wand's tip in all directions, and a moment later, skeletons began crawling out of the walls. Some were missing arms, others legs or heads, but there were far too many of them, and within seconds they had surrounded the group of wizards.
"Everyone, back to back! Group spell three!" the leader shouted, seeing the approaching hordes of skeletons. They regrouped quickly, aimed their wands forward, and shouted in unison, "Lumos Maxima!" An incredibly bright light burst from their wands, flooding the entire open space and the nearby tunnels. But at the last moment, the group leader noticed two telling details about the dark wizard's face: he had no nose, and his pupils were vertical. *Could it be…?* A deeply unpleasant suspicion crept into his mind.
But just as the spell had brilliantly illuminated all the tunnels, the light vanished. When the wizards opened their eyes, all they saw were human bones scattered across the ground. The dark wizard himself had disappeared without a trace.
"He led us on a chase…" The woman with short hair sighed irritably.
"He can't have gone far, not with anti-Apparition charms in place down here! Keep searching! Roman, put all the bones back underground!"
"Yes!" And with that, they vanished, leaving behind a single man who, looking rather put out, began clearing away the human remains.
"And why is it always me…?"
London.
In the room where Severus was still at work on the potion, a familiar figure in a dark cloak appeared.
But this time there was no hood, and any Death Eater would have recognized his lord at once: Voldemort.
"Someone did something nasty to someone, and my heart rejoices. Now let him run around France for a while…" Both men grinned nastily in perfect sync. "Still, it's good I managed to collect almost all the death energy, though I probably should have studied the wizards on today's shift in the catacombs a bit more carefully… Nelly."
Pop!
Beside Severus, the house-elf appeared in that same instant, looking anxiously up at him. He hadn't summoned her in so long that she had started to think the master had forgotten her completely.
"Take this to Eileen, but put on dragon-hide gloves first," both Severuses said in unison, and a sphere of death energy appeared in the clone's hand.
"Yes, master!" Seeing such a joyful house-elf, he was taken aback for a moment but quickly shook off the feeling. As soon as she had pulled on the small brown leather gloves, the Dark Lord placed the sphere into her hands.
"You may go."
"Yes…" But this time it came out less cheerfully, and she vanished, leaving both wizards looking mildly puzzled.
*I'll never understand house-elves…* With that thought, the real Severus waved a hand and returned his attention to the cauldron, while his copy, still wearing Tom's form, dissolved on the spot, leaving no trace behind.
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