chapter 135

A few days later.

In a dark, windowless room, illuminated only by a small light bulb in the centre of a huge basement, there were five people in six cells, looking pale and rather exhausted, and from the large bags under their eyes, one could understand that they had not slept properly for a very long time.

But despite all this, the looks of some of them were still as sharp and lively as before Snape caught them around his house.

"Will you go to them?" Nagaina asked, with a bit of pity, looking at the members of the Black Star through the screen that broadcast the image from the basement.

"No, it's too early," Severus calmly answered, shaking his head, stroking the purring doe's(chimaera) head, "Although I'm still surprised that they are still holding on, after two weeks locked up, it was probably still worth moving them out one by one." 

At the moment, Severus decided to take a short break from working on the rituals, one of which he had already completed and the most difficult one remained, connected with the Heart of the Treant King, because he needed to pull out the magic in such a way that it would not lose all its positive properties, which was very difficult to implement, while using ordinary magic, which, in comparison with the original one, could easily be called "dirty." 

In his past life, he only read about how people absorb magic from such hearts, but there were simply no publicly available rituals for this, so he had to create it almost from scratch, using tips that the Slytherin still remembered from reading books.

"Master, why did these weak people surrender to you, who couldn't even withstand my weak roar and fell almost immediately?" the Chimera King asked him puzzled, watching his daughter, who with puppy eyes looked at the smiling wizard sitting at the table and feeding her with thin slices of ham, removing them from sandwiches, on which others appeared in a second and seeing this, the lion felt a bit embarrassment for its daughter "I need to be stricter with her!"

"Maybe for you they are weaklings, but for the world of magic in Britain they are elite warriors, especially their leader, and why shouldn't they send you to deal with ordinary wizards who will immediately wet themselves at the sight of such a giant?" Severus calmly explained, throwing up another slice, and the chimaera's daughter, in turn, quickly jumped up and caught it, and then, squinting rather, chewed it while Severus affectionately stroked her on the top of the head, "Yes, and I'm too lazy to deal with all sorts of idiots, so I want them to become my servants and get rid of such problems."

"Hmm... if you think about it, then there is logic in this, I asked a stupid question without even thinking."

"Never mind."

"How I envy you... " watching his actions, Nagini hissed with jealousy, who would also like to stroke this cub, only she didn't have hands, and her tail no longer felt the same. 'Oh... what soft fur she has…'

"You bastard!" the snake muttered displeasedly, looking at the impudent grin on the wizard's face, which she really wanted to erase and hurt more.

"Okay, go back to your place, a guest should come to me soon, I'll tell Gorby to bring you some ham," having finally patted the little girl, who after his words joyfully rubbed her nose on his palm.

Severus created another transparent screen on which a silver-haired aristocrat familiar to him is depicted approaching a large black gate.

 In response, the Chimera King nodded silently and led his daughter back to the lair.

"Why is he here?"She hissed with a bit of hostility in her voice, watching the slightly nervous man who stopped in front of their house. "Most likely, because of the Lestranges, at the last meeting, his father got a little bit of trouble from Tom for not freeing them yet," the space slowly began to distort in front of Snape, who was sitting at the table, and a gate appeared a few metres away from him, and on the left and right sides of them there was a fence that gradually completely surrounded the house.

Snape, did not want to show Malfoy the huge area around the building, and so that he would not accidentally see the animals, that's why Severus decided to create an illusion, and thanks to "House as an Artifact", controlling  the spell of invisible expansion was a piece of cake and he simply moved the gate directly towards him, and the fence was just an illusion to complete the picture. 

And after a few seconds, they slowly began to open and the aristocrat, having again returned to his usual, cold expression, went inside.

 The small couple of metres separating the distance from the gate to the entrance to the house, which he had previously seen outside the building, sharply increased to almost fifteen when he passed through them and almost immediately, his gaze caught on "Severus", calmly sipping tea in a small gazebo.

A snake hung from his neck, the colour of which made him feel a little sick, and its appearance frightened him a little, but he still tried to put on a smile. 

"Good afternoon, Mister Prince, as I see, you got a new snake?"

"You could say that," Severus nodded affably, using magic to push back the neighbouring chair. 

"Thank you." And as soon as the former headman sat down in front of him, with slight interest he began to examine the large, strange-looking building, unlike the usual mansions of aristocrats, and also looked strangely at the antenna, because Lucius had seen such things many times in the Muggle world, yet even though Lucius was a Death Eater, but he received the largest part of his income precisely from the world of simple people, so he was quite familiar with a lot of Muggle things and had a rough idea of ​​why it was needed, because he did not work with the simplest people.

 "I decided to install a television in my house. It's a rather interesting Muggle invention and I recommend you try it too. Over eighty years a huge number of interesting films have been released. It's especially interesting to watch how Muggles represent us, I can even help with the installation." 

"I'm not interested in this, thank you," the aristocrat refused, and here it wasn't even a matter of disdain for Muggle things, but precisely because of his Master, because if Voldemort sees something like this in his house, then at best he will get off with only Crucio, and at worst he will be killed Perhaps, after all, Voldemort was distinguished by a special hatred for everything that was done by simpletons. 

But at the same time, Lucius also felt a slight envy of "Severus", who could do whatever he wanted while his teacher protected him, when he himself had to bend in front of two half-breeds. 

"Okay, But if you suddenly decide, tell me, I'll help in a friendly way. So how can I help? You didn't just decide to visit me, did you?" Nevertheless, Severus decided to get down to business, otherwise Nagini would definitely burn a hole in this wizard. 

"That's right," Lucius nodded tiredly, ignoring what he thought was the snake's unkind gaze. "This is about the Lestranges, I would like to ask for help in freeing them..." 

"Me,?" Severus extended his hand and, with "concern" on his face, touched the forehead of Malfoy, who was taken aback by such actions. 

"Are you sure you don't have a fever? I know a good healer, let me take you to her, she will definitely help."

 "Stop mocking me," the former prefect said sharply, pulling back, looking displeasedly at the Slytherin.

 "You're the one joking here, why should I help them?"

 "We are ready to thank you for this help." 

"You think I need Galleons?"  Severus chuckled, measuring him with a mocking glance. "Azkaban is shining on them and the Ministry will definitely not leave them behind, because they have been seen nearby more than once during attacks by Death Eaters, but there is no serious evidence yet...So rescue them yourself, should I teach you how to do this?" 

"It won't work, they're on the lowest floor of the dungeon, and in addition to the anti-apparition charms, aurors are on duty there at every corner, and if we break in by force, their rescue will be very expensive, and they will turn into criminals: all accounts will be frozen, and real estate will be confiscated." Lucius explained gloomily, which, of course, Snape himself knew thus, but he was still interested in what Malfoy would offer in return.

"I understand you, but what benefit does this give me? These idiots tried to put a spike in my wheels more than once, especially the moment when they set the killers and if it weren't for the teacher's intervention, I would definitely have lost my life. By freeing them, I would only create unnecessary problems for myself…"

"They will swear by their magic, that they will no longer dare to even think about harming you."

"Did you come up with this or…" But instead of answering, Lucius took out three parchments: 

"The first is the marriage contract between the Blacks and the Lestranges, the second is the oath that I spoke about earlier, and the third is a small company in the Muggle world that you you'll get it after they get free," Lucius calmly explained, looking gloomily at the thoughtful Severus.

"Now this sounds much more interesting, this is where we should have started, but still, let me think a little and talk to someone about this, I think two days will be enough."

 "Of course, I will convey your words to my father," although on the outside the expression on his face was still the same calm, but inside, Lucius felt great excitement, assuming that "Severus" would most likely contact someone at the Ministry to discuss this issue. 

"Okay, how about we have lunch?"

"Thank you, but I already had a snack at home, and there's still a lot to do," Malfoy quickly refused, because he still had to report to his Master and father about the Prince's decision. 

"Then I won't distract you anymore." 

"Have a nice day." 

"You too Lucius, give Tom "hello" from me and tell him not to try to cheat," after his words, Malfoy's left eye twitched, but he still nodded and headed towards the exit... And when, finally, the man left Snape's territory Nagini began looking at Severus with a strange look.

"Why do you need this? What's the point of freeing them, wouldn't it be better if the Lestranges were sent to Azkaban?"

"I've been thinking for a long time about opening a business in the Muggle world, but I didn't know where to start, now there's a reason, and I like the vector of development of the world of simpletons, I want to watch it from the front row," he poked her with a warm smile in the nose, "Aren't you interested?"

"It's interesting, of course, but…"

"Don't worry, I have everything under control, do you think I just agreed to the contract? I have two whole days to prepare it, and I'm not afraid that the Lestranges will want to take revenge, because this is impossible, I have already corrected them with the slave seal set by Tom and now, they are also my slaves who will never dare to harm me and to my loved ones."

"So, you had this in mind from the very…"but the wizard poked her in the muzzle again, causing her to hiss with displeasure in his direction. "No, I didn't think about it at all, from the very beginning I didn't care about the existence of the Lestranges, this is purely their decision and apparently, finally, the younger one's brains fell into place or the older one drove them in, who knows..." stretching contentedly, he laid his head down on the table and closed his eyes, "...I'm still not a seer to see the future..." 

"At moments it seems that everything is exactly like that."

"That's how it is... But, I have informants everywhere, that's why I know everything."

"Do you think they don't suspect you?" She asked, descending from the Snape's neck onto the table, looking at his calm expression on his face. 

"Quite the contrary, Tom is sure that it was I who ordered those idiots to be imprisoned, thinking that it was revenge on my part for trying to manipulate me using feelings for Bellatrix, which is why they turned to me... well... nothing interesting..." the wizard muttered in a sleepy voice, finally yawning widely.

"If you want to sleep, let's go into the house."

"It's warm outside today, so you can do it here... only half an hour... no more, there's still a lot of work..." and after a few seconds, measured breathing began to come from his lips. 

Seeing such a serene expression on Snape's face, Nagini wished that at that second she had a human body to touch his face. 

Therefore, all she could do was press her muzzle against him with disappointment and also close her eyes…

"I wish I could become human again as soon as possible…"

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