Chapter 136

Gradually, the first of September was approaching again, the time when all students of the School of Witchcraft and Magic again had to return back to Hogwarts to continue their studies, and no matter how strange it was, many parents, from simple half-bloods to most aristocrats, were very happy about this, because finally they will be able to relax, at least a little, because their children will spend the whole next year close to the strongest wizard in Britain and in one of the safest places in the country. 

The shops, like last time, began to open again one after another and while it was still calm outside, huge crowds of people began to shop for the upcoming school year, and the number of patrols roaming Diagon Alley doubled, but mostly this was done only for appearances and a sense of security, because the council and the Minister of Magic himself understood that for now no serious steps would be taken against the ordinary population of the country, because the gang war was not over yet, but was only gaining momentum.

 Of just over twenty-two known factions, only ten remained "living", two of which belonged to the Death Eaters and Black Star, and the latter still had the upper hand in this war.

Over the next few weeks, several high-profile news happened, one of which was the release of the Lestrange brothers, who were written about in all the newspapers, yet these two were members of one of the most noble families in Britain, so it is not surprising that this news is still on everyone's lips after a week. 

Of course, the Ministry did not blame itself for the fact that they detained these two and accused them of almost complicity with the Dark Lord on their own whim, but referred to the fact that someone had set them up and only after conducting another check, it turned out that that aristocrats are not guilty of anything at all, with the exception of financial fraud. 

But they still understood very well that these two were definitely "Death Eaters", although without the marks, which Tom, after the incident at Hogwarts, improved so that no one else could see them except himself. 

At the same time, the Ministry also did not use: unforgivable, truth serum and the like to extract information from them. 

Still, the brothers were not the simplest wizards, and one was generally the heir of the richest family, and without direct evidence, they simply could not do anything, because the entire aristocratic community of Britain, which included some workers, would immediately take their side Ministry of Magic, and accusations will begin of infringing on the rights of aristocrats, which of course Voldemort will not disdain to take advantage of, and they had no desire to fight on three sides, they already had enough of the "Death Eaters" with the "Black Star".

 And of course, their release would not have happened if not for the intervention of Snape, who, in exchange for this service, provided two new recipes: an improved potion that enhances Magic Abilities, as well as something that made it possible to neutralize the negative effect in the form of weakness for one minute, this was a potion that enhances physical capabilities, which he anyway planned to transfer to the Ministry, and get the maximum possible profit from them without doing anything at all.

Another shocking news for many was the breaking of the engagement between the Lestranges and the Blacks, without explanation, which of course caused a lot of speculation on the part of other aristocrats and ordinary people, from the fact that Rodolphus was almost like "boys" and he realised this is only in the dungeon, to the point that Bellatrix is ​​no longer a "girl" and cheated on him while he was under arrest and even witnesses were found in both cases, who stood over them with candles and watched all this.

This news almost completely eclipsed the previous one and was grinding on it for about three weeks until everything settled down, because there were no comments or reactions from either side, so interest in it faded away quite quickly. 

Snape himself, all this time, continued to work on the ritual and even made good progress, while still developing a small chain of stores - "On the Connection" in the Muggle world, selling electronic equipment, which he received from Malfoy for his help with the Lestranges.

***

There were only a few days left before the start of the school year, so Severus decided to take a walk along Diagon Alley with Nagini and buy: writing materials, books for the seventh year, and finally an owl, so as not to send a house elf with letters every time, and at the moment they were just leaving a pet store with a cage in which sat a black owl with a white belly and muzzle, warily looking at the snake under the man's collar, which in turn curiously studied the feathered creature. 

"You will be Dartie," Severus said with a smile, looking into her eyes.

"Strange name."

"In one of the ancient languages, "dar" means black, and "ti" means white, that's why Dartie, you like it, don't you?" in response, as if understanding him, the owl began to nod and "hoot", as if rejoicing at the new name.

"She really understood you... " the snake hissed in surprise, watching the owl's reaction. "Their intelligence is extremely limited, she understands only basic things, and is also able to find a person whom she has seen at least once."

"But as…?"

"Don't ask, I don't know, to do this you need to open it and check how it's structured from the inside, which I don't want to do or do you still…"

"It's no longer

interesting!" Nagini sharply exclaimed with panic in her voice, which got a cheerful laugh from Severus, but the owl already began to look at its new owner with caution.

 She knew roughly the meaning of this word, because they were taught to beware of certain individuals, as well as how to behave in dangerous situations. 

"Well, I'm not interested, if I want to find someone, I'll find it without her help, and to make sure that the owl never finds you is a matter of one spell," a grape appeared in his hand, which he threw to the bird and she immediately caught it with her beak, and quickly ate it, and then nodded to the wizard with a satisfied "hoot." 

"I'm interested in how smart she would become after eating that fruit... okay, all that's left is to buy books and go home," but having caught it, he saw dissatisfied Nagini's gaze, he grinned and stroked her with his finger on the top of her head, "Let's go, let's see what else interesting things can be found along the way..." But without walking even a few steps, Severus heard painfully familiar voices, which he had long ago completely forgotten and not even recalled: 

"...Lily, let's go already, you yourself wanted to look into this store," a young man in glasses with a cheerful expression on his face, pulled the slightly embarrassed red-haired girl by the hand, just in the direction of the pet store, and they were followed by: a smiling adult couple and two other young people whispering about something and casting meaningful glances at their friends. "Let's go another day, first we'll go to the bookstore, and also for new boilers and then..." but before she had time to finish, her gaze caught on Snape, silently watching them and like an unfaithful wife who was caught in treason, she quickly she snatched her hand away and, not daring to look him in the eyes, she lowered her head, 'What am I doing...?'

Already surprised by her actions, Lily thought with embarrassment, because they were not together, and it's hard to call them friends, then: why did she react like that?.

This thought haunted her for a few seconds.

 "Snape..." Potter hissed angrily, almost scorching "Severus" with his gaze, because just when everything was starting to work out for them and the girl even allowed herself to be kissed on the cheek, but that damn "Sinevellus" appeared again, who ruins everything with just his presence. 

James's mother, a lady with a good-natured face and short red hair, watching this silent confrontation, quickly realized what was happening, and the girl's reaction was familiar to her, so she looked with curiosity at the man who had fallen so deeply into the heart of her possible future daughter-in-law, but she didn't see anything special in the image of this young man, his appearance was completely ordinary: a thin, slightly long nose with a hump, fairly large black eyes, a narrow chin, a thin line of eyebrows and moderately long, gathered into a small a tail of dark hair, two strands of which framed his face, but the height of the "young man" stood out especially, because he was even larger than her husband and although his body was hidden by a robe,

And when she turned her gaze to her husband, she noticed that he was looking slightly dissatisfied at the "boy," which was very unnatural for him and puzzled the woman. Fleamont himself, a wizard with a lush black mustache, glasses and a little gray hair, felt a slight irritation at the sight of this "boy", because because of his "Beauty" potion, he lost a huge share of the profits from the rights for the drug "Simple Shine", that's all even though he sold the company producing the potion, the rights to the recipe remained with him, so he received four percent of each bottle sold, but because of the Prince, his income fell by almost half, after all the man had expected to receive these percentages, at least until the nineties, and maybe two thousand, in order to leave more Galleons to his son, grandchildren and great-grandchildren, and maybe even great-great-grandchildren.

 But at the same time, he didn't hate "Severus", he understood that this was just a business and everyone was spinning around as best as they could to earn a living, because he himself was like that in his youth, although the aristocrat still regretted one thing: his own son did not have such financial acumen, talent, or intelligence, but he still loved him very much and was proud of his achievements in Quidditch, although he himself was not interested in this game. 

Fleamont and Euphemia, for a very long time, could not have children and only at a semi-advanced age, his wife was able to give birth to James, whom they doted on and greatly spoiled, which is why he became so arrogant and self-confident, but it was too late to re-educate him.

At the same time, Lupine and Sirius stood next to James, causing a tired sigh to escape from the Snape's mouth and, shaking his head, he looked at Fleamont and silently nodded to him as a welcoming gesture, then he turned around and headed towards the bookstore.

"Apparently, she's still not indifferent to you, " the snake hissed with a hint of amusement in her voice, looking towards Lily, who was following Snape's back with a rather complicated look. 

"And what? Are you jealous?"

"Hm! I would be if it was someone else!" Snape didn't comment on Nagaina's reaction, although emotionally a bit of jealousy actually slipped through her, because she was still a little afraid that his old feelings for the redhead might flare up again if she started clinging to him. 

Of course, Snape was not blind and saw how, during his studies, Nagini tried to do everything so that he and Evans would not even intersect, constantly forcing Nellie to monitor Lily and convey her exact location. 

Although the Prince explained many times that they would definitely never have anything with Gryffindor again, but everything was unsuccessful, so he decided to just go with the flow and not pay attention to it, but still, Severus would be lying if he said , that he did not like such "care". 

After this meeting, they went to a bookstore, where they bought a ready-made set of books for the seventh year and writing materials there, and having finished with all the purchases for the beginning of the school year, they returned home…

.

.

.

.

Thank you for reading, do vote with power stones please.

You can read more on p@treon.com/lucifer09