Chapter 138

The next day began immediately with Transfiguration. The first half of the lesson was devoted to plans for the school year, as well as an explanation of what awaits everyone at TOAD and what they should prepare for, and the second was a regular lesson, in which they explained who "Animagi" and "Metamorphomagi" are, what "Polymorphism" and "Anamorphism" are. 

Snape himself was little interested in this, because when he was looking for information about the "Maledictus", these terms came up in every book and he learned enough to understand that it could not help her, although he thought about trying to instil in Nagini, the gift of "Metamorph", and then strengthened it so that she could transform into any creature at will, but this could not be done, the curse turned out to be too strong, so he had to continue looking for plants and stick to his method.

The next lesson was Divination, which was taught by an elderly lady already familiar to Snape, but this time she decided to keep her sharp tongue behind her teeth, apparently realizing that if she continued to talk all that nonsense, like last year, then she would have to visit Mungo again , and the Prince's fame had long been ahead of him, so the teacher did not even dare to look in his direction, deep down hoping that he would not remember her "prediction." 

And with this, the Snapee's school day was over, although of course there were additional classes until the evening, but he did not attend them, because they were not mandatory, as well as a lot of homework: four ten-page essays with a full analysis of the terms studied in the lesson on Transfiguration and this had to be completed before Friday, and usually after this, of course, no one had time to rest, but the Slytherin finished it in fifteen minutes,  the Grimoire was a good help in this matter and most of the time was spent rewriting everything Tom told, although he didn't even do this himself, leaving everything to magic. 

No, of course, the Wizard did not get lazy, he had much more important things to do, first of all, to visit Slughorn, and after him the school healer, where he stayed until dinner, because she was eager to check whether he had read all the books she gave to him before the holidays started. 

Although the survey turned out to be quite long, the next five-plus hours passed unnoticed over tea and cookies, and to see how with each new answer the woman's face became more and more shocked was simply priceless, although Severus still had to make a few mistakes on purpose , he didn't want to trample her pride, although if he had said that all twenty-odd books took only a week, she would definitely have had a heart attack.

And after dinner, Snape visited Myrtle, due to the huge number of things to do, they had not communicated for a very long time and until lights out he spent time in the company of a ghost, to whom he told how much the outside world had changed over the past thirty-odd years since her death. 

Usually, Severus was quite tactful at such moments, but this was her request, so he still told her not only about the world of magic, but also about the Muggle one, satisfying the girl's curiosity.

 And with that, his first day after the start of the school year ended...

***

The next week, Snape, decided not to be too bright and to spend it in peace, although it was a rather difficult task when, after a lesson in life skills, everyone stared at you and pointed a finger, while not daring to approach, because his "personal security", as they themselves named, from several half-breeds from the course - he kept vigil and did not let anyone near him except Regulus and the headman. 

In general, it was a real madhouse, although by the end of the week everyone had calmed down a little, but he could no longer normally continue to search for the legacy of the founders during the day and he had to continue working on the Cloning Potion. 

And due to the fact that Severus could not study the castle normally, he found himself a new goal in the form of the "Forbidden Forest" adjacent directly to the school grounds. 

Previously, the Prince had not paid attention to it for the reason that he was not interested in the forest.

 In all the books, the top of the food chain was considered to be acromantulas, simply huge, poisonous spiders that built a colony deep in the forest. 

But after his visit to the jungle, he changed his mind one hundred and eighty degrees. The wizards of this world, due to a lack of knowledge, were not able to see much, so he wanted to personally walk through it and study it, and also collect some poison from the spiders and unicorn blood, which were also found there, but these were only additional goals.

 In addition to them, he was also interested in some ingredients, which he read about in one of the books found in Penelope Hufflepuff's office, among which was the "White Lotus" growing in the very centre of the forest and being one of the components for the "Elixir of Life", in which it was used the heart of the Treant King. 

After all, he did not consider Flamel's way of extending his life to be good enough, having a rough idea of ​​how the "Philosopher's Stone" works, but still Snape respected the alchemist who was able to live for more than six hundred years in such a backward world in terms of magic.

The same applied to Herpo the fool, who invented Horcruxes, and although this was not immortality, it could also be considered a worthy option for extending life, unless, of course, the one who uses it is not going to be stuck forever at the peak of the "Master" rank. 

For Voldemort himself, "the greatest dark Wizard," Snape felt a bit of contempt not because of his fear of death or appearance, but because of stupidity and pride, because everything that he had, he got from his predecessors, and from his own, he was only able to create a single thing, that is his spell that allows him to fly, and even then to a limited distance.

And it's okay, but banal horcruxes, because in the book it was clearly written that you can't create more than two, otherwise the roof will go crazy, but he ignored this warning and made as many as five because of the fear of death, so he also paid with his appearance , therefore, there was nothing to respect him for, although he also bore the title of "The Greatest," which he simply was not worthy of.

 In the forest, in addition, there were also centaurs, strange creatures that looked like horses and had a human torso instead of a neck and head of horse, but as soon as the Slytherin found out, that they were soothsayers and read fortunes by the stars, all interest instantly faded away, and the fact that they were physically strong and wielded bows did not interest him at all, he already had enough of the old soothsayer who predicted impotence by the age of fifty, which destroyed all his credibility to the prophets of this world. 

And having devoted a week to collecting materials about each type of magical creatures and strange anomalies in the Forbidden Forest, he began to prepare for research, and the potion was finally ready, but still Severus did not want to catch the eye of Dumbledore, because he could have guessed that it was not him, so Severus chose Thursday evening as the time for the "operation"; on Friday there was only one lesson, and the headmaster was leaving for the Ministry in the morning on some business; Severus learned about this from Nellie, who in turn got this information from a house-elf cleaning the old man's office...

***

And towards the end of the second week, when Snape was already preparing to leave the castle and begin exploring the "Forbidden Forest", there was a knock on the door of the room and this did not come as a surprise to him, because the "rat locator" had already warned him that an elderly man was heading towards the Slytherin dormitory Wizard 

"Mr. Snape, I hope I am not distracting you?" 

"No, headmaster, come in," the "surprised and slightly excited" voice of Severus sounded, and as soon as Dumbledore walked inside, he saw a "boy" lying on the bed with a book in his hand, on whose chest Nagini was lying curled up and pretending to that he's sleeping, "Forgive me, I would get up but..." embarrassedly lowering his gaze to the snake, he did not finish.

 "Nothing, I won't be long," he smiled softly and began to examine the reptile with a bit of interest, which had changed too much over the holidays and magically became several times stronger, which was very surprising.

"It happened abroad when I met with the teacher and after examination, he said that the curse still works, but the speed due to our connection has dropped ten times, so we came to the conclusion that she needs to evolve to a snake body, which was able to withstand the human mind and now she is definitely not in danger of degrading to an ordinary animal," noticing where his gaze was directed, Snape calmly explained, running his palm over her head with tenderness.

 "I see, this is really a wonderful idea," the elderly Wizard nodded, thoughtfully stroking his beard, "Your teacher is a great wizard, since he managed to do something like this, I would like to meet him and talk over a cup of tea..." 

"He has already left for Brazil. At the moment, the teacher is studying the "Magic Jungle" and when he returns, I won't be able to say for sure, but…"

" But...?"

 "He is looking for several ingredients for one potion, I think my teacher will not mind meeting you if you can find one of them..." two parchments appeared in  Snape's hand, with two remaining herbs, one of which he already had, but He understood that the potion was almost impossible to create the first time and he needed practice before that, so Snape wanted to collect two sets of ingredients. Looking at the herbs that Ichiros was looking for, Dumbledore began to stroke his beard with a frown, after all, this was one of his old habits when he was contemplating something serious.

 "I asked Professor Slughorn, but he doesn't know anything about them, so the teacher went to Brazil in the hope of finding these two herbs," Snape added, to which the elderly man nodded slowly, because he himself knew how much this country is rich in terms of ingredients for potions and if it were not for the huge crime rate, where magical power decided almost nothing, perhaps that country would have become the home of all potion makers and alchemists. 

"I don't know them either," the old man said, shaking his head in disappointment. "But I'll ask my friends, do you mind if I take these two parchments?"

"Take it, I still have a lot of them, but may I know the reason for your visit? I have extra classes with Professor Slughorn soon, I wouldn't want to be late…"

 "I forgot how strict he can be in this regard..." the wizard said with a nostalgic smile, nodding, as if remembering something from his past, but after that he still concentrated his attention on Severus, "Severus, I would like to know about your new potions..." 

"That's what you're talking about, you could just ask directly, after all, you helped me a lot at the Ministry, I'm already in your debt. But it's just... it's much harder to make them, so I won't be able to sell them to you in the same quantity as simple ones, a maximum of four per day. I'll also give you a thirty percent discount. I understand that you don't have bottomless pockets, and  confronting the Dark Lord takes a lot of time and Galleons."

"Thank you, my boy, this will really help us a lot."

"Headmaster, I also have one small request."

"Speak," said the elderly wizard, who was very pleased with this deal, much more cheerfully,  these thirty percent, when one potion cost one hundred and twenty-five galleons, could greatly help in this war, because in a month, they could save four thousand five hundred galleons , which was a very considerable sum, and as "Severus" put it, their pockets were indeed not bottomless.

 "I would like not to attend Divination and History, both teachers are completely incompetent, and I can read the books myself; I'm much more interested in potions, which I want to devote this time to."

" Hmm... let's do this…" after a few seconds of thinking, he began, "I will close my eyes to this, like last year, if you can agree with the teachers."

'This cunning old man, if others  find out about this, they will blame the teachers for everything, although he will get the burnt, but not much, they are unlikely to touch me, this is understandable, but the teachers will definitely be punished... you shouldn't expect anything else from a person who has been stewing in this cauldron called politics  for decades,' Severus thought, grinning inside, because Dumbledore was not just the headmaster of the school, but also a member of the Wizengamot - the Supreme Court of England, which was headed by Barty Crouch Sr. and, at the same time, an old man who had been aiming for the post of Chairman for a year and if a speck appeared on his "bright" reputation, then the candidacy could well be rejected, so he proposed a similar method of solving the "problem", but Snape was quite happy with this. 

"Thank you headmaster, then I will do so."

 "If you need anything else, the door to my office is always open for you," the headmaster  said with a good-natured expression on his face, looking at the clock hanging on the wall, "Then I won't distract you anymore."

"Good night, Headmaster."

"Good night to you as well, my boy…"

And as soon as the door slammed, Nagini raised her muzzle and looked towards the exit. 

"Every time I see him, I feel sick."

"That's why you decided to pretend to be asleep?"

"I don't want him to talk to me, " the snake muttered displeasedly, wrapping itself around his neck as Severus stood up, " I just don't like him."

"Okay, then we'll discuss it, but now we have to go," taking out a small bottle of gray liquid, he uncorked it and drank. 

For the first few seconds, nothing happened, until at one moment a white aura flowed from the snape's body, which gradually began to accumulate a meter away from him, taking on a human form…

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