Chapter 187

The party was gradually gaining momentum, more and more couples were coming out onto the court and joining the others, among whom were not only students, but also some teachers.

The evening was really very cheerful, the children were happily chatting, laughing, and some were stuffing their bellies with various delicacies that are not served every day, especially the Gryffindors, who were finally given a full table again, and at which a good half of the "lion cubs" were sitting.

But Lucky decided not to lag behind, so, with "pain", he had to get up and return to the "battlefield", while acting much more covertly.

Of course, he could have switched to other tables so as not to attract much attention, but the kid acted not so much because of the Prince, but mainly on his own whim.

After all, more than once, some of the students tried to: give him something to drink, hit him, hissed in his direction and insulted him, and mainly these were Gryffindors. So he decided to take revenge in such a simple way.

Severus himself didn't really care, he just sluggishly watched the show, and also laughed in his heart at some individuals who tried to find him among the other students.

In addition, Severus also kept an eye on Dumbledore, who at that moment was talking to the Minister of Magic in the latter's office and he did not disappoint him.

The man quickly understood what "Amon" meant, although it was hard not to understand when you were almost directly told where to look, and it was fun to watch the embarrassed Minister when the conversation reached the "spanking" that "Ichiros" wanted to award him and, apparently, Albus also wanted to see the reaction to this, it was easy to understand, by the notes of fun in the emotions of the elderly wizard at that moment.

And after about an hour, Shacklebolt returned with confirmation that the rats had settled under his very nose, two blocks from the headquarters of the Ministry of Magic.

But they did not disturb them, waiting for the order from the Ministry.

The start time of the operation was set for six in the morning.

Although the Prince himself was not very happy with this, he wanted to get some sleep today, and now he would have to get up at six to keep an eye on some specific individuals, whom he simply could not allow to die...

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Sipping cherry juice, Severus indulged in melancholy, realising that it was the second Christmas that ended in deaths, and after all: once was an accident, twice was a coincidence, and the third was a pattern, so in order to avoid the third, he gave himself his word that the next holiday would be much more mundane and calm, and most importantly - without bloodshed.

And while Severus was thinking about urgent matters, he noticed an approaching pair of lovebirds and allowed Regulus to see him.

"There's still an hour left until the end of the evening, you could have some more fun." he looked with a smile at the duo who sat down next to him, as well as at a couple of other Slytherins who did not take their eyes off them and headed in their direction.

"Well, now they noticed me.…"

"Why don't you leave, since you weren't going to take much part in this event anyway?" Black asked him, grinning, and then, added "Consider this a punishment for setting me up, you should know how unpleasant it is when they openly stare at you and only thanks to Miss Greengrass, I was able to somehow relax."

From his words, the girl even blushed a little.

"Not bad, not bad," a wand appeared in Severus' hand and, making a circular motion, he whispered, "Aprotos" and at the same moment, under the sour expression of Regulus and the surprised Leila, the aristocrats who had already approached his table froze and a second later dispersed in different directions.

"But you still have a lot to learn to drive me into a trap, do you think I didn't notice your actions, that you walked rather slowly on purpose and passed by my most ardent "fans"," with a victorious smile, Severus put the wand in his sleeve, in response, Regulus only snorted discontentedly, and the girl, unable to restrain herself, coughed a couple of times into her fist in order to hide her laughter.

"What kind of spell was that?" Regulus asked curiously.

"My invention, a disorienting spell, it works only on those I want, and erases me from their memory for an hour, - having heard his words, the aristocrat looked at the Prince with undisguised shock, because creating a spell is a very complex and labour-intensive process that requires a lot of knowledge in a variety of areas, a lot of trial and error, and some wizards will not have enough years to do it.

For the first time, she looked at him like a real monster, in the good sense of the word.

"Got it, will you teach me?"

"I'm too lazy, it takes too long to explain, and I doubt that you will be able to use it one hundred percent, it requires enormous control and mental abilities, one mistake, and you will turn not only the enemy into a fool, but also your ally will be braindead, there is even a small chance that you yourself will become a half-brain, do you want me to teach you?" the smile on Regulus's face faltered and after a few seconds, he shook his head in disappointment.

"Then no need."

"As you wish, it is my job to offer."

"And will you teach me?" and two pairs of puzzled eyes were directed at Leila.

"I have always had good abilities in the field of Legilimency and Occlumency, I already mastered them in my third year," the girl answered proudly, turning up her nose.

"It's amazing, I only recently managed to learn Occlumency with difficulty…" Regulus muttered in amazement, remembering how long his sister had been hammering into his head how to properly hide his memories.

"I can teach you for the remaining six months…" Greengrass looked at him with a bit of embarrassment, to which the young man was also a little embarrassed and when he felt someone's hand fall on his shoulder, he shuddered with his whole body and looked at his friend in bewilderment.

"Be strong," the Prince said in an almost sepulchral voice and only after that did the "young man" begin to understand what it meant to have a wife who was a master of Legilimency and he suddenly turned pale.

"Hey! Don't make a monster out of me!" And Greengrass also guessed what he meant, from which her cheeks flushed, but it was difficult to understand whether it was from resentment or embarrassment.

And, just at that moment, they heard someone cough and a voice: "Um... excuse me, can you tell me, where is "Severus"?" the couple looked in bewilderment at the red-haired girl in a simple, long, green dress with open shoulders.

'And why are you looking for him?" Black asked indifferently, who with his whole appearance showed that he was unpleasant to talk to her.

"I... I want to ask him something," Lily answered with a firm voice, clenching her fists tightly.

"Hm? And what is that?"Snape, who appeared next to Regulus a second later, asked her with a bit of interest, which surprised the witch for a moment, but she quickly pulled herself together.

"Can we move away...?"

"Okay," he nodded calmly, rising from the table, and taking his hand, she led the slightly surprised wizard towards the dance floor.

"I thought that we would go to a quieter place…"

But the girl did not answer and when they crossed the line, many pairs of eyes immediately focused on them, especially the "idiot trio", one of whom almost burned the Prince's back when the couple joined the others, but, strangely enough, he did not go to separate them, but only gloomily watched this, tightly squeezing a silver goblet in his hand.

Of course, Severus was a little interested in what Evans wanted to talk to him about, but he restrained his curiosity and did not resort to Legilimency.

"Since that day, you and I have never spoken…" feeling awkward from this whole situation and his hand on her waist, the girl quietly muttered, looking him straight in the eyes.

"Yes, so, what did you want to ask, Miss Evans?"

A bit of sadness flashed in her eyes from such an address.

Swallowing, and pursing her lip, she smiled sadly.

"At least for now, can you call me by my name?"

"Hm? Okay, so what did you want to ask?"

"How are you?" Severus's eye twitched, but he still answered "Wonderful, couldn't be better, but maybe we should get down to business?"

"Good... what do you think of me?"

"Hm... nothing," he shrugged weakly, which made her smile become a little strained.

"I see, you hate me?"

"No."

— … — … There was silence between them for several dozen seconds, until she took the floor again.

"… you have changed a lot …" the Gryffindor whispered, swallowing, "As if there was a completely different person in front of me …"

"I got a good teacher, and I realized that always following someone around is not the best idea, aren't you glad that you got rid of me?"

"I …"

"You were the one who broke off our relationship, and what's done is done, maybe it's for the best." the young man grinned, getting closer to her, from which she shuddered, "You found your stag... Your boyfriend, and I decided to become a student of one of the greatest Wizards and completely change, break out of this crowd and ... I'm even a little grateful to you for this, because if you hadn't opened my eyes that day, then perhaps I would not have achieved everything that I have now and would still be suppressing myself, aren't you glad?"

"I'm... glad…"

"That's great, maybe there's something else you want to ask me?" looking her straight in the eyes, he asked calmly, without changing his expression, to which she pursed her lips again.

"Last week, James asked me to go out, and I agreed…" she said this with notes of joy in her voice, as if looking for something on the face of her childhood friend, at least something... but he still looked at her with a half-smile.

"That's wonderful, congratulations, I think you'll make a great couple, but I'm sorry, I won't be able to attend your wedding, after school, I'll be leaving the country with a teacher, so I congratulate you in advance."

"… thank you…" and two tears rolled down from her eyes, which, combined with the smile on her face, looked rather strange and any man, even a blockhead, would have understood everything, but…

"You're welcome, as I see, you're very happy, that's good," just as the music began to fade away, "Is that all you wanted to tell me?" and when the music stopped, a handkerchief appeared in his hand, which he handed to her, "It's not good to cry, even from happiness, on such a festive day."

"Yes… thank you…" having accepted it, she wiped away her tears and when she wanted to return the handkerchief to him, the young man shook his head.

"Keep it for yourself, I take it the conversation is over?" Lily just nodded silently.

"Then I'm forced to leave you, my friends are waiting, Merry Christmas to you."

"To you too…".

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Hope you all liked the chapter, please keep voting with power stones as it gives me motivation to upload chapters.

You can read my other fic as well, it is called; Venomised in Marvel.

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