Chapter 32

After moving the last stone, Severus was finally able to see the passage from which the Basilisk crawled out earlier. It was small, but could easily accommodate three crawling people at a time.

"Maybe I should go and check first?" Nagini said.

"It's not worth it, we shall go together." Jumping into the tunnel, on his haunches, he slowly began to deepen forward.

After a couple of minutes, having passed a rather winding path, he finally came to an open space, which is a spacious cave with something very reminiscent of a nest in one of the corners. Of course, there were no eggs there, after all the Basilisk lived alone, and it could not fertilise itself.

"It's empty here ... " Nagini drawled a little disappointedly, expecting to see a real mountain of treasures in this place.

"I wouldn't say that," approaching the nest, the Wizard directed his palms at it and released a stream of flame, which in a few seconds destroyed dry leaves, branches and other vegetation, which somehow miraculously fell under the castle.

As soon as the flames were gone and the ashes blown away, the Wizard's gaze saw the imprint of a hand on the smooth surface of the stone. "Hmm… too easy…"

"Maybe we should put our hand up and say," Nagini looked at the imprint and said.

"Open up?" Severus questioned.

"You are a naive soul," gently patting her on the top of her head, he put his palm into the recess with a smile, and in the next moment an unpleasant hiss was heard and the smell of burning spread throughout the room. 

Raising his palm, Severus thoughtfully looked at the glove, which, although not burned through, was very close to it.

Therefore, the Archmage quickly got rid of it and put on a new one, fortunately, he had already prepared three pairs in advance for such a case. 

"See? This is most likely an entrance, but only for the descendants of Salazar: I felt as if something tried to pierce the glove to get my blood, and when it failed to do so, it released acid, apparently to punish whoever tried to pass, not being an heir," in the next moment, a transparent dome appeared over the head of the Wizard, and acid poured from hundreds of holes from the ceiling. 

"too predictable."

"I didn't know it was a trap…..I really didn't know…" Hearing Nagini almost sobbing and feeling the emotions whipping through him like a wave, the Archmage smiled wryly.

"I am glad, of course, that you have become more emotional, but please control them, we are in a dangerous place right now and don't worry, it isn't  your fault, I decided to check that trap myself." there was not a bit of excitement on the face of the young man, only calmness, which reassured her a little, while she herself was a little surprised by such a reaction from herself. 

'That's why I didn't get a familiar in my past life: it's too troublesome to feel other people's emotions all the time.' Turning his gaze to the walls, Severus closed his eyes, fully concentrating on his surroundings, looking for dense or unnatural traces of magic.

The acid, pouring from the ceiling like heavy rain, did not stop, but on the contrary, increased the pressure. Of course, the barrier held it back, but even that barrier was not omnipotent, and the acid gradually corroded it, and the magic in this cave was limited and could not be replenished due to the materials the walls were made of, making this place an almost perfect trap for unfortunate mages.

In less than a few minutes, the acid had already completely flooded the floor, rising several dozen centimetres upwards.

"This is it…" Finally opening his eyes, Severus approached the stone wall on the left and, after touching the uneven surface, bared his teeth, and a stream of black flames erupted from his palm, but only for a few seconds until his core was tensed, and he urgently had to stop releasing the flame. But even this was enough to leave a huge hole in the wall a metre thick, through which he went into a tunnel leading to a door decorated in the best colours of Slytherin: it was made of silver with the sign of the Slytherin house, decorated with green patterns around the edges, and the handle was in the form of a snake, the composition was completed by two statues on the left and right: one belonged to the Basilisk, and the second to an elderly bald man with a long pointed beard, dressed in a long robe.

"So this is Salazar," Severus nodded with interest, coming closer to the statues, at the same time, the hole behind him quickly recovered thanks to the non-verbal Reparo thrown by him.

"Sorry …"Nagini at this moment apologised for her earlier outburst.

"Don't worry, but try to learn to control your emotions."

"I'll try," Nagini hissed with a tired sigh, also drawing attention to the statues.

"Is something dangerous hidden here as well…?"

"It's unlikely, of course, but being careful at such moments is never superfluous," the Wizard agreed with her, covering his hand with flame, and when he was about to grab the handle, it suddenly came to life and hissed at him, but Severus was not worried, and he nevertheless took it, which made it hiss even more furiously and in the end again became an ordinary handle. 

"Too predictable." Finally, after opening the door, the Wizard saw a small room, somewhat similar to Dumbledore's office, but in green tones. To the right and left were huge bookcases, and in the centre on the floor was a red carpet leading to a table on which lay some books, sheets, pens and ink and a figurine of a snake, and behind it on the wall hung a portrait of the same old man, whose statue the Archmage saw at the entrance.

"Interesting," First of all, Severus went through the books and was surprised to note several rather intriguing titles for himself, especially his attention was drawn to the book by Herpo  the foul, one of the most powerful dark Wizards of this world, and the books title was rather catchy: "How to become Immortal?"

"Even in my old world, there were no Immortals. Yes, no one forbids living forever, but the soul from this eternity will slowly collapse, so all those hundreds of Creators could not live up to my time, and here is such an intriguing name, I can't wait to get acquainted with this "creation".

"Severus, I saw his eyes twitch" Nagini whispered, pointing with a trembling tail towards the portrait. Indeed, from the very beginning, as they entered the room, she felt as if she were out of her element, as if someone was watching her, and a strange whisper did not give her rest.

"Never mind, this is a living portrait, but why he pretends to be dud, I don't understand myself," taking one of the books, Severus threw it into the portrait. 

"Hey! What are you doing in my office?! Has no one taught you manners?" the voice of a furious elderly man sounded.

"And there is nothing to try to talk to my companion. If you try to do it again, I'll burn you." Without even looking in his direction, the young man continued to inspect the shelves until he reached the book, which was sticking out a little."Hmm…"

"Hey! How dare you threaten the founder of your house!? Where is your respect for elders?! You're just a pathetic Half-blood…!" As soon as a fireball appeared in the Archmage's hand, the portrait instantly fell silent.

"I'm glad we understood each other." Severus smirked.

"He's definitely up to something…" Nagini worriedly looked at Severus and said.

"True that, for example, now he is trying to penetrate my mind with the help of Leglimentia, thinking that I don't notice it," shock was reflected on Salazar's face at these words. 

"But he's really good at it…" from such indifference Nagini lost the power of speech, but at the same time she also began to feel more calm, seeing that Severus did not put the old man in his eyes.

The old man with shock in his eyes, asked "Who are you? You cannot be a student."

"It was too much to ask for silence eh…" looking up from the books, he looked at the gloomy Salazar. "I will have to disappoint you, I am a simple, but very talented student." 

"A person capable of killing my pet and getting here cannot be a mere student." 

"Well, it's true, but there's nothing you can do about it," again shifting his gaze to the shelves, Severus directed his palm at the shelf and in an instant moved all the books into the wallet, the second in a row, because the first one was clogged with the body of the Basilisk.

From such disrespect to his person, the old man was almost out of breath with anger. After all, it was HIS office, and some Half-blood dared to rob HIM and that also right in front of HIS eyes, even though he was only a particle of the real Salazar's personality. "Give them back at once! This is my collection and a pathetic Half-blood like you can't touch it with his finger!" But instead of returning them back, Severus smiled even wider and went to the second cabinet, and cleaned everything from it, but, like last time, there were also three more books that were part of some kind of mechanism.

The Archmage did not stop there and, to the furious indignation of the Founder of Hogwarts, continued to clean the office, simply throwing everything into the wallet. Nagini just closed her eyes and hid under his sweater, and somewhere deep down she even felt sorry for the portrait.

And then, after ten minutes, the office became "crystal clean", with the exception of two cabinets: all decorations, books, letters, goblets, jewellery, artefacts and the rest were confiscated by the Archmage.

"Thief! You damn thief! Vandal! How dare you rob my office?! How can you be so disrespectful to the dead?!"

"Do not worry, I'll sell them to Muggle-born wizards for half the price later." Severus smirked and replied.

"No! Just not mudbloods! Why are you doing this to me, what have I done to you?!" the old wizard almost wept. "Well… you tried to drown me in acid, isn't that enough?" Stepping closer to the portrait, Severus looked thoughtfully at the frame. 

"It's made of gold, isn't it?" From this question, Salazar was lost for a moment, but when he realised what Severus was going to do, a stingy tear rolled down his cheek. "Green, red, green, blue, green… yellow…" 

"I'm glad you understood," moving away from the picture with a smile, Severus went to the cabinets and began to push the books back in the same order. 

"It seems fishy." Nagini hissed while looking at Salazar.

"Don't worry, it's not a trap. By this he just wants to divert my attention from what is behind him, right?" looking at Salazar, pale as a dead man, he finished with the books, and at the same moment a ladder began to descend from the ceiling. "H-how?" 

"You just don't know how to use illusion magic, that's all."

As soon as Salazar saw Severus's predatory gaze on himself, he shuddered. "You wouldn't dare…" "Really?"

"How can you rob the founder of your House…? Don't you have a sense of shame? Be at least a little prudent …"

"If you are worried about your lineage, then it has completely died out - you have no one to transfer your knowledge and wealth to, so rest in peace."

"Rest in peace after learning that my entire family is extinct? Do you think I didn't know about it?" Looking at Severus with an icy gaze, he hissed. "But I won't give anything to a pathetic Mudblood like you!" In the next instant, the door slammed shut and the office trembled. "You will die here!"

"I told you… " Nagini hissed, leaning out from under the sweater, with some fatigue in her voice, " …but at least… forget it, I didn't say anything, I'm tired of being surprised today. When you finish, wake me up, please," and she just darted back inside the sweater…