Chapter 41

[Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. Night time.]

Sitting on the bed, the Archmage thoughtfully flipped through a grey book, and an unfolded map lay on the table, while his gaze constantly ran first to the map, then to the book.

"Three places... I can only single out three places where Gryffindor's legacy can be left, but... one place is more delusional than the other." With a tired sigh, he looked up at the "portrait" of Salazar, from which seven darts protruded, while it hung directly above seething green slurry, with either panic or rage, incinerating Severus with his gaze.

"Don't look at me like that, I actually wanted to invite a couple of ugly strippers for you, who would put on a real show right in front of you with a grand sequel, and for dessert I would give all your belongings into the hands of muggle-born wizards, and after that we would play a game of spit in the face of the founder of Hogwarts, but with real Muggles."

"Say Sev…..isn't that too cruel?" Nagini asked tiredly, looking at the living portrait of one of the most powerful wizards in history with pity. 

"It was necessary, otherwise he will keep playing dumb and won't answer us."

"I said everything I knew about Godric, so get me out of here!" the old man exclaimed furiously, tightly clenching his trembling fists.

"I remember, but where do you think he could have left his sword?" Rising from the table, Severus walked over to the portrait and slowly began to take out his darts.

"But how do I know where that red-haired traitor could hide his toothpick?! After all, I named the places where he spent most of his time, and the things that he used most often. What else do you need from me?!"

[A/N: Toothpick here is Gryffindor's sword.]

"Okay, stop yelling already," rolling it up again, Severus finally added with a smile of the devil tempter. "Remember everything you know about Helga and Rowena, and then I promise that I will resurrect you…"

"Can you…?!" but the young man interrupted him and threw him into the purse after rolling the portrait.

"Are you really going to resurrect him?" Nagini looked at him with surprise, while experiencing a slight panic, because she really did not like the old man from the portrait. 

"Certainly. I need pawns that will protect our peace and solve all problems," stroking her head with a smile, he slightly opened the barrier in her mind, and she immediately felt the calm spreading from the Archmage.

"Pawn...? Are you going to make that horrible old man your subordinate...? Severus, he's dangerous!"

"Don't worry, I have my own methods, but for now, we need to think about where exactly the sword could be hidden…"

"Severus, please think about it, he is a very dangerous person!.....I…"

"Calm down already…" but, seeing her pitying look, he sighed wearily and nodded. "Okay, I'll think about it some more, better help me decide where we go first: the Gryffindor common room, the Headmaster's office, or should we explore the lion statues?" After his words, she still calmed down a little, but Severus still felt a bit of fear emanating from her.

"Headmaster's office… how do we even get there? Although... you'll still come up with something, so let's start with the statues."

"We think alike," he winked at her with a smile, rising from his chair. "Time to get to work, Peter."

"Yes, master."

Nagini looked at him in surprise. "Are we going now?"

Throwing on a dark robe, he nodded, holding out his hand to her. "Night is the best time, because if we do it during the day, we will look suspicious, and with the help of our map we can easily avoid Filch and other teachers," as soon as Nagini, tired of all these adventures, got under her robe, he left the room ... 

Once in the corridor, the young man immediately headed towards the stairs, and already on the first floor, bypassing the slightly tired Minerva, heading to her office, he climbed to the second floor, where the first statue was already waiting for him around a small pedestal.

Although it was made of marble and had a white colour, despite this, almost anyone would have the feeling that it was alive and could just jump off the pedestal at any moment 

"It is so realistic." Severus himself was a little surprised that he had not paid attention to it before, although at that time he simply had no time for it. 

In the statue itself, after a few minutes of inspection, he did not find anything special. 

The statue is like a statue, but when he looked down at the pedestal itself and unfolded it, he saw the inscriptions from the runes, most of which the Archmage was still able to understand, even having a rather superficial knowledge of the ancient runes, simply by learning them and their meaning. "...only a true Gryffindor can solve this riddle." If you are not, leave the statue immediately and leave…" Stroking his chin with a smile, he looked up, from where a grinning creature was looking at him, from whose mouth a quiet, but rapidly gaining momentum growl was heard.

'A living statue, apparently waking up only when the words on the pedestal are voiced,' the archmage did not feel even a bit of fear towards the threatening mouth of the marble lion, but only a slight interest. 

"~~Rrrrr…"

Having slightly increased his perception, Severus looked down at the pedestal and simply erased one of the runes from the lowest row, and the statue froze with its mouth ajar.

"Leaving the deactivation rune right next to the statue itself… did he really hope that no one would look for the switch right next to it?"

"I think it was a good idea, you're just the exception to the rule. If there was a simple student in your place, he would simply run away with his tail between his legs. And you can't argue with that okay!".

Looking up at the lion again, he saw a gleam in its mouth reflected from a firefly hovering nearby. 

"How convenient," the Archmage put his hand on the statue's head, and the corners of his lips lifted up, and as soon as the barrier surrounded them, the lion's head exploded, and a rain of fragments began to land on the ground, and a silver badge fell at his feet with a faint ringing , on which after this explosion there was not even a scratch left.

Picking it up, on one side he saw a lion with its mouth ajar against a red background, and on the other side, an incomprehensible "something", but it was immediately clear that the drawing was not finished, and this meant only one thing, that other lions should have the rest. 

"Okay, our next goal is the library…" Having restored the lion with the help of Reparo, the Archmage immediately headed towards the fourth floor, where the second lion statue was supposed to be in the library. 

And after a few minutes, having opened several levels of protection and turned off about forty signal charms, while experiencing deep shock at Madam Pince's skills and wondering if he should ask this woman to teach him, he finally went into the library, and, as in the best Muggle spy movies, Severus slowly made his way towards the statue standing at the other end of the room, while not lowering his guard one bit. 

Nagini, who still did not see all the spells installed in the library, was very embarrassed for him, because he behaved too strangely, especially some movements, as if he stepped over something, jumped, and crawled at times. 

And finally, when he reached the statue, he did not read those words, but simply blew its head off. 

"So I thought right." With a smile, raising another badge from the ground, he looked in bewilderment under his mantle, where a snake poked her tail in his side, while gushing with embarrassment. "What happened to you?"

"Nothing! I didn't see anything, keep doing what you were doing." Nagini replied with her head lowered.

"Hm? Well, okay, but if anything, say it." Looking up at the icon illuminated by the firefly, Severus looked at the drawing and shook his head in annoyance. 

"They aren't connected at all… most likely, the real pattern will appear when I collect all the badges." Taking a deep breath, he looked towards the exit and immediately cheered up, because the obstacle course had already changed to another one, and looking up at his watch, he saw how the big hand crossed the twelve mark, and the small one crossed the one. 

"That's what it means to love your books, you can even come here in the evenings and train in this place," baring his teeth, the young man took one of the books from the shelf and, restoring the lion's head, put it right on the pedestal. 

"Let's hope it strengthens the defences…" The next place where the third statue was, was a corridor to the Astronomy Tower, one of the tallest towers in the castle. 

The Archmage had to spend a considerable thirty minutes to get to it, only for the reason that two ghosts stood right in his way and chatted about something enthusiastically, and when they left, Norris, Filch's cat, appeared in the same place, and after two minutes, Filch himself appeared there.

Therefore, Severus had to wait quite a long time until everyone left, and only then he was finally able to get to the statue standing not far from the stairs, and, quickly taking another badge, Severus began to descend back ... 

Moving along the gloomy corridors of Hogwarts, the Archmage heard voices coming from one of the abandoned offices. "Peter?" 

"Sir, the office of Joan Smith and Anthony Benson, they have been there for a long time."

 Nodding thoughtfully, he approached the door and heard a rather loud groan, which immediately made it clear what kind of "lesson" was taking place there, and to make sure that nothing illegal was happening, Severus slightly opened the door and, seeing a girl jumping up and down he quietly closed it. 

"Eh ... youth …" nodding with a paternal smile, Severus cast a spell of silence on the door so that no one would interfere with the couple. 

Nagini, at this moment, was gushing with embarrassment, a level higher than the past, while still continuing to poke her tail into his stomach.

She at this moment decided to remain silent, because she also clearly heard those sounds and for a moment even saw the "hot battle". 

Severus nevertheless decided to close the connection for the duration of the "operation" so that her emotions would not disturb his concentration. 

"Hmm... Peter."

"Yes, sir?"

"I have a question: did you find these statues, right?"

"Yes".

"And do you know where each one is?"

"Yes".

And in the next moment, Severus' hand met his face. "Here I am a moron ... okay, and how many did you find?" With a weary sigh, he mentally asked Peter.

"Ten in total: five on the castle grounds and five around Hogwarts."

"And I only remembered about six ... okay, lead to two more, there's nothing to be done about it ..."

"Yes, Master, one of the statues is near the Herbology room, and the other is at the exit leading to the Quidditch training ground…"