Chapter 54
Slowly but surely the eve of All Saints' Day was approaching - Halloween - a strange holiday that was celebrated both in the Muggle world and in the wizarding world.
On this occasion, houses were decorated with various holiday attributes like pumpkins, on which eyes and a terrifying grin were cut out, and then a candle was placed inside, making it a kind of lamp, decorative skulls and bats, and people dressed up in costumes of various monsters, wizard, witches and went door to door asking for candy.
And, of course, such a holiday did not escape the walls of Hogwarts.
Although the general mood was not so festive, especially due to the events taking place outside the school, the director, like the teachers, did not bypass it, because this is a kind of professional holiday for the wizard, so they decided to hold it in order to dispel a little unpleasant vibe from the students.
The Great Hall was decorated in the best Halloween tradition: pumpkins lay and hung in every corner, and candles appeared here and there, while magically floating in the air.
House elves were actively helping with this preparation, while not showing themselves to anyone, and the ghosts were also a little excited about the upcoming event.
The ghost often could be found watching pumpkins somewhere in the castle and discussing something of their own.
Previously dark skies adorned with bright stars in the evenings and the sun from morning to afternoon, completely covering the ceiling of the large hall, it acquired dark clouds with thunderous flashes.
The teachers and the Headmaster tried their best to convey the festive mood to the children, to distract them a little from what is happening in Magical Britain ...
Severus himself at this time sat in the library behind books and continued to study everything he could about the founders, as well as plants and monsters without missing even fairy tales and legends.
In such fictions there is almost always a grain of truth, albeit insignificant.
The archmage did not forget about Nagini either, but in two months out of three unknown plants, he was able to find only one, and even then by chance.
It was when he read a book by a certain "Fredge Brew" about his travels, and after contacting him, Snape found out that the place he grew up this ingredient is deep in the Amazon jungle.
The man stumbled upon it when he was running away from the swamp monster, and the plant attracted his attention with its beauty and pleasant smell, which confirmed the words of the traveller, because the plant had the same properties as the one from Severus 's world, and the external description completely converged.
Of course, Severus suggested that he go again and pick up the plant, but the book writer refused, while recommending that Severus himself should not go there, because the place was very dangerous, and finding one plant in the vast jungle is an extremely non-trivial task.
Severus himself, of course, was not going to leave school so immediately and go to the other side of the world for this ingredient, but he nevertheless noticed that place for himself, and if there is no other, then he will most likely have to go there.
In addition, while wooling the library, he found mention of one Wizardand the greatest alchemist, living in France, who is currently six hundred and forty-six years old.
Although Snape had previously heard this name, he had never been interested in it, but Severus nevertheless decided to study his biography and learned about such a strange, but rather interesting subject as a philosopher's stone that can give a person eternal life.
Although this did not bother him much, he was more interested in the knowledge accumulated during this time, therefore, after talking with Nagini, they decided to "postpone" her transformation a bit until he graduated from Hogwarts, and after that they would go to France together and ask the old man about the plants needed for the potion.
In addition to the potion, Severus also paid attention to the door found on the eighth floor.
The study of which he did not stop and he even almost guessed the method of its opening.
Only a small piece of runes remained, one rune of which consisted of hundreds of others. And due to the inconvenient location of it being near the director's office, he could not stay there for a long time, so the decryption took quite a long time, until the twenty-ninth of October.
But still, from what the Archmage could make out, he finally more or less understood exactly how the door opens.
He just needs to think of something he really needs and walk in front of the door, then it will open, but Severus has already tried this, but it was unsuccessful, so he assumed that there was something else that had to be done to open it. Maybe some word or gesture.
Tonight, he was going to visit the old door again and decipher the last piece of runes....
Toward evening, leaving the library, the young man headed towards the dungeon to Professor Slughorn for additional Potions lessons. Nevertheless, Severus himself already began to like this, because there you can really learn something new for yourself, the same was with the runes lessons, which he gladly visited.
As for the transfiguration, he almost did not listen to the elderly teacher: everything she told was already known to the Archmage. And if he wanted to know something new, he could teach it himself, because these two months of Transfiguration could easily fit into two lessons.
McGonagall did not make masters out of students, but only taught the basics, while slightly delving into her subject.
The witch understood that only a few among children really want to learn, so she only tried to teach them the things which will come in exams and are of daily use.
He hardly visited the rest of the subjects, with the exception of the runes, herbology and spells. He studied spells in order to better know what the wizards of this world are capable of; herbology mainly for comparing plants from his own world to this one; and runes in order to understand how the local artefacts and spells, built precisely on their basis, work.
And the most interesting thing was that the elderly rune teacher did not facilitate the material, but presented it in full, so Severus almost did not have to delve into this subject himself and spend his time looking for worthy literature in the library.
Descending into the dungeon, Snape heard a familiar voice that snapped him out of his thoughts, and as he stopped, he looked towards the source, which was Regulus, looking a little nervous, slightly surprising Severus .
"I knew that I will meet you here." Regulus said.
"Hm? What's happened? We agreed that we would chat over the weekend, and now I have classes with Professor Slughorn, or do you have something urgent?" Severus questioned.
"This is ... my family is organising a banquet in honour of the upcoming holiday …" the slightly nervous Regulus said.
"I understand what you mean," holding out his palm, Severus stopped the Regulus' speech, finally going down the stairs.
"But it won't work: if your grandmother sees me there, then she will definitely have a heart attack," Severus winked at Regulus with a smile, passing by and patting his shoulder. "But thanks for the invitation."
"Stop!" Regulus suddenly shouted as he saw Severus going away.
"Yes, what is it?" Severus looked at him puzzled.
"It will be a masquerade ball, and no one will recognize you if you wear the right costume!"
Thoughtfully stroking his chin, Severus nevertheless shook his head after a few seconds.
"Sorry, but I can't: I have too much to do…" the Archmage drawled with regret, noticing the young man's sad expression. "And I know that even if they recognize me, you will save me, but I don't want you to trouble you: you have been seeking the recognition of your family for too long."
"After these two months, you opened my eyes to many things, although you were rather rude in places, but I realised that in order to become a worthy head of the family, I must first think with my own head, and I am sure that if I establish good relations with you, then this would be the right decision." Regulus said while shaking his head.
"And you are quite straightforward… but I am glad that my lessons were not in vain. Now it remains to knock out stupid prejudices about the purity of blood from your head, and you will become a normal wizard, and don't look at me like that, you yourself must understand that there are no differences between simple Muggle-born wizards, half-bloods and pure-bloods. An example is in front of you, and I can also name an even huge number of Muggle-born magicians, which are much stronger than purebloods, but okay, I won't bother you with my moralising, "seeing Black's sour face, he languidly waved, heading towards the Slughorn's office.
"I'll come, thanks for the invitation," Severus waved the white envelope, surprising the young man, who quickly checked the inside pocket of his jacket, and then smiled wryly. "Snape, are you sure you're not a thief?"
"Who knows…"
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Classes with Slughorn went on as usual, and after that he almost immediately went to the eighth floor and continued to decipher the runes until one in the morning ... And, finally, having finished, the young man could not help smiling wryly. Because everything turned out to be so simple …
"What is there?" Nagini asked in bewilderment, seeing the disappointed look of the Archmage.
"You'll see for yourself," Severus placed the notebook into his wallet and looked up at the empty wall.
"I wish I could see all the legilimency literature I could…" And with those thoughts, Snape walked past the wall, then again, and the third time he did so, 2 doors appeared on the wall.
"For them to appear, you need to think about what you really need, and go past the wall three times ... everything was so simple, and I was thinking that there's going to be strange mechanism here…"
"Indeed. A strange method to hide this room, anyone could randomly make it appear, but what is in it?" Nagini asked him with interest.
"I think it's logical that it's exactly what I thought at the moment when I passed it three times, but still I need to make sure of this. Ladies first," the snake looked at Severus , and then at its tail and back at him.
"I'll bite you now."
"I'm joking, but when you become a woman again, I won't mind it ..." the young man did not pay attention to the exposed fangs and an unkind look, but, grabbing the handle, opened the right door.
He saw shelves ... a huge number of endless wooden shelves, and they were all filled with books on only one topic - "legilimency". And on that day, the Archmage realised: he had found his new abode, and Nagini knew that she could no longer bring him back - Severus was lost to her for the coming years, maybe even decades…