Chapter 94

A few minutes later, five wizards in green suits climbed out into the open area, led by a man in glasses, in his hand was a jar with the same worm that Severus had recently pulled out of the body of a dark wizard. 

"He must be around here somewhere, be careful, this coward loves to attack stealthily, watch the shadows," he ordered frowningly examining the surroundings, looking up at a small hill, and then he looked at the worm, which became much more violently beating against the wall jars, which indicated that the second worm was very close.

The others nodded with serious expressions, gripping their wands tighter. 

But they were not very afraid of the shadow wizard, because all the trump cards were in their hands. 

When the group finally climbed the hill, they immediately noticed a masked man sitting calmly on a stone and tossing a very familiar "thing" in his hand. 

The man with glasses warily raised his hand to stop them, because this situation looked too strange, and he immediately thought it was a trap. 

"Where is Jose? You'd better cooperate with us, otherwise you'll come through as an accomplice." He said, trying to force some information out of Severus.

"Interesting perspective, but I have one question for you." Pinching the worm between his fingers, Snape looked into the eyes of the bespectacled man. 

"Where did you get this animal?" he asked coldly, waving his palm, and in the next moment a barrier surrounded them, and then he snapped his fingers - flames ignited around the surprised wizards, surrounding them, as well as the Prince himself. "And you'd better answer honestly, or I'll have to rumwizard through your heads myself." 

The appearance of such a "show" sent goosebumps down the backs of the "guests", because all this was done without words and wands, which indicated a high level of mastery of the enemy's magic. 

Although their leader was not afraid, he still gripped his wand tighter. "There are a few more of his accomplices hiding somewhere, watch the surroundings, and I'll take care of him." The worm in the jar was already useless, so he threw it aside and took out a black Muggle pistol from his inside pocket, pointing it at the indifferent Snape. "I repeat, where is he?" 

"Hm?" Seeing such a thing in the wizard's hand, Severus inside was a little surprised. "You decided to scare me with this toy?" 

Looking contemptuously in his direction, the man pulled the trigger, aiming at his leg, and there was a deafening sound of a shot, and a moment later a loud thud. 

"You could have at least enchanted it a little," said Severus indifferently, he was completely unharmed because was protected by the barrier, and the bullet that fell at his feet, which became an "accordion", flew up and quickly regained its original appearance. 

In the next moment, several more shots were fired, only this time there was no collision, the bullets simply hung in front of the Prince's face. The bespectacled man frowned, but he did not panic and even chuckled. "Where is Jose?" 

"So calm, do you really think that I didn't notice the surprise in three bullets out of nine?" Snape looked at him with a mocking smile, which made his opponent's face scrunched up, and he sharply waved his wand. But the young man was much faster, creating a small barrier around them, and in a moment the bullets exploded, but there was no sound. All that could be seen was wild flames through the transparent walls, which disappeared after a few seconds. "Today, to be honest, I'm tired of the games, I'll give you one last chance…"

"Explode!" the leader exclaimed furiously, and blue light erupted from his wand, and a wave of destructive power crashed into Severus, completely engulfing his figure, only to the shock of the others, as soon as the light dissipated, he was still standing in the same place, and only a small moat appeared around him, and his expression darkened. 

Waving his palm, Severus dispersed the dust and smoke without any problems, and then pointed his finger in their direction, and the next moment their wands burst into a crimson flame.

"Ahh?! What the hell is this?!" yelled one of them, throwing away the burning tool, and so did the others. 

The leader of the group hurried to fire a few more shots from the pistol, but dark cords burst out of their shadows, one of which knocked out the weapon, and the rest entangled the unfortunate wizards. 

And after that, finally, a gloomy dark wizard got out of the stone's shadow, emitting an oppressive thirst for blood, because at the sight of the worm in the jar, he seemed to feel that pain again. 

"Good job," Snape patted the ex-thug on the shoulder as he walked past him, and after a few yards he stopped in front of a scowling man with a gun beside him. "As I thought, they were blocking Legilimency." Taking off his glasses, Severus grabbed his chin, and meeting his gaze, the leader of the group was about to close his eyes, but he didn't have time… It was not difficult for Severus to break through the defence of the attacker's mind, and Within seconds, he found what he was looking for. 

Earlier the Slytherin had already asked a leading question, and therefore the information about the worms was already almost on the surface.

Finally releasing him, the young man turned his gaze to the other wizards,  their faces contorted in horror at the sight of all that had happened to their leader. 

"P-please… we won't say anything…" 

"Y-yes!" 

"We will be silent! We don't even know what you look like!"

Ignoring them, he leaned to the right, and, picking up a jar with a worm in it, the young man threw a second worm. into it. 

He was little interested in the joy of two animals meeting each other, because at the moment he was thinking about something completely different. 

"Forbidden part of the magical jungle..." Looking at the two intertwining worms thoughtfully, a tired sigh escaped his lips. "Hellworms appear only near the burial places of those creatures, but if they had appeared in this world, it would not have survived a day. Even with my strength, I doubt that I could defeat even one of them, but then where could they come from here?"

"…SEVERUS! " from the" cry "in the head, the young man almost jumped out of the blue. 

Finally lowering his gaze, he smiled awkwardly, looking at Nagini's muzzle, feeling anger and anxiety through the connection. "Sorry, I've been thinking about something."

"What happened, why are you looking at them like that? Why did you get so weird from the moment you saw them?"

"I remembered something bad and I wished it didn't exist, and it turned out to be just a coincidence…" He looked into her eyes with a forced smile, running his finger along the smooth scales.

"I am ready to listen to you, if, of course, you can tell me about it."

"Hmm… There is nothing secret about it. When we return home, I will tell you, because anyway we will have to go there and check it, or maybe I'll leave you and then go check ... "- but the next moment, she narrowed her eyes and opened her mouth, exposing her fangs. "I'm joking, calm down, my Lamia…" 

At that moment, a slightly nervous Jose approached him, cautiously looking at the worms in the young man's hand. "I erased their memory."

"Okay, you can keep everything that you found in that cave for yourself, I'm not interested in gold and the like, but I need books and herbs, and I need to see the artefacts."

. "I ... I want to thank you for saving my life," the man said sincerely, looking into the eyes of the wizard in order to prove his honesty. "I will give you everything…"

"No need for all that and I'm not interested in gold, I have more than half a billion galleons in my bank account, and four hundred thousand mouros more won't do much for me," going up to the bodies, Jose took out their wallets and bags, and then threw them into his artefact with an invisible extension. 

'Something doesn't look right…' Jose thought for a second but he decided to keep his thoughts to himself. He looked towards Severus and asked "What will you do next?"

"I need to visit the Magical Jungle, and after that we will return to England." 

"Aren't you afraid that I'll run away?" 

"No, of course not, look at your right hand," Snape looked at him with a smile. 

Jose immediately remembered the moment when the "young man" held his hand, and that strange feeling in the forearm area. 

Pulling up his sleeve, he stared in surprise at the strange sign on the outside of the arm in the form of a flame, which was not felt at all, as if it were not there. "What is this…?"

"Consider it a guarantee that you will not run away and betray me," the Prince calmly answered him, removing the mask that had been hiding the upper part of his face all this time. "Its functionality is simple: if you try to betray, you will simply burn alive, and when I consider that I can trust you, I will remove it."

"Understood…" the man muttered a little sadly. "So, I won't be able to escape…" 

"You won't be able to," the wizard nodded in agreement, which made the former bandit flinch. "So keep the gold." 

"But how long shall I be your servant, lord?" Having measured the nervous man with a contemptuous look, Severus put his hand on his shoulder, and in the next moment they disappeared … 

~~~~~~~ 

[Muggle World, Sao Pualo.]

At the hotel room 302, the writer who had previously planned to take Severus to the magical part of the Amazon jungle simply couldn't find a place. 

After all, at that moment, back in the "Dark Street", when he reached out to pick up a gold coin, he saw how an inscription appeared on the ground: "When you leave this place, check your pockets", and after a few seconds the inscription simply disappeared, and, meeting eyes with "young man", Fred saw a nod from him, which confirmed that it was Snape who left the message. 

And as soon as he got back to the Muggle side of the market, Fred took out a letter telling him to go to the Blue Star Sao Paulo Hotel and get a double room and then wait for him there. 

And he had no choice but to follow the instructions in the letter, still a little worried about the young man, because he blamed himself for what had happened. 

If he had warned Snape in advance, perhaps this situation would not have happened. And, having already made the hundredth circles around the room, the man heard the doorbell ring, and, quickly going up to it, he looked through the peephole and immediately opened it, feeling real relief, as if a heavy load had fallen from his shoulders. 

"Mr. Snape, I'm very glad you're alright!" Seeing the unharmed "young man", the man could not contain his joy. 

"Uh-huh, by the way, this is my helper," Severus nodded calmly and pointed to Jose standing next to him, whose face was hidden under a hood. 

"Ah! Nice to meet you!" 

The shadow wizard silently looked at him, and then looked down at the outstretched hand and shook it. 

"He's very taciturn, don't mind, let's talk about the jungle stuff instead. Tell me everything you know." sitting at the table, Snape stared expectantly at Fred, frozen on the door, who nodded sluggishly a few seconds later and closed the door. 

He didn't ask anything about what had happened to him, since "Severus" himself wasn't going to bring it up. The man still understood when to speak, and when it is better to be silent. "Good…" Although he didn't know why his employer was in such a hurry,  Fred saw that he was going to go there anyway, so, sitting in front of him, he took out a large map and about a dozen books, which he put on a nearby chair. 

"During my long life, I have almost completely explored the outer part of the magical jungle, a small part of the inner one, and only a couple of kilometres from the forbidden one, since it was too dangerous in the latter, but it was there that I saw the flower you were looking for," he pointed to a small area , circled in black in the centre of the map. "But I tell you right away: be very careful. In addition to the huge number of strong monsters already in the outskirts, there are also a lot of carnivorous plants," 

Quickly taking one of the books, Fred handed it to Severus. "These are all the monsters that I happened to see there, but here are only the most common types." 

Taking another one from the pile, he also placed it on the table. "This is about carnivorous plants, but, in addition to them, you should also beware of insects, especially in the inner part, I generally keep quiet about the forbidden …"

At this time, Jose standing near the bed turned pale right before his eyes. After all, even though he had heard about the "Magic Jungle", he never even thought of going there, and now, hearing about that place and learning that the "youngster" was going to visit them and even the most dangerous part, he felt his legs begin to give way , because he, as a servant, will have to follow him. 

The shadow wizard's eyes were filled with despair, because he did not want to die so young. Feeling the emotions of the former bandit through the connection, Severus contemptuously looked in his direction, because he had never seen such a cowardly "Master" before. And, ignoring the dark wizard, he temporarily blocked their connection in order to concentrate on the words of the writer, and he was going to simply copy the books into the Grimoire. And so they sat there until almost three in the morning …

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