Chapter 19

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After saying goodbye to the Macmillan family, Snape wandered around Diagon Alley for a while and, after purchasing some more potion ingredients, returned home.

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Two days later.

Slowly opening his eyes from the pleasant smell that hovered in the air, the Archmage thoughtfully looked at the tray lying on the table, with a cup of coffee and some pastries.

"These elves are strange creatures, although it's not for me to talk about them…" Pulling a cup to himself and taking a sip, Snape got up from the bed. 

"Hmm… it seems to me, or have I forgotten something…?" Taking another sip, he shrugged, pushing the thought out of his mind. "If I can't remember, it means it's not that important."

After breakfast, he went down to the first floor and out of the corner of his eye "hooked" the basement, and at the same moment he was lit up. 

"Exactly! "

Hitting his fist on his palm, Snape quickly opened the door and went downstairs to see Tobias's body lying in a pool of dried blood.

"Well, if I stayed for a couple of hours, he would've definitely died ," quickly taking out the potion from the bag, Snape simply began to pour it into Tobias' throat and help him absorb it with the help of magic.

At the same moment, the wounds on the man's forehead began to heal, the fingers, twisted into an unnatural position and crushed by a hammer, also recovered, and the previously unhealthy pallor disappeared.

"I didn't think that a simple general-recovery potion would work so well, although it's most likely due to the fact that he is a simple person, it's worth looking for a guinea pig among magicians later…" Nodding to his thoughts, he looked at Tobias's face, whose eyes trembled, but never opened, although he had already come to his senses.

Without holding back, Snape gave a crisp slap in the face, from which the man's body crashed into the wall with a loud thud. "Woke up, or should I repeat?" 

"W-wake up!" jumping up convulsively, the Muggle exclaimed with horror in his eyes, trembling, as if seeing a real demon.

"Don't be afraid, today I'm not going to torture or kill you, I have work for you. If you complete it, I will release you immediately."

 Hearing Snape's words, the man beamed and nodded like a dummy."Anything! I will do anything."

"That's great, I'll give you two days to sell this house at an average price. If you try to deceive, I will torture and kill you, and what you experienced earlier will seem like a cakewalk for you, understand?"

 "Where am I going to live…?" 

"And why should I be concerned about that?" narrowing his gaze dangerously drawled the magician, raising his hand and pointing his finger at the pale Tobias.

"If I hear one more word from you, I'll kill you, go to work ... and I don't recommend contacting the police or other similar bodies: they won't help, because I'll get you anyway. Do not think that since you could mock a weakened sorceress, then such games will work with me. Go, your time is up, and take note: the sooner you sell this house, the sooner I'll be gone." And without saying anything else, the Archmage left the cellar, continuing to work on potions... 

***

The very next day, while processing a recipe from his world, Tobias walked into the living room, in whose hands was a rather thick package. "I-I s-sold the house."

"Well done, leave the money on the table and you can go," without even looking at him, the magician languidly dismissed, starting a new attempt to create a potion.

Tobias placed the package on the table, the man, afraid that Snape might just change his mind, left the room and, moving to a quick step, headed towards the front door.

'Live while you can, damn monster, I'll take revenge on you, do you think I don't know who to turn to to pacify you?! Bitch, you'll still ask for forgiveness, wallowing at my feet!' Tobias dreamed in his mind with a crazy smile, already imagining how he would take out his rage on Snape. 

Finally reaching the door, he flung it open and closing it carefully behind him, ran at full speed towards the most crowded street.

Yet, thanks to life with the "witch", the man learned many laws of the World of Magic, one of which was the prohibition of using magic in front of ordinary people who did not know about magic.

Therefore, he decided to secure himself even more if Snape still changes his mind and decides to kill him. And after ten minutes, finally being among the people, Tobias felt calmer.

So, taking out a small business card with a phone number, he walked over to the phone booth and smiled. "As soon as I report you, I'll take back everything…" Reaching out a trembling hand to the numbers, he smiled in anticipation. 

"You're done, damn… what…?" his finger froze, the man simply could not move, as if something had bound his body, and in a moment his hand hung like a whip and he fell to his knees, hitting his forehead on the telephone.

"What's happening…? Why can't I move…?" the man thought in horror.

"Is he…?" By itself, his head began to turn to the side, and he saw something that made his face lose all color, and horror danced in his eyes.

Eileen was sitting right on the bench ... The same Eileen from the portrait, from whom he apologized for the last few days, his wife, whom he himself had beaten to death while drunk ... 

She looked directly at him with her cold faded eyes without a single emotion on her face ... "It's impossible ... she ... I myself ... " the man's body was trembling, and his back was covered with cold sweat.

He simply could not believe his eyes, because some ten meters from him stood the one that he himself had killed with his own hands.

 "NO! This is the work of that monster! I killed this creature, it cannot be alive! CAN NOT! CAN NOT! CAN NOT! NOT…!" but, as soon as she got up and took the first step towards him, the man, as if "sobering up", huddled into the wall opposite from her.

"Stay away, witch! You are dead! Dead! DEAD! YOU ARE JUST AN ILLUSION SENT BY THAT BASTER!"  As soon as those words escaped his mouth, her steps quickened, the indifference disappeared from her face, and was replaced by hatred mixed with rage, at the sight of which he trembled.

Tobias was on the verge of losing consciousness, but he could not overcome this line in any way and fell into a faint, as if something was preventing him.

"D-don't d-come! Monster! I killed you! You are just an illusion! Illusion! You are not her! She is dead! Dead! Dead!!!" 

A lot of people gathered around the booth with the screaming man, not understanding what was happening to him at all.

They tried to open it and pull him out, but the lock got stuck. But seeing the horror on his face and then that he confessed to some kind of murder, while looking at an empty place, pointing his finger there, most thought that he was just crazy.

At the same time, Snape stood in the living room with a satisfied smile in front of the cauldron, having finally finished his potion. "Tobias... Tobias... you shouldn't have deceived me, but I wanted to let you go..." - but unable to restrain himself, the young man laughed. "Eh ... what a hypocrite I am, because I would have killed him anyway, but quickly, and now suffer, oh ... it even became interesting how quickly this phantom will move to the second stage, when it can really cause physical harm? It's still a good idea to use Curse of Devastation and Vengeful Phantom at the same time, it's just the perfect combination: the first gradually destroys the magic core and deprives control over the body, and the second affects mentally, destroying the mind, destroying all light thoughts and absorbing dark ones, becoming stronger and eventually killing my target, I didn't think that someday I would use this…" Snape thought with a smile, pouring the contents of the cauldron into two bottles.

"Hmm… still, the effect turned out to be weaker than I thought, it can only increase magical abilities by one and a half times, regarding the duration of the action… it's still worth looking for a test subject or… test subjects who would not be sorry to poison…" in the next moment, the magician's eyes lit up and a cold smile bloomed on his lips.

"I can't wait for the school year to start…"

***

The archmage did not linger in this house for a long time, during the evening he calmly collected all things that were at least somehow connected with magic, and also got rid of all traces of magic, and the very next day, in the morning, after breakfast, he was preparing to leave it. But he did not have time to do this, at the moment when Snape was about to go outside, someone began to "knock" very persistently on the door, as if intending to demolish it. 

~KNOCK~KNOCK~KNOCK.

"Open the door! We know you're in!" a rough male voice sounded, hearing which, the Archmage frowned, because he did not remember inviting someone to his place.

As soon as the young man opened the door, two "suicides" immediately burst into the house, because their act could not be explained in another way. 

They walked past Snape in a businesslike way, pushing him aside and began to inspect the house under the gaze of a slightly crazy magician. And yet, when Snape "came to his senses", he did not immediately burn them alive, thinking that these were the new owners of the house who bought it, but after listening to their conversations about the approximate cost and to whom they could "sell the house", he understood that was wrong. 

"~ Ahem! ~ Ahem! And who are you?" Snape decided to draw their attention anyway. 

"Are you, apparently, a relative of that bastard?"

"His son maybe?" a two-meter bald bighead in a white T-shirt and dark pants approached him. 

"Yes, why?" the burning look of the man wandering over his body, well, the magician really did not like it so much that he wanted to kill him right on the spot, but he still restrained himself, because this man was already dead for him: he would not leave this house. 

"Not bad, your dad owes us quite a large amount of money and went crazy, and someone needs to repay the debt …"

"The house will pull a maximum of a couple of thousand, but this is definitely not enough,"  Well, this one's going to die as well.

"That's how, kid, and you're lucky, you can help your daddy pay off the debt, work with us for a couple of years and you'll be free."

"Work?"

"I told you, you're lucky!" the unlucky man who was going to die soon said cheerfully, once again running his eyes over Snape's body and paternally patting him on the shoulder.

"Although your face isn't that good, but we have a lot of 'friends' who like gentle boys like you, you can be sure that you will pay off your father's debt pretty quickly."

"Is that so…" A cold smile appeared on the face of the Archmage, and lights danced in his eyes."Any last words…?"

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