Chapter 27

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After the end of the festive dinner, all the upperclassmen left the Great Hall almost immediately in order to quickly return to their rooms and begin preparations for tomorrow's class.

The head boys and Prefect stayed to see the new students to the faculties, as well as to conduct a short tour of the castle, because getting lost in it, especially without knowing its structure, is a matter of minutes.

Severus also left the hall, but did not immediately return to his room, but went to the opposite one, where Professor Slughorn's office was located. And thanks to the map of marauders, he could easily find out where his head of the house was, he just had to think about some person located on the territory of Hogwarts, and a rat locator named Peter Pettigrew would sound in his head, indicating the exact location of this or that person, and Severus didn't even have to open the map:

<<Sir, Professor Slughorn is thirty meters away from you and is currently descending into the dungeon…>>

The archmage only nodded, ceasing to stroke the top of Nagini's head."Hide."

And at the same moment, as she darted under her shirt, Slughorn himself appeared at the end of the corridor, immediately noticing Severus. "Mr. Snape, glad to see you again…" but, coming closer, the man immediately noticed the changes in the young man's body, which made him freeze for a few seconds, but nevertheless he quickly pulled himself together and smiled radiantly again. 

"As I understand it, you decided to do the development of the body? I approve, I approve, but you should not forget about magic either."

 "I'm also glad to see you after these three months, but this is the result of a fortunate side effect from one of the potions."

"A side effect, have you checked into Mungo?"

"Of course, I'm fine."

"Glad to hear it," examining the body of the Archmage, Slughorn nodded thoughtfully, taking out his wand. "Allow me?"

"Of course" Slughorn touched Severus' chest with a wand, and from the tip, pressed against the solar plexus, a ray of light escaped, penetrating inside.

"That's amazing... Mr. Snape, what kind of potion were you working on?" Slughorn looked at the young man with shock on his face.

"A strengthening potion, but at that moment the neighbors distracted me, and I apparently added some extra ingredient, or didn't …"

"Okay, don't try to fool me, If you don't want to talk, don't, let it better remain a secret," the man sighed tiredly and waved away when he saw Severus's embarrassed face. "The main thing is that you are fine, and the rest is not important."

"Thank you."

"Better tell me why you decided to look for me so late?" Slughorn asked.

"I have a few questions about certain ingredients that I just couldn't find any mention of anywhere, and by the way, I was able to do it," the mage proudly held out his chin, and the professor himself looked at him puzzled. "What exactly?"

"The potion we talked about last time, which included the Mushroom of Delusion."

"Did you get rid of the poison?!" Slughorn exclaimed in disbelief, already switching to "you", and then, remembering that they were still in the corridor, he was a little embarrassed. "Come, let's talk inside."

"Of course…"

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Thirty Minutes Later.

The man listened with surprise to the explanations of his student, deep down feeling more and more proud that he had a chance to teach such a genius. "… and after all the research, I decided to use a method that was abandoned several hundred years ago, using white silkworm grass, mixing them with the Mushroom and neutralizing the poison."

"Hmm, I tried a similar method, but…"

"The poison remains, but you missed something." Smiling enigmatically, Severus tapped the pocket that contained the wallet and took out a small jar of silver grass. "I added it at the very beginning, and the main property of the silver asmi is to improve the effect of the potion, that is…"

"When added to the poison, it will strengthen it, but there is also white silkworm grass ... THIS IS HOW IT IS! And how did I not think of this before, because everything lay on the very surface! Stop, but if you add this herb, then... no side effects and after the potion has lost its power... Mr. Snape, you are a genius! Tomorrow we're going to the Ministry of Magic and you'll patent it!" Standing up from his chair, Slughorn happily exclaimed, already really embarrassing Severus, yet Severus did not expect that Slughorn would be so sincerely happy for him.

"You have classes tomorrow …"

"To hell with them!" This behavior of Slughorn brought a smile to the Archmage's face. "Let's at least wait till the weekend…"

"Hmm… well, but I'm still amazed: I didn't think that everything turned out to be so simple…"

"Not so easy, I had to mess up a huge amount of ingredients to create it."

"This is not surprising, I would be shocked if you succeeded on the first try," the man drawled with a laugh, patting the Archmage on the shoulder. 

'But I did it the first time …' nevertheless Severus decided to keep these words to himself.

"So, you were talking about some ingredients, let me have a look." 

Quickly pulling out a small list, Severus handed it over to Slughorn. "I didn't find a single mention of these herbs in books, only names and some properties …" 

Slughorn himself almost completely immersed himself in the text on the sheet, and with every second he frowned more and more, until after a few minutes he lowered it and looked straight into his eyes Snape.

"Tell me, what kind of potion are you going to create?" His voice sounded very sullen, which was a little surprising, since this was the first time Severus had seen Slughorn so serious. "Something is wrong?"

 "Of the fifteen I know of only twelve, but... almost half are forbidden, and possession of this could lead to Azkaban... Severus, answer me, you don't collect…" but the man, without finishing, froze and lowered his eyes bitterly, as if remembering something sad.

"Professor…?" Severus's voice made him shudder and raising his head, he looked at Severus with a detached look, "Something is wrong?"

"I can't help you, I'm sorry…" Slughorn said bitterly.

"I… understood you, then I'll come tomorrow, good night, professor…"

"Good night to you as well Tom…" Snape didn't point it out his mistake and lingering for a few more seconds, looking straight into Slughorn's eyes, he left the room, slamming the door behind him... 

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Returning to his room, Severus took off his robe, and at the same time, a snake crawled out of his sleeve. "Tom Marvolo Riddle… who is this?" even having gone deep into himself, Slughorn still kept his mind under protection, and the Archmage was able to read only his superficial thoughts, receiving this name, as well as the image of a dark-haired young man of pleasant appearance. 

"Maybe you know?"

"How should I know this, if I have never been to this place in my life," the displeased voice of Nagini sounded, located on the pillow.

"Is that so… I'm sorry, I forgot about that," Severus said while looking at her with a smile, but inside he was wary. 'This is happening faster than I thought, I should hurry up with the potion.'

"What were you thinking?"

"Nothing, I'm just thinking about this name, never mind." Taking some food from his wallet, he put it on the table. 

"Eat, you haven't eaten anything all day." 

"Okay thank you," Hissing this, she crawled away to the table, and Severus already lay down normally on the bed and closed his eyes. "Judging by Slughorn's reaction, this "Tom" was someone close to him and, most likely, went down a not-too-bright path, since he remembered him at the moment when he doubted me ... I feel that he will definitely try to avoid me tomorrow, but to hide from my rat locator is simply impossible ... "

"Why are you grinning so wickedly?" Nagini asked him, puzzled, seeing the bloodthirsty grin on the face of the Archmage.

"Just thinking… well, it's time to get ready to hunt for a snake," and again one specific snake looked at him with a strange look, even stopping chewing on its favorite chicken leg. "Yes, a Basilisk, Vasi-lis-ka, don't look at me like that, and in general, how do you manage to show emotions with your indifferent expression on your face ?!" but she didn't reply and with a snort in response, she returned to her food.  

"Okay, I'll shut up…"

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Severus's next day began with a morning Potions class. Compared to yesterday, Slughorn looked much more alive and even smiled, but slightly forced, although almost no one noticed this, with the exception of the Archmage. "…classes are over for today, I'll be meeting you guys again in two days, and I'll ask you, Mr. Snape, to stay late. "

 "Of course, Professor," as soon as those words left his lips, most of the Slytherin students stared at him with real shock, except for some like the Head Girl and those who hadn't paid any attention to the original Snape before.

"Of course, I understand that forty-five minutes were not enough for you, but I still want to rest a bit until the next lesson," the professor hinted to the frozen students to quickly leave his office. And those, of course, understood the hint and, quickly saying goodbye, while looking at Snape with surprise, they left the room, and only three beings remained in the office.

"Professor, about yesterday…"

"I also thought about talking to you about this and would like to apologize," the man said with a bitter smile, getting up from the table and going to the bookshelf.

" It is I who must apologize: if I knew that all of them are forbidden, I would first explain to you what potion I need them for …"

"It's still my fault: instead of listening, I immediately labeled you as a dark Wizard. There are still plenty of good potions that require ingredients like this, so I hope you will forgive me," Slughorn added, hanging his head, and turning to the Archmage.

"What are you saying, professor, you don't have to ask for forgiveness from me, let's just forget about yesterday, pretend that nothing happened, and let me show you what potion do I need them for," and at that moment a snake head popped out from under his shirt, causing the poor professor to fall into a chair, yet it only took him one look to understand how poisonous it was. 

"This is Nagini, and she was once a human, but due to an unknown curse, she turned into a snake. While I was looking for a way to help her become human again, I came across one recipe for a potion that can remove any curse, although I doubt it, I still decided to try to brew it…"

 "Ahh, I see, will you let me look at the recipe?" the man asked with a deep sigh, rising to his feet, but still not daring to approach Severus, fearing Nagini, who was a little amused by such a reaction. "Of course, I'll write it down now …"

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