Chapter 73

The next week went fairly smoothly, with the exception that Severus himself joined the goblins by the second day in order to finish quickly. 

Thanks to his help, the speed of construction almost doubled, and it was much easier to observe the progress of work, the goblins in this world were the best artisans, combining the industriousness and talent of the dwarves, as well as the greed for gold. 

And after getting to know them better, Severus even began to like these creatures, because they did their job perfectly - for a whole week he gave off only a miserable eighty Galleons from a thousand, although he expected to pay at least thirty percent of the total amount.

The future house was almost completely ready, it only remained to finish the roof and insert windows. 

He decided to do the repairs inside himself, or rather, with the help of magic, because first of all it was necessary to put runes on the walls, which Snape did not want to show to the goblins, and only after that, using transfiguration magic, the young man could rebuild the house without any problems from within without anyone's help. 

In addition, this week, Severus finally finished with potions, the recipes of which, of course, he temporarily did not want to demonstrate, until the demand for the previous ones fell. 

On this, the wizard decided to stop for the time being with the alteration of recipes from his world, because he already had enough Galleons, and those potions that he had already released into the world would bring him good profit for a long time to come. 

So Snape decided to just keep learning Potions to live up to the expectations of Slughorn, who really gave his all in teaching him. 

Nevertheless, in this world, he was not the last person for him, and Severus himself did not want to remain in this place, because this was his second life, which he was not going to end very soon. 

The wizard wanted to learn as much as possible, because although this world was weak in terms of magic, there were also masters here, from whom you can learn a lot. 

He especially wanted to meet Flamel, the greatest "Alchemist" of the world, who was able to live for six hundred plus years thanks to the philosopher's stone, when on average, wizards live around twenty or thirty years more than Muggles. 

Of course, with the exception of "Masters" like Dumbledore. The old man will definitely reach two hundred without any problems, as well as the previous director, who by some miracle has been living for three hundred years. 

Even though Severus didn't know what rank he was at, Severus was sure that the old man had crossed the boundary of 'Master'.

There were many mysteries in this world, and the "Masters", and maybe the "Archmages" did not live only in the territory of Magical Britain. 

Of course, he wanted to find the legacy of the founders of Hogwarts, but even if this fails, he will not regret it much. 

Although Snape has reached the point where only a few can threaten him in this world, this is far from the end goal, but only the beginning. He was going to regain his former strength, become an "Archmage" again and surpass himself from his past life, break through to the "Great Archmage". 

Although the latter was only a dream in this magically weak world, the rank of "Archmage" is not an unattainable goal, although it will require a couple of decades of work on oneself,

~~~~~~~~~~~~ 

[Scene Shift]

In the park, not far from the noisy fuss, next to the lamppost stood a woman dressed in black, she calmly watched the people passing by, as if pondering something, until in an instant someone covered her eyes with palms, thereby causing an irritated snort. 

"Stop these games." She said in an irritated tone.

"Miss Black, you are charming as always," a pleasant male voice sounded right next to her ear. 

"And you, as always, are annoying," the witch  said with displeasure, looking at him after he removed his palms from her eyes and put them on her thin waist. "What can I do?" 

"Don't touch me." She said, gritting her teeth.

"It's impossible, as soon as I see your face, then at the same moment I lose my head and I want to take you home, lock you in a golden cage and admire forever …" 

The woman looked at the young man with a very strange look. "Did anyone hit you on the head? Or maybe you ate something wrong?"

"Hmm! You know, I tried to be gallant with you, like a true aristocrat, to say one thing, but at the same time mean something completely different." Severus muttered displeasedly, while holding Bella a little tighter. 

"It doesn't suit you very much, behave as before. This is enough for me at home and at all the meetings with other families." Bella said with a tired sigh.

"Well, since my "Bella" wants this, then so be it," looking at him menacingly, she broke away from his embrace. 

"Don't call me that, how many times do I have to say that?" the witch  added wearily, taking out a simple black purse, from which she took out the box and handed it over to Severus. 

He, in turn, opened it with slight interest and raised an eyebrow in surprise. "And you're faster than I thought. I'll contact him tomorrow, I think He will be here in a couple of days. I will send an owl."

"I see, then I…" But before she even took a step, she frowned at Severus, who grabbed her hand. 

"We still have a whole day ahead, you know, you pulled me right out of work, so you have to take responsibility." Seeing the impudent smile of the wizard, the aristocrat really really wanted to wipe it off his face, and as painfully as possible. We only made arrangements for the weekend. 

"I don't care, and from what I heard, a new bakery has opened nearby and, they say, the cakes there are some of the best in the city…" The woman's shoulders trembled, and the demon tempter continued. "Yes, and just recently the continuation of that film was released, and I accidentally had two tickets …" And after a few minutes Bella gave up, the words sounded too sweet, and at the same time she was not even angry at him for trying to "manipulate" her in this way, and for her it was also very strange. 

Previously, she could not stand him, but now this feeling has almost completely disappeared, turning into something else that the woman herself could not understand … 

—---------

Towards evening, parting with Bella, as usual seeing her home and again smiling at the elderly the lady looking out of the window, the young man calmly walked towards the park, followed by seven shadows. 

Finally reaching a deserted hillock surrounded by trees, he stopped and, turning around, said with an indifferent face "Come out, do you think I don't see you?" 

For the first few seconds there was deathly silence, until a "crunch" sound was heard, and six wizards wrapped in dark outfits appeared right in front of him. "When did you notice?" one of them asked gloomily. calmly taking out his wand, while the others had been aiming at Severus for a long time. 

"Since meeting Bella. Even though you tried to hide in the shadows, but your magic was very poorly disguised, and tell the one who tries to attack from the back to also come out, otherwise…" A cold smile appeared on the Snape's face, and seven fireballs the size of a soccer ball appeared around him, emitting intense heat, causing the snow around Snape to melt completely. 

Such a "show" of strength made the leader very wary, because he well understood that this was not an illusion, and the fact that their opponent performed this spell without words and a wand gave them a clear idea: they were not facing a simple sixth year student they were told about , instead he is someone much stronger, and the amount they were paid turned out to be too low. 

"Andrew, come back," the man said sternly, and a moment later, a shadow flashed past Severus, and another person appeared next to the group. 

"Are you retreating?" Severus asked, tilting his head.

"We took orders to scare a simple Hogwarts student, not a wizard of your level." The leader said nervously.

"That's right, so you have brains…" One of the fireballs disappeared, and in an instant the tree behind them turned to ash in a split second. 

All seven of them were sweating seeing the sight, it was too fast, and if the wizard standing in front of them wanted to kill them, they would not even be able to fight back. 

"I will not kill you for the reason that you did not want to kill me and only carried out the order, but you will have to work. You don't have to worry, you will get a decent pay…" Baring his teeth in a bloodthirsty grin, Snape threw a diamond-shaped crystal to the leader. 

"This is a recording crystal, put some magic into it, and it will record everything around you at a distance of ten meters," and then a bag with galleons fell under the feet of the surprised killers. "There are five thousand, your task is to return to the employer, beat him up, strip him naked and throw him in the center of Diagon Alley. You can also say hello to him for me. You have the skills, and Rudolphus, most likely, did not discuss such a step with anyone."

Although on the outside their leader looked completely indifferent, inside he was shocked, how could Snape know their customer ?! Of course, before starting the operation, they collected as much information as possible about Severus and knew that someone was behind him, but the group was not going to kill him, but only to scare him, and in this country they were only passing through, so they were not very worried that may offend someone. 

But the fact that a simple "schoolboy" would turn out to be so dangerous made him almost curse Rudolphus, who told them that he was only slightly stronger than a sixth-year Hogwarts, while paying only a measly thousand Galleons. 

But most of all, he was angry at his ow blindness, because he was circled around his finger like a boy, and if he ordered the murder, then only a miserable pile of ashes would remain from them. 

And even without Severus, he was going to take revenge on the damn aristocrat who almost killed his team. Finally pulling himself together, the man picked up the sack and tucked it into another one hanging from his belt. "Thank you for leaving us alive, we will fulfil your order today, you will receive a report at twelve o'clock," bowing, the group merged with the shadows and disappeared in the next moment, leaving only Archmage in an empty clearing covered with snow. 

"Nice guys, each of them have magical powers which are not inferior to Slughorn, and they are physically well developed, it would be nice to get them under my wing, but for now, it's okay, we need to go home ... "wearily sighing, he simply disappeared. 

—----------------------

Not far from the Lestrange estate, a man in a dark cloak stood near a large tree, as if waiting for someone. "Why the hell are they taking so much time?!" he thought irritably, treading water in one place. 

And, after a few seconds, six murderers appeared ten meters from him, at the sight of which the wizard muttered with displeasure: "Well, finally!"  

He was just about to say something when their leader, who crawled out of the shadows behind him, punched him in the face with all his might, causing the shocked wizard to fall to the ground.

"What are you doing?!" the aristocrat exclaimed furiously, trying to get a wand, but a stomp on his arm made him forget about the magic tool. 

"Do you even know who I am?" He growled, trying to stop them.

"The bastard who deceived us," the leader hissed furiously, taking out the crystal, and as soon as it shone, he looked at the others. "Undress him and hang him from a tree, the next two hours will be unforgettable." 

"Wha…?!" but the man did not have time to finish, as a gag was stuffed into his mouth, he could only mumble with fury and "throw lightning from his eyes", but as soon as Rudolphus saw gloves with steel blunt spikes that the leader wore, fear danced in the eyes of the man. 'What the hell is going on?!'