9 Strange invitation.

Severus had secured stable income, using the worst possible outcome. His debt would be fully repaid in five years or so, only by selling magic phones.

It was profitable considering low cost of materials, he highly overestimated demand for magical artifacts.

Most of the people in wizarding the world were old fashioned, making diffusion part of innovation process longest.

'Holidays? New year at school... Those are main periods of time with profit. I will need to change plans a little.' It was little disappointing, yet his initial goal was fulfilled.

'I should rent those workshops to people... It was another way of making money.' He would simply minimize production to suitable level, making this business self-sustainable.

Most of his money was still in his hands, and he was looking for suitable location for ingredient plantation. There are many charms to create a perfect environment for plant's growth, point was he needed secluded place for safety reasons.

Interesting locations are taken by either Blacks or Potters, making purchase impossible as those weren't for sale.

Suddenly owl entered through his window, bringing him a letter from Gringotts.

'Malfoys want a meeting? Important business? It's not like… Do they want to complete the job? No. It's different… They employed goblins to contact me. Do they want technology for my invention? Looking at economical results… It's not enough to attract their eyes. They want something from me, and it's impossible to take it forcibly.'The entire thing was very intriguing, he didn't know their purpose. His knowledge about their family was limited to possible killing of a minister, some crimes during Black death related to their ancestor. Rest is basically the future that won't happen in this reality, thanks to his interference in the timeline.

Severus started from contacting goblins, his goal was finding if an entire thing wasn't any kind of plot. Goblins confirmed details of a letter and explained this was custom service, available to only VIPs of the bank.

'Classic privilege of wealthy.' They had a lot of gold in Gringotts, probably a lot more than he borrowed from a bank.

'If I remember correctly… They have a lot of dark artifacts in their possession too.' Those objects could have unusual curses or charms placed on them. It would great if they were transferred to him for some research.

'Tomorrow… Fine. Let's meet the blondies.' Malfoys weren't just wealthy family with traditions, and they had the ministry in their pocket.

Their invitation little interrupted his current plans, however ignoring their polite approach would probably cause more problematic ending.

As he arrived in Gringotts, one of the goblins leads him into separate room. It was room with cozy atmosphere, there were some good quality beverages.

'Hospitality and Malfoys? I start thinking those are not real people.'

"Oh, where are my manners? My name is Abraxas Malfoy. Current head of Malfoy family."

"Severus Prince. Heir of Prince family…"

"I am pleased to personally meet you. Your recent invention is ingenious." His voice was trying to be polite, most troubling part was in fact that it felt genuine.

"Thank you for your compliments. What's the occasion? I doubt such dignified person like you would call me to praise me…" His behavior wasn't something, and he would expect to happen. Sole thing Lucius ever uttered him about his father was the harsh discipline and traditions.

"Straight to the point. I like it. I called you here about matter concerning both of our families." It started to get interesting, and Prince family matters are his legacy. Previous Snape hadn't to take any steps into this direction.

"Interesting. After taking away all they had. You still need a Prince. Fine. Let's get over it." His voice didn't contain resentment, and those people had no relation to him. Sharing same name didn't mean much to him.

"Not so fast. Both of us need to sign blood contract… Ensuring contents of this conversation staying between us." This wasn't ordinary matter as Malfoys willing to go so far, blood contracts are very binding to users. None could ever release you from this contract, even if both users stopped caring. The contract was permanent and constant, going against its content was like giving up on yourself.

"I will sign…" Reading content of the contract and checking if there was no deception included, he signed his name sealing their deal.

"Let's not waste any more time. How much do you know about your family?" Severus in fact didn't know much besides their shortsighted money operating.

"Not much…" There was no point in lying.

"It's going to take a while… All things started long before even Ministry was created… Our families were allies against the muggles. You might not know much about this time. Muggles hunted wizards without mercy. Forcing us into hiding… Both of our families integrated into muggle society... Gaining wealth and social standing… Our cooperation ended couple generations ago. I don't know which version of history is authentic. Gideon Malfoy and Lisandra Prince got married… As Lisandra couldn't give him a male heir… He decided to divorce her. Getting with other woman from renowned family… Hannah Greengrass. I don't what happened but your family cursed both of Malfoy and Greengrass families…" Severus felt that cursing entire bloodlines was too much, making completely unrelated people pay for mistakes of their ancestors.

'Their story has a lot of missing pieces. It might be little too humiliating to talk about.'

"Why me?" Talent in charms isn't equal to ability to deal with strong blood curses.

"You think… We didn't try to lift the curse? Nothing really works… Your uncle Rudeus once said after losing the duel. The curse can only be lifted by the bearer of true Prince blood. I don't know if he was honest. We didn't try Verisateum. You might be our only hope. Don't worry. I am not idiot... I won't make you work for free. We are willing to offer a hefty price for your cooperation." Articulating on paying part, he understood that things weren't joke.

"What makes you think that I am capable of such thing? Why should I actually help enemies of my family?" They were responsible for death of Prince family, and they are in possession of all lost wealth.

"It's simple. All legal members of your family got murdered. It leaves only bastards, disowned... You have no real reason to mourn them. Another reason might be your muggle-like business methods. Muggles might be inferior... yet some of their methods is actually very efficient. After state of secrecy, our family was forced to stop interfering with their economy... It doesn't mean, we completely stopped tracking their world." Big portion of their wealth came from Muggle world, not many people remember this fact.

"You are right. I don't care if they were purists or monster fuckers. They are relics of the past. Long gone..." Sighting for second as he didn't want to talk about their relationship with Eileen.

"Explain the curse. It must be really powerful if you decided to ask me for help."

"A female line suffers from strong blood malediction. Male line…" It seems this wasn't something to be talking to random stranger.

"We have very low fertility… It's really bad for getting heir. Most terrible part is burying your daughters… At some point… You just want to end your line to prevent more suffering… The problem is… we are wizards. We need to preserve our purity. Whatever the price…" Their traditions were more important than dying children, he wasn't sure if this was courage or sheer stupidy. This explained part of nonexistent female Malfoys in this world, they couldn't survive the childhood or worse.

"I don't know if I can help you. I am just a young wizard without experience." Severus wasn't proficient in those curses, and even he planned on learning more about them to help Nagini. Currently, his expertise wouldn't help much in his problem.

"I know. You cannot help me now. Mastery of curses is in your blood. I believe you can eventually find the solution." There was some inclination of some unknown facts, maybe they found something in those vaults.

"Let's start from show of goodwill. Return all things you have stolen from me… It isn't only for my sake. There might be clues visible only to eyes of a true descendant." Malfoy was actually ready for this part, not showing any change in expression.

"It will be arranged… Those items were gathering dust in my vaults." Amount of gold obtained wasn't enough to make him twitch his eyelid, however Severus was more interested in books and castle.

"What is state of the castle in Ireland?"

"It's on an uninhabited island Inisturk… It's impossible to reclaim this property…"

"What do you mean? Impossible?" This word wasn't part of common vocabulary of wizards, and entire thing was surprising.

"I don't know what your ancestors did… but it's filled with ghosts… All my people lost their minds in the process…"

'Dark wizards losing their minds… It might be serious.' Dark wizards weren't known for their sanity if their change was spotted by others. It means danger on island was real.

'Ghosts? It sounds more like wraiths or specters. Dementors are kind of wraiths. There might various kinds of spiritual beings than those harmless from Hogwarts.' This field needed some research as his knowledge wasn't enough to point into any direction.

'It might be funny to devour them…' This ability wasn't even tested in real life, this might be perfect environment.

"It will be my problem to deal." Getting his hands on entire island would be perfect opportunity to create the plantation of herbs or even ranch of magical creatures.

"I will transfer the deed to you. Ah, I don't recommend flying into an island…" It reminded him about situation of Harry being attacked by Dementors in the sky.

"There two more things… I need from you." Abraxas started losing his composure slowly, he was desperate in searching for solution. It didn't strip him from ability to comprehend moment, when someone is extorting him.

"All depends if you can produce any results…This is business, not charity…"

"I am not extorting you. Remaining things are simply for sake of finding a solution. First is backing and protection. You must have spies in 'his' army. I don't want any Death eater interrupting my life or life of my family. The last thing is kind of obvious… I need cursed objects and beings to research curse-breaking. It shouldn't be problem for your family." Both requests were tightly related to their problem, he couldn't work in case of being constantly worried about bunch morons attacking his family.

"Those are manageable. It can be arranged. It's my turn now… I cannot pay for empty promise… This will be also part of contract." It was shot in the dark, and Severus might not have the ability to lift their curse. His willingness to gamble was caused only by investigating the 'magic phone', his best subordinate in the field of artifacts couldn't even recognize those charms.

His bet was that charms placed on that magical phone are indeed creation of the talented wizards, obviously if it was a young wizard before him was in question. Crucial part would be establishing connection with him to get to other one if he existed.

"I don't see a problem. We can meet every few months… I cannot guarantee anything in this moment. I believe all curses and jinxes can be broken. The only problem is price of such action…" It was possible to lift the curse by sealing the magic gene, however it was very crude method and there was chance of working only on specific case.

'I feel like… I will need to advance my knowledge in magic and genetics. Possibly even fuse those to find mechanism of passing maledictus through female line or low fertility through male.' This gave of feeling about sex chromosomes, however his knowledge wasn't sufficient.

"Ok. All will be sealed by another blood contract. Do you have problems with it?" There was no assurance that Severus don't take the gold and vanish.

"Fine by me. If contents will be reasonable and I won't find any holes in interpretation." The seasoned lawyer could create a flawless contract with the clause of giving away your soul without you realizing.

Severus examined an entire contract few times to ensure nothing suspicious happening to him.

"Last question about curse. What about Greengrass family?"

"Their curse is definitely weaker… I don't know if it's related to Hannah Greengrass suicide…" It was possible that intense emotions combined with sacrifice could achieve many things.

'Emotions control some spells… It is possible that her regret or guilt weakened the curse.' This would explain some daughters of Greengrass weren't affected by the curse.

'Most of the hatred was pointed into Gideon Malfoy…' If situation involved hurt furious woman, all things would make sense with stronger punishment for man.

'This story might be altered by generations of Malfoys. It couldn't be trusted either.'

"I have another matter to discuss. Those artifacts of yours… My friends in the ministry would kindly utilize them if you added some special functions. I would order a big batch of such variants for a full price." It seems they wanted something with option to make things unreadable for an unwanted person.

"Hmm… It can be done. I would need to modify some parts… but it's possible." Some charms could be transformed into privacy or something similar.

"Ah… I would like to this version being exclusive for 'ministry'…"

"I planned to improve this artifact… In far future… It can be exclusive for time being." Privacy was one of the modern struggles, and he didn't want to promise something and regret things in future.

"I will go to Hogwarts in a year." Abraxas almost spit wine, and he was drinking from shock.

"Wait. Are you telling me? I made a deal with ten year old boy… How can you be so mature?" It was undoubtedly moment of regret for not waiting to confirm all facts about this boy.

"Lord Malfoy. All contracts are sealed. I doubt my age has anything to do with my capability." Severus felt cringe from getting typical argument questioning his knowledge.

'I am young… I look like a teenager. I have mental age of old man.'

"Let's forget about this matter. All things you required will be transported to your vaults. Goodbye, heir of Prince family." Their meeting was concluded as Malfoy left little pissed on his own mistake, goblins didn't share his personal data with him.

"Goodbye. Lord Malfoy." Severus picked one bottle of very tasty alcohol and left.

In the night in Malfoy's Manor, Abraxas was sitting with brandy in his hand.

"Such mistake… I hope this will bring back the glory to my kin. If not… I will personally slaughter him."

"None can understand my pain. I couldn't see my daughter grow up… All because of that whore…" His grip increased, and glass broke in his hands. Looking at blood dripping from his hand, his voice turned hoarse.

"All for this blood. Supreme noble blood! Yet helpless against some stupid witch's curse…"