Chapter 130

After not the best date and a "warm" meeting with the Black family, the very next day, Severus began to adjust the ritual, which was supposed to help him soon absorb first-class magic from crystals*, which Shafiki had been buying all this time. 

Using them, he expected to reach the peak of the rank of "Magister" and in four years, when the core had stabilised, absorb the magic from the Heart of the Ent King and advance to the rank of "Archmage", because thanks to their special affinity with nature, Ents had incredible regenerative ability, which should have ways to help him neutralise all the negative consequences after such a sharp increase in strength.

Previously, the Prince expected to stretch out these two stages to ten years so that everything would go well, but due to the appearance of the "Devils", he had to speed up and come up with this slightly crazy plan, as well as redo the already prepared ritual that he had been working on for the last three months and this work definitely had to drag on for about the same period of time, no less, because earlier Severus had specially prepared a certain number of crystals for himself, so that only with the help of them in fifteen years he could reach the rank of "Archmage" and at the moment, he needs it was necessary to rework it a little, and also to create almost from scratch a similar one for the heart, in which there was several times more magic and much purer. 

Severus certainly thought about using both hearts that the Ent King gave him, but after calculating everything, he realized that this was a suicidal idea, his core could not withstand it, and due to too much foreign magic, it could begin to rebuild his own body for himself, and he definitely didn't plan to turn into an ent. 

Therefore, he had to sit down hard at work, while checking Nagini's condition almost every hour.

 At the same time, Secerus did not forget to keep an eye on Bellatrix, yet one could expect anything from a person like Walburga, and even threats could not always help, but strangely enough, since yesterday, she has not approached Bellatrix at all, and during breakfast she behaved as if nothing had happened, which pleased Severus a little and at the same time alarmed him, because everything was too good…

              …

Ministry of Magic. Office of the Minister of Magic.

In a large room, a man sat at a wooden table, gloomily biting his pipe, reading a report he had received half an hour ago from the interrogation room, and what they were able to obtain gave him a real headache. 

After all, they already had problems with the Death Eaters, and this "Dark Star" also appeared, thinking of taking advantage of their precarious position and taking over the country, what could be worse? 

"I'm already beginning to regret that I decided to take this damned post of Minister of Magic, every day there are new problems..." Harold thought gloomily, putting the parchment aside and exhaling a stream of smoke, he leaned back in his chair and raised his tired gaze to the ceiling.

"If it weren't for that person, then perhaps we ourselves would not have noticed how we would have lost the country, we will definitely have to personally thank him, but now we need to solve pressing problems..." And just at that second he heard a knock on the door. "Mr. Minister..." 

"Let him through," the wizard calmly ordered, looking at the transparent door, which had been slightly improved since Snape's last visit in order to prevent that shame again.

 Behind the door stood Moody, accompanied by seven Aurors who remained outside, and the captain himself entered the office and stopped in front of the table, holding a parchment in his hand. 

"Mr. Minister, we checked everyone in the ministry, with the exception of those on vacation, among them ten people were found with marks of a black star on their bodies," holding out the report, Moody, whose complexion was slightly unhealthy, reported dispassionately.

 "You did a good job, Moody, today and tomorrow you have a day off, rest and restore your strength," Harold was not blind and saw how tired his subordinate was, after all he Moody used the property of the artifact (eyes) all day and checked each person for the presence of the Black Star sign, which was a very tedious task. 

"Thank you, Mister Minister, may I go?" Moody asked distantly.

"Go, the day after tomorrow, so that you can stand here at nine, we will need your help." Hearing this, the man drooped, which caused bewilderment on Harold's face, and then, turning around, he walked with sluggish steps towards the exit, for the first time in his life, after returning his sight, Moody wanted to tear out his eye.

Just at that moment, there was a knock on the office again and through the transparent door, Moody saw an elderly lady who turned eighty this year and his face instantly lost all color, and in his memory an image of a naked senile body and wrinkled breasts hanging down almost to the the navel itself emerged. 

And the man abruptly rushed towards the trash can, where the next moment he vomited, and the Minister stared at him with bulging eyes, simply not understanding how to comment on this.

 But turning his gaze to the elderly lady who was still standing in front of the door, and then to the vomiting Auror and the wildly darting artifact eye, it began to dawn on him why Moody was behaving so strangely. and his face showed sympathy.

 "Madame Primpernel, wait a minute," and then he knowingly said to Moody, who finally finished his job, "For three days, I give my permission to apparate." 

"T-thank you," the captain looked at the Minister with gratitude in his eyes and without hesitation, took out his wand and waved it, the next moment he disappeared. 

Having let go of the pipe from his mouth, Harold looked with pity towards the door, imagining what his subordinate had to endure today. 

"Probably we should have given him four days, it would be a difficult task to recover from this... Enter Madame Primpernel."

"Thank you, Mister Minister," the old woman answered cheerfully, entering the office and stopping a few metres from the table. 

"I called you to post an advertisement for recruitment into the ranks of the Aurors, as well as in the office of the Department of Magical Law Enforcement, if I remember correctly, Fudge said that he did not have enough people." 

"That's true, but finances…"

"Do what I said."

"Yes, Mister Minister," the lady muttered uncertainly, not understanding why recruit people when almost all the funding went to support the Aurors, as well as the work of the entire Ministry as a whole, Mungo and Hogwarts, because due to lack of money, they even had to cut staff. 

"Okay, I'm free and tell Chester** and Miller to be called here..." and then he added, "... I almost forgot, the interview will take place in three days, at ten o'clock in the morning."

"Yes..." she nodded slowly, still not understanding what was happening, but she did not discuss the order and left.

 And once again left alone, Harold shook off the ashes from the pipe and put it on the table, and then took out a small bag from the cabinet, with something very reminiscent in color and appearance of sawdust. "Before the start of a direct confrontation, I hope that it will still be possible to thin out their ranks a little more..." Having refilled his pipe, Harold took a deep drag and leaned back in his chair. "When will peace finally come and will I see it...?" 

               ***

Towards evening, sitting at the table and writing runes on a huge sheet, in a certain sequence and shape reminiscent of a star, Severus looked especially gloomy, because everything seemed to be working out for him, but something told him that he was missing "something".

 Out of sight, some little thing that could disrupt the entire course of the ritual.

Putting down his brush, Snape directed his gaze towards Nagini, who was calmly lying on the pillow and watching him, "I think it's worth a little distraction, maybe a good idea will come," getting up and stretching, after a whole day of sitting in one position, he approached the snake and crouched in front of it, Severus touched its "nose" and again began to check the condition of the reptile, "Okay, very soon," Severus said with a smile, opening his eyes.

"Finally, otherwise I'm already tired of lying here."

"Didn't you spend your whole day exactly the same way before?"

"No, of course, I could crawl anywhere, get out with Nellie, but just sitting here is very boring, it feels like I'm in a cemetery, but even there it's not so quiet," the snake muttered dissatisfied, throwing out everything that was tormenting her these two days. 

"I'm sorry, but I can't do anything about it, I need to work," Severus said, gently stroking her face, "Not only my and your life depends on this, but that of the whole world as a whole."

"I remember you told me about them, " approaching him, she gently rubbed his cheek, "But are they really that strong?"

"You've just never seen them in person and therefore don't understand how terrible these creatures are..." 

"But why does it have to be you? Why not tell everyone and let them think the same way about how to deal with them?!"

"This will lead to even greater problems, most people in important positions are stupid, greedy and arrogant, they may think that they are strong enough to control them, not to mention the psychos who will want to specifically release these creatures and set them on the whole world," and these were not the Snape's assumptions, but real facts from his world, the reasons for the beginning of that horror, the Prince could not say exactly what happened then, but in most of the books that he read about the "Devils", everywhere the culprits were people who decided to free these creatures from the dark lands and subjugate them, therefore, the Slytherin did not want to allow others to interfere with his plans, "And as a last resort, I'm also preparing a way to escape, if in the end nothing works out, understand if I can't do  this, no one in this world will succeed, and this is not my arrogance or vanity, but an indisputable fact."

"I see... I believe in you... " Nagaina said sincerely, looking him straight in the eyes.

" I'm glad to hear this…"

"... and I will definitely help you!"

"This is, of course, pleasant, but it was possible to do without the latter," but at the same time, there was still the same warm smile on the wizard's face, "Of course, such an assistant will definitely be useful to me," having heard his words, she narrowed her eyes in response and again began to rub against Snape's cheek... ________________________________________________________________________________ *Crystals from chapter 35. **The head of the "Department of Magical Incidents and Disasters" is Chester Parks.

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