99. Complicated Love

"WHAT THE HELL HAPPENED NOW?" Ragnar came out of the shop with his arms full of boxes. Seeing the crowd outside left him in shock, seeing Magnus at the centre made him relaxed.

He went to Magnus calmly and asked, "What happened?"

"I have no idea. They jumped and just rushed on me from behind." Magnus said.

"NO... WE DIDN'T MEAN TO ATTACK YOU. We just wanted to talk to his majesty." One of them shouted.

Seeing sincerity in his voice, Magnus lowered his sword and wand.

"What do you want to talk about? And what's with this shady get-up?" Magnus asked them.

"We... We are the managing members of the Army of Merlin. Lots of Muggleborns, Squibs and other marginalised Wizards formed this group after hearing about you. We consider you our leaders." They said.

Magnus sighed. "What's the goal of your group?"

"To survive, to never be discriminated against by the pure-bloods and the terrorists. To get a voice to negotiate with the ministry." They answered.

Magnus shook his head, "Then you came to the wrong person. By associating with me, you will be much more heavily targeted by those you want to be protected against."

"WE WILL FIGHT..." They insisted.

"Get a job, work and make money. Marry someone if you haven't and live a happy life. Why do you want to waste your time and energy on this?" Magnus asked.

"Marry someone? Why would we marry an innocent Muggle and have them be targeted by the Pure-bloods too? Why should I have a child when I know they will be discriminated against? We want an end to this bigotry, that's it. And for it, we are ready to fight. We know what you did a few days ago, how you alone killed 4 of Death Eaters. Everyone is silently talking about it.

"Tell me, if even you, the one with the Royal pure blood of King Arthur and the powerful blood of Merlin is called a mudblood, and is attacked, what does that make us? Even less than dirt?" The one who was under full body binding charm not long ago asked.

Magnus honestly had no answer to this. And what the man said also hit him, ~Indeed, if even the king is considered a Mudblood, what does that make normal people?~

Magnus sighed, "Okay, give me your contact information. I will contact you when I am prepared to do something."

The three men quickly handed him an address and thanked him multiple times. After that, Magnus pushed them to their homes. The more they stayed there the more they will be targeted by pure-bloods later.

Then, he also returned to his home to tell his parents about the upcoming trip to Saudi Arabia.

"MOM, DAD, we're going to Riyadh for New Year, let's pack up," Magnus shouted as soon as he entered the house.

Adam froze midway, the chicken wings he was eating also froze just near his wide-open mouth. Grace too had the same reaction as she looked at Magnus from the sofa, in the background the T.V. was making a noise.

"Why is it that whenever you enter the home it is always something explosive? Where did this plan come from now?" Grace asked.

Magnus smiled like the pure innocent boy he was and ran into the arms of his mother to be spoiled. Actually, he was just buttering her up but still.

"Mummy, do you remember when we bought a new house?" He asked.

"Yes, what about it?" she asked back.

"Well, I got no money to pay for it. I mean, all my wealth is in the form of gold and precious stones. If I were to use the gold directly it would destroy the gold prices around the world and could even cause major economic problems for the world. So, I have decided to sell a big blue diamond in the upcoming auction for super-rich people in Saudi Arabia." Magnus revealed.

Grace stopped caressing his head, "Hmm... You are certainly too smart for your own good now. You knowingly told us about this now because we can not do anything other than accepting it. But, did you forget we got 2 million from the crown?"

"NO! We will not use that money. That is your personal funds. And I told you because I knew you wouldn't let me go alone, although I could do it," Magnus explained.

"NO! NEVER! You are too small to be travelling to such places alone. We will go there." She instantly said.

~Oh mum, how will I ever tell you the dangers your son faces every day?~ Magnus thought deep inside.

"What about you, dad?" Magnus asked.

"Well, if even Grace is going then I will too. Besides, it's been a long time since we had a trip. I think the last time we went out of the country was when you were just 1. You kept yourself stuck to the plane window the whole time, you didn't move even when you spoiled your diapers." Adam also agreed, though the story he told was unnecessary.

But Magnus didn't want his parents to be exposed to the Ministry, as to use Ministry authorised portkey, one needed to go there. "OKAY! I will book 1st class seats for all of us. Our vacation is going to be FUN."

As always, with the mention of a vacation, Magnus gets too excited.

...

Cokeworth,

Snape put on his best suit and went out of the house. His destination was the tree under which he met Lily for the first time. The day he met here was a very depressing one, originally for him, as he just had a fight with his dad and even saw his mother being beaten for the first time.

Then, he met Lily, a simple muggle-born girl, confused about her magical abilities and bullied by her own sister for them. He hated her sister with all his heart.

He had the bracelet ready in his pocket right now and had gift-wrapped it himself.

Soon, the big tree came into his view, and there she was. In her winter dress, but her red hair was as shining as in a beautiful spring day.

"Merry Christmas, Sev." Lily cheerfully greeted.

Her radiating smile made Snape feel warm. He would normally not talk sweetly to anybody, but Lily was different. "Same to you, Lily. Here, a present from me."

Lily got excited and quickly started opening it, "Aw... Thank you, Sev."

Soon, she had the bracelet in her hand and she awed at its beauty. This was the first time someone gifted her jewellery. Her parents still treated her like a small child and gifted her dolls, now, she truly felt like a grown-up.

"Ah, this must be very expensive, Sev. Why did you waste so much money?" She quickly asked. She knew the financial situation of Snape and didn't want to be the reason for his problems.

Snape lightly smiled, "It cost me nothing, trust me. Besides, I am now earning money from my new patent. Also, there is another surprise. I just moved into your neighbourhood with my mother. We live a few houses away from you."

Lily was indeed surprised by this. "Does that mean, now I won't have to get bored at home? HEY, do you have a potions lab in your home? Maybe we can practice together?"

~I must build a potions lab quickly.~ Snape decided in his heart.

"Not yet, but I will as soon as I get my paycheck from the patents. You can come to my home anytime then. We can learn advance potions together." He offered.

"That would be wonderful and then we can..."

They talked about potions for a long time as they both loved this subject. But, there was a difference between them.

Although Lily too was hailed as a Potions genius by Slughorn, she was still not equal to Snape. The reason was simple, Lily always went strictly by the book.

Her potions were perfect according to the book. But at the same time, Snape had more of an out of the box thinking and made corrections to the method in the books and turned perfect potions into extraordinary potions.

Magnus was below Lily though, as his success rate was very poor. But, on the side, there was the godly Ragnar, who was mad about Potions and now Runes. He was bound to be called the biggest potions genius of the century.

Snape felt at ease now talking to her. He could see their friendship developing.

"So, how's your holiday going?" He asked.

"Boring as always. I can't perform magic at home and my sister keeps on annoying me. Mum and dad are busy with work too. What about you?" She asked back.

"Oh, I met my friends and travelled to some places," Snape replied.

"Really? Was there Magnus too? He was crazy in the quidditch matches. To be honest, I hated that sport but looking at him play it made it so exciting. He's so good at everything too. Well, except potions. I can't believe I know the future king of Britain..." She spoke nonstop.

The more she spoke, the more Snape's face fell. A realisation came to his mind, "So she likes him..."

"Yes..." After that, Snape just kept on giving normal, obvious replies to her. Soon, lunchtime came and they said goodbye and went home. Snape, was now depressed as compared to his happy mood early in the morning.

[A/N: Let's be honest here, girls, especially the young ones, always pick the good looking guy over everything else, they'd pick the hot guy even if the other choice is a billionaire average looking guy who loves her dearly, this can go both ways though as young boys also tend to only focus on looks. Snape, in the canon, was said to be not so good looking. So, it's obvious that a popular girl like Lily, will not just automatically fall in love with him because he's nice to her.]

[And no, there is not going to be a dumb scenario where Snape will get angry at Magnus. There were supposed to be 2 chapters today that would have made everything clear but it's taking me some time to get back to my earlier writing speed.]

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